by Web Master | Apr 12, 2023 | News, News Releases
Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, British Columbia) – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) filed a human rights complaint on behalf of Fallon Aubee, a transgender Indigenous woman, against Correctional Service Canada (CSC).
Ms. Aubee is a residential school survivor who is currently incarcerated at Fraser Valley Institution for Women. She previously spent sixteen years in institutions designated for men, where she experienced physical violence, harassment, and sexual violence due to her gender identity.
Finally being able to live with other women has been very important for Ms. Aubee. However, CSC still refuses to recognize her gender identity in its electronic systems because she has not had gender-affirming genital surgery. The Offender Management System (OMS) and her electronic medical records continue to categorize her sex as “male.”
Ms. Aubee is challenging a CSC policy called Commissioner’s Directive 100 – Gender Diverse Offenders which states that an individual’s “sex” will be solely determined “by their current genitalia.” The policy further states that a person’s “sex code in OMS will not change unless the offender undergoes gender-affirming surgery involving a change to their genitalia.” The OMS database is available to a large portion of CSC’s approximately 18,000 staff members. Many other agencies also have access to OMS.
While Ms. Aubee has been cleared for gender-affirming surgery, she has a heart condition that could impact her ability to proceed with it, especially given the long wait-times for surgery. She has changed the gender marker on her birth certificate and undergone a legal name change, but continues to be classified as “male” by CSC.
Ms. Aubee states: “Seeing CSC continue to classify me as ‘male’ makes me feel like they are erasing my identity as a woman. Those four letters are a constant reminder that CSC does not view me as an equal to other women. Classifying me as ‘male’ also violates my privacy and dignity, since it reveals intimate details about my body in a very public way. I am challenging this policy not just for myself but for all transgender people in CSC custody.”
Nicole Kief, legal advocate for Ms. Aubee, states: “CSC’s policy relies on the incorrect idea that trans women who have not had gender-affirming surgery are not ‘real’ women. The view that trans people are always – or should be – progressing toward surgery is based on outdated theories of gender that pathologized and stigmatized transgender people. The policy undermines the dignity of trans people and puts their safety at risk by ‘outing’ them as trans.”
Emilie Coyle, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, states: “The human rights of trans people were enshrined in our laws because there was a recognition that they must be protected. Ms. Aubee’s complaint helps us to understand how we can improve our practices to protect the rights of trans people who are incarcerated. Wherever we can evolve to better respect the dignity and humanity of some, the safer the world becomes for everyone. Ms. Aubee’s fight for dignity is a fight for the dignity of everyone.”
A copy of Ms. Aubee’s complaint can be found here.
Media Contacts:
Jessica Magonet
Staff Lawyer at Prisoners’ Legal Services
jmagonet@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
Nicole Kief
Legal Advocate at Prisoners’ Legal Services
nkief@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
Emilie Coyle
Executive Director at the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS)
ecoyle@caefs.ca
613-316-6785
by J Metcalfe | Mar 20, 2023 | News, News Releases
Ottawa, ON (unceded Algonquin Anishnaabeg Territory) – Today, Joey Toutsaint, an Indigenous person in federal custody, asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear his case about unethical health care in prisons.
Mr. Toutsaint has been in federal prison for most of his adult life and has spent more than 2,000 days in segregation. In March 2019, a nurse went to Mr. Toutsaint’s cell door to give him medication, and when she refused to show him the empty medication packet, he swore at her and threatened to self-harm. The nurse then initiated a disciplinary charge against him, which could have resulted in up to thirty days of segregation as a penalty.
Mr. Toutsaint made a complaint to the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association (SNRA), arguing that the nurse violated her ethical duties to act in the best interest of her patient and to not participate in punitive measures. The SRNA dismissed the complaint without addressing the core health ethics questions it raised about the nurse’s role as a disciplinarian. The Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench and Court of Appeal both dismissed Mr. Toutsaint’s case. He is now asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear his appeal.
Mr. Toutsaint states: “Everyone, including people in prison, deserves respectful and ethical health care. How can I trust my health care providers if they are involved in punishing me?”
Pierre Hawkins, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, states: “People in federal prisons are excluded from universal health care. Instead, their health care is provided by Correctional Service Canada, the same agency that incarcerates them. Given the dual loyalties of prison health care providers, people in prison face a unique and serious risk of receiving unethical health care.”
