‘Vital’ federal victims of crime ombud job vacant after nine months

Article content material

OTTAWA — The federal authorities has now left a key victim-rights watchdog position vacant for greater than 9 months.

Article content material

There was no federal ombudsman for victims of crime since Oct. 1, and the Division of Justice solely launched an utility course of for the job on the finish of February.

Conservative Senator and longtime victim-rights advocate Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu not too long ago criticized the delay in filling the “very important” place, which he argued ought to be made right into a more-independent officer of Parliament.

Boisvenu informed a Home of Commons committee in June that an ombudsman may have been a powerful voice for victims’ households throughout the ongoing inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass taking pictures.

“No ombudsman is at present conveying the anger of victims’ households and talking out towards violations of their rights,” he stated.

Article content material

On the identical listening to, Jennifer Gold of the Ladies’s Regulation Affiliation of Ontario known as for an ombudsman to be discovered “expeditiously.”

Gold stated the workplace ought to be expanded to offer extra fulsome oversight over the applying of the 2015 Victims Invoice of Rights, which sought to stipulate and bolster the rights out there to victims throughout the prison justice system.

“It’s beautiful to put in writing all these great issues, but when it’s not being seen in motion and if it’s not being skilled by victims, it’s rhetoric,” she stated.

Heidi Illingworth, who served because the ombudsman till October, had criticized the federal government for “sporadic and inconsistent” implementation of the invoice, which the Home of Commons handed unanimously within the dying days of Stephen Harper’s majority Conservative authorities.

Article content material

In a scathing assertion final summer season — certainly one of her final within the position — Illingworth stated there had been no significant efforts to tell victims of their rights or make the system accountable for its failings to ship, in the end making the invoice “a symbolic instrument.”

Illingworth was appointed in 2018 after one other lengthy emptiness of 11 months.

The workplace was stood up in 2007 with a mandate to assist and advocate for victims, together with making suggestions to the federal authorities.

A press secretary for Justice Minister David Lametti stated in an announcement Monday that the work to discover a new ombudsman is ongoing and one will likely be appointed “sooner or later.”

The workplace of the ombudsman continues to deal with victims’ complaints and help them find providers, the press secretary stated.