Gender-based analysis plus 2018-2019

The Responsibility Centre and focal point for GBA+ lies with the Strategic Policy Division at National Headquarters. CSC manages a diverse offender population, and has staff across the country dedicated to issues relative to women offenders, Indigenous offenders, ethnocultural offenders, victims of crimes, and other groups. This configuration is bolstered by national bodies (e.g., Ethnocultural Advisory Committee), and various branches and sectors within National Headquarters (e.g., Aboriginal Initiatives Directorate, and the Women Offender's Sector) that consider potential differential impacts of policy, programs and legislation on the needs of different offender populations.

With respect to CSC policy, staff in the Strategic Policy Division provide a "challenge" function and apply a GBA+ lens during policy development. In addition, CSC engages in a formal consultation process prior to adopting any new policies or significant modifications to existing policy. This includes consultation with all CSC sectors and regions, and externally, with inmate committees and a broad range of stakeholders representing the interests of different non-profit organizations, community representatives, academia, experts in various fields and offender groups.

In addition to specific sectors and branches, CSC currently relies on its policy, evaluation and research divisions to monitor the assessment of gender and diversity components of its initiatives. From a human resources perspective, CSC also monitors employment equity results.

The Responsibility Centre and focal point for GBA+ lies with the Strategic Policy Division. While CSC does not have employees dedicated full-time to working on GBA+, CSC has two national co-champions and the entire Strategic Policy team (11 FTEs) who share the responsibility to support continued awareness, knowledge and application across National Headquarters.

A recent change to the Canadian Human Rights Act to add "gender identity or expression" as prohibited grounds of discrimination, has prompted CSC to review and begin updating many of its policies to ensure that human rights are respected for all offenders as well as for staff, while ensuring a healthy and safe environment for everyone. CSC expects to continue this work during the 2018–19 fiscal year and beyond. Concurrently, training in the area of gender identity or expression is available to all staff and will be updated as required.

As new or updated policy documents, communication products and offender programs are implemented, they will reflect gender-inclusive language rather than "binary" (e.g., "he or she") language.