Many topics, such as the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), a national report on missing and murdered women and measures to counter impaired driving were discussed during several days of meetings with provincial, territorial and federal (FPT) colleagues, Attorney General Andrew Swan said.

“We’ve seen significant progress on issues we raised during last week’s meeting, including strengthening the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but we need to continue to work together in order to get things done,” said Swan. “Canada’s justice ministers share a common commitment to finding lasting solutions to crime, improving public safety and taking preventative action that addresses crime-related issues.”

Following a presentation to the Parliamentary standing committee on justice and human rights earlier this year, Swan was successful in persuading his FPT colleagues – ministers of justice from across Canada – to support improvements to amendments to the YCJA that would make it easier to deny bail to young offenders.

In addition, a report on missing and murdered women with 52 recommendations was released by the ministers. Manitoba is leading the country and has already implemented 36 of these recommendations. In September 2009, the Manitoba Action Group on Exploited and Vulnerable Women was created to provide strategic advice to the province as it develops new policies to address the crisis of abused and exploited women in Manitoba. It supports the work of the Manitoba Integrated Task Force for Missing and Murdered Women.

The minister also said he was pleased with the progress that has been made on the use of random breath testing as a tool to address impaired driving.

“We are looking forward to providing our advice to the federal government as they move forward to implement this important initiative,” said Swan. “Here in Manitoba, we have tough laws on drunk driving, for which MADD Canada has consistently rated us among the most proactive provinces in dealing with drunk driving.”

Provincial and territorial ministers also asked the federal government to fund a greater proportion of the costs of legal aid. The federal government once funded 50 per cent of the cost of legal aid programs and it is now less than 30 per cent.

The FPT ministers also approved national guidelines to support the development of policies for the use of conducted energy weapons, commonly known as tasers.