The first drug treatment court in Canada began operation in Toronto in December of 1998. This paper describes some aspects of the evolution, structure, and operation of this court. In addition, the federally-funded evaluation of the new program has produced data from the first 18 months of its full operation when 198 drug-dependent individuals were admitted. These preliminary results are described and compared to the findings of an Australian study and to select American studies. Important differences in sentencing practices and options for drug offenses between Canada and the United States are highlighted. Even at this early stage of development, it is suggested that the types of clients retained and more successful in this Canadian experiment may be quite different from the more typical American drug treatment court clientele. The need for careful monitoring and more complete, long-term information is emphasized before the viability of this approach is established for Canada.

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T her e have been significant changes in criminal justice policy in Canada in the past two years. Among these was Bill C-41 which received Royal Assent on July 13, 1995, and came into force on September 3, 1996, and amended the sentencing provisions of the Criminal Code ofCanada (CCC). This legislation contained two provisions which are widely considered to have the most potential to reduce the use of imprisonment especially at the provincial and territorial levels. Another related change in criminal justice policy in Canada has been the adoption of "restorative justice". A general over-reliance on the use of imprisonment and aboriginal over-representation in prisons have been long-standing problems in Canada. This initial assessment will consider the "fit" between suitable candidates for the new justice approaches and those presently sentenced to prison. The paper will argue that without broader quidelines for inclusion and adequate community resources to support them, it is unlikely these new initiatives will have much of an impact on incarceration levels.Without a better understanding of the problem, aboriginal over-representation in correctional institutions is also unlikely to change.The past decade in Canada has witnessed a growing awareness and concern about the ever..increasing size of prison populations (despite a declining crime rate) and the continued reliance on the use of imprisonment at sentencing. These changing perceptions about incarceration have been fueled, in part, by rising costs of impris.. onment in times of economic constraint; by disproportionate (and in some provinces increasing) aboriginal incarceration levels (particularly in the Prairie provinces) and a powerful aboriginal self..govemment movement that has used the over.. representation issue to argue for community .. based justice (see Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Peoples [RCAPl, 1996); by the potential for viewing crime and solutions to crime differently (Braithwaite, 1989

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