QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Justice
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
October 5, 2022
Minister, thank you for being here today.
Addressing fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. Specifically, Call to Action 34 states:
We call upon the governments of Canada, the provinces, and territories to undertake reforms to the criminal justice system to better address the needs of offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), including:
i. Providing increased community resources and powers for courts to ensure that FASD is properly diagnosed, and that appropriate community supports are in place for those with FASD.
As you’re aware, access to diagnostic clinics is patchy at best across Canada. Making a diagnosis of FASD requires a multidisciplinary team and involves complex physical and neurodevelopmental assessment.
Could you please speak to the screening methods available for FASD for offenders in the criminal justice system?
Thank you for that question, senator, and I share the place from which that question comes.
As a government, we have committed to implementing the Calls to Action of the TRC. You have cited one of them. That one will require, in particular, work with the Minister of Health as we move forward, as well as cooperation with the provinces, which administer the criminal justice system across Canada as part of their constitutional responsibilities.
But I commit to being an active participant in the implementation of that as we move forward.
I will be honest that, for the time being, my goal is to get Bill C-5 over the finish line, which also responds to a TRC Call to Action regarding the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, to take one measure.
There are other measures that need to be taken, and I strongly feel that the question of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder will also be something that comes up both in the context of our elaboration of an Indigenous justice strategy and a Black justice strategy, and then in concert with the Minister of Health we can move forward.
