Ewert v. Canada Risk Assessment Case

01

Factual background & dispute

• The Correctional Service used five psychological and actuarial risk assessment tools to evaluate incarcerated individuals.
• The tools were developed and validated predominantly on non-Indigenous populations.
• The claimant established that assessment scores directly affected security classification, parole eligibility, and correctional programming.

02

Core issues & judicial focus

1. Whether high-impact assessment tools must be validated against the specific demographic populations to which they are applied
2. How public bodies must ensure that administrative decision-making relies on accurate, up-to-date, and complete information
3. What procedural and substantive consequences arise when an assessment tool lacks validated demographic applicability

03

Judicial finding & holding

• The Supreme Court of Canada allowed the appeal in part.
• The Court found that the Correctional Service breached its statutory obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure that information used in decisions was accurate, up to date, and complete.
• The Court declared that the Correctional Service breached section 24(1) of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act after failing to take reasonable steps to verify the tools' validity for Indigenous offenders.
• The Court did not allow the claims under sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.