A new report from suggests immigrant and poor populations are being discriminated against in Canada because of a limited access to justice.

Canada dropped since last year in six of the eight “Rule of Law” factors listed in the report from the World Justice Project.

The report ranked Canada among 97 countries worldwide in categories including government power, corruption, order, fundamental rights, open government, enforcement, and civil and criminal justice.

Some 97,000 people were polled worldwide, in addition to 2,500 experts in 97 countries to compile the report.

Canada finished in the top-10 in three categories in the 2011 report. In the 2012 report, released Wednesday, Canada made only one top-10, ranked sixth in open government.

The lower rankings came as no surprise to Tings Chak from the advocacy group, No One Is Illegal.

“Immigrants that are coming in are mostly a source of cheap labour and generally speaking immigrants of colour are poorer and they have harder access to services,” said Chak.

“International agencies are concerned about these trends. It’s definitely not a surprise.”

Nordic countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway led nearly all categories while Canada placed ahead of its neighbour to the south and bested the U.S. in all eight factors.