Howard Sapers
Visiting Professor, University of Ottawa, Former Correctional Investigator of Canada, Canada
Howard Sapers professional experience includes work in public policy, with a focus on justice, corrections, oversight, and accountability. He currently consults domestically and internationally on human rights and criminal justice, correctional policy and practice, the prevention of deaths in custody, and the intersection between mental health and criminal justice.
Between 2004 and 2016 Howard Sapers was the Correctional Investigator of Canada. Mr. Sapers has served as the Executive Director of the John Howard Society of Alberta, an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Director of Canada’s National Crime Prevention Centre Investment Fund and Vice Chairperson (Prairie Region) of Parole Board Canada. Between 2012 and 2016, Mr. Sapers was a North American representative to the International Ombudsman Institute. In 2017, Mr. Sapers was appointed by the Ontario government to conduct a two-year independent review of Ontario Corrections. On April 15, 2021, the federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness appointed Mr. Sapers Chair of the Structured Intervention Units Implementation Advisory Panel.
Mr. Sapers is an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology and a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa Department of Criminology. Mr. Sapers is currently a member of the Canadian FASD Research Network Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and a member of the Legal Aid Ontario Prison Law Advisory Committee. In 2016, he received an Honourary Doctor of Laws from the University of Ottawa.