A report brought forward to Thursday’s Saskatoon Board of Police Commissioners meeting discussed the diversion of some offenders from the criminal justice system.
It said the Public Prosecution Services Canada (PPSC) created a national policy back in 2020 that drug charges would only proceed if they raised public safety concerns, otherwise PPSC advocated for the use of alternative measures and diversion for possession charges.
The report noted the Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) started looking for community resources to provide programming around pre-charge diversions for possession offences.
The SPS said the Saskatoon Tribal Council stepped up and offered to collaborate with SPS by creating a “harm-reduction oriented, evidence-based drug awareness program which would be utilized for diversions.”
Eligibility for pre-charge diversions include:
- The person responsible must accept responsibility for their actions;
- The person does not pose a risk to the community;
- There must, in the Crown’s opinion, be sufficient evidence to proceed with a charge;
- The person must not have been diverted more than twice in the past year;
- The person must not have failed diversion in the past six months; and
- The person must not have a substantial criminal record for similar offences.
Exclusions from pre-charge diversions were also listed, and included:
- Offences involving weapons or the threatened use of a weapon where the Crown
proceeds by indictment; - Sexual violence against children or child pornography-related offences;
- Offences involving spousal/partner violence;
- The offence had a serious impact on the victim or victims;
- The offence involved trafficking of a controlled substance.
The SPS said it’s been offering presentations and training modules, as well as implementing policy changes to alter attitudes towards pre-charge diversion at the police service.
It added that a review was done of general occurrence reports between Jan. 1 and Nov. 24 for simple possession charges that didn’t include other criminal charges.
The review showed 74 reports that fit the criteria, with 61 adults and one youth charged, noting that potential reasons for negligible referrals to the pre-charge drug awareness program were due to other offences that excluded diversion as an option, or the person didn’t meet the criteria for diversion.
The report to the board concluded that SPS could improve practices revolving around restorative approaches and diversion programs.
SPS Police Chief Troy Cooper said this approach with diversion will make some offenders accountable without forcing them through the criminal justice system.
“I think it’s more effective and it’s a great way for our officers to be a part of the overall process,” Cooper said.
He said the program is focused on simple drug possession for now, but he has plans to expand it to other offences.
“We want to expand that program to make sure that people who have committed minor criminal code offences that aren’t violent in nature, that haven’t been repeat offenders, etc., get the opportunity to avoid the justice program and their process, and yet, as I mentioned, still be accountable.”
Cooper said most diversions that happen right now are post-charge diversions.
“If we do things right we’ll have the right people diverted for the right crimes, and they’ll be successful.”
Cooper said before these diversions it was the Crown that made these decisions, noting that this will shift some of the responsibility onto the officers.
“Once somebody is connected to a court system there’s potential, there’s risk there that they may get stuck there in that system. So if you have a court date and you miss it for some minor reason or if it’s a probation period and you breach that probation for some minor reason those actions, particularly with youth, get them stuck into a justice system that’s hard to get out of.”
Cooper said if we can avoid that and prevent people from getting a criminal record, which he notes changes people’s lives, then there are some long-term impacts from diverting people from that initial contact with the justice system.
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