E/CN.4/2006/7/Add.2 page 2 Summary The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Canada from 1 to 15 June 2005 at the invitation of the Government. The Working Group travelled to the capital Ottawa, Iqaluit, Nunavut; Toronto, Ontario; Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver, British Columbia, and Montréal, Québec. In these locations, it visited 12 detention facilities, including police stations, pretrial detention centres, facilities for convicts, a young-offenders facility and immigration holding centres. In the detention facilities, the Working Group was able to meet with and interview in private more than 150 detainees, a few of them previously identified, but most chosen at random while at the facility. The report sets forth basic notions about the institutions and norms governing detention in Canada, and in some more detail those provisions that govern areas which the Working Group found of particular interest, either as potential best practices or as issues of concern, both in the area of criminal law and of detention under immigration law. The report notes that, Canada having a markedly federal constitutional system, numerous matters within the Working Group’s mandate fall within the competence of the provinces and territories, and the situation accordingly tends to vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The report takes note of the fact that Canada is a country governed by the rule of law, in which a strong and independent judiciary strives to ensure that trials are fair and exercises a generally vigorous control over the lawfulness of all forms of deprivation of liberty. The control exercised by the judiciary is complemented by the active role played by lawyers in private practice and by non-governmental organizations. The Working Group also highlights the role played by commissions of inquiry for the administration of justice. The Sentencing Reform Act enacted by Canada in 1996 and the Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2002 provide for the enhanced use of sanctions falling short of incarceration and have contributed to significantly lowering the incarceration rate in Canada. The overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the corrections system, however, has further deteriorated, notwithstanding express provision in the criminal law that alternatives to imprisonment shall be taken into account, in particular with regard to Aboriginal offenders. The report notes that the decrease in convict incarceration has, however, been accompanied by increased recourse to pretrial detention. This situation disparately affects vulnerable social groups, such as members of Aboriginal communities and of minorities, the poor, drug users, and persons with mental health problems. The report describes several innovative measures, such as specialized courts and other programmes that have been adopted to counteract this tendency. The Working Group also observes that while Canada has a well-developed criminal legal aid system to secure the constitutionally guaranteed right to counsel, in practice the system leaves many needs uncovered. With regard to administrative detention under the immigration law, the report recognizes that, although the increased concern about security has had an impact in Canada, the detention of refugee claimants and foreigners upon arrival in Canada or in view of removal remains the exception. The Working Group expresses, however, its concern regarding several provisions of