Dr. Martha Paynter, Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick and the Director of Research for Wellness Within, states: “As nurses, we have an ethical duty to put our patients’ interests first. We must recognize the inherent harm of prison environments, the extreme stress prisoners experience, and do everything in our power to alleviate patient suffering and promote wellbeing. In general, nursing school curricula inadequately address the danger of dual loyalty in prison workplaces, and nurses are underinformed about their ethical obligations in these spaces. This case is an important teaching moment for the profession.”
Dr. Ruth Elwood Martin, Clinical Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, states: “Health care providers working in prisons need support to provide trauma-informed, culturally safe and ethical care. And, as this case shows, health care regulators must not abdicate their duty to address important questions about health care ethics in prisons.”
Jessica Magonet, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, states: “This case demonstrates the critical need for health services in prisons to be administered independently by health authorities. As long as prisons are in charge of health care, professional independence and ethics will be compromised.”
Mr. Toutsaint is represented in this litigation by Pierre Hawkins of the John Howard Society of Saskatchewan and Jessica Magonet of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
You learn more about Mr. Toutsaint’s experience in federal prison here: https://www.aptnnews.ca/ourstories/insidecorrections/
You can read Mr. Toutsaint’s leave application here.
Media Contacts:
• Jessica Magonet, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, at jmagonet@pls-bc.ca or 604-636-0470
• Pierre Hawkins, counsel for Mr. Toutsaint, at phawkins@sk.johnhoward.ca or 306-551-5605
• Martha Paynter, Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick and the Director of Research for Wellness Within, at martha.paynter@gmail.com or 902-292-7082
by Web Master | Nov 21, 2022 | News, News Releases
Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, BC) – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) made submissions on behalf of the family of Kendal Campeau to the Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) National Board of Investigations in relation to his death at the age of 31 at Pacific Institution on November 14, 2021 from methadone toxicity.
Mr. Campeau was a member of the Yellow Quill First Nation and grew up in Saskatchewan. His death in the custody of CSC adds to the long list of Indigenous people who have died in colonial prisons in Canada.
In our submissions, we urge CSC to consider Mr. Campeau’s death in prison as part of Canada’s history of forcibly separating Indigenous families and the mass incarceration of Indigenous peoples. Mr. Campeau’s life and death represent many of the systemic issues experienced by Indigenous people in prison, including classification to higher levels of security, having his “Indigenous Social History” used against him, transfer to prisons far away from his family and community, the use of prolonged solitary confinement, and violent assaults and abuse by correctional officers or facilitated by officers.
He was transferred away from his family in Saskatchewan to BC in 2019 after he was violently assaulted in prison. In BC he was violently assaulted again and placed in a Structured Intervention Unit before being transferred to Pacific Institution. On November 14, 2021 he was found unresponsive in his cell. He was taken to outside hospital and then returned to the prison, where he died later the same day.
Mr. Campeau had a long history of being harmed by colonial systems. Although he came from a loving family and did not experience any abuse in his home, he was removed from his family and placed in foster care at the age of 10. His mother unsuccessfully attempted to regain custody. He spent time in group homes, where he was abused, including by being forcibly held down in restraints. At the age of 12 a police dog attacked him and tore his arm.
In adult custody, Mr. Campeau suffered extensive abuse by correctional officers. His sister, Ashley Fontaine, wrote about her brother’s reporting of one incident when he was sexually assaulted by correctional officers:
“Kendal said that the guards ‘pissed in a mop bucket’ and told him to mop his cell with the urine in the pail. He refused and began swearing at the guards. He then became overwhelmed with emotions and you can hear it in his voice. Kendal said, ‘I fought back Doll. I wasn’t going to mop my cell with pissy water, fuck that shit. I pissed one of the guards off, so he kicked over the mop water, spilling all over in my cell’. Kendal then went on to say that what the guard did by spilling the pail in the cell, had angered him and then started ‘swinging punches’. Kendal said that at this point the guards rushed him, tackled him down and beat ‘the shit out of me’. Kendal started crying on the phone with me as he mentioned what they did to him next. He said they pulled his pants down and shoved the mop stick ‘up his ass’. He was raped by the guards wielding the stick. Kendal told me he couldn’t ‘shit or sit for weeks[‘] while he was down in the hole [segregation] due to the damage from the rape.”
Ashely notes that Mr. Campeau spoke about this incident in a voicemail he left for her approximately one week before he died.
Mr. Campeau’s records indicate that he attempted suicide while being held in segregation in 2019. Medical staff believed he had been sexually assaulted, and his records note he was found crying in the shower, having slashed his arm and thigh severely enough to require treatment at outside hospital. Prior to this incident, CSC health providers had repeatedly signed off on Mr. Campeau’s continued isolation.
Mr. Campeau also reported to his sister that a correctional officer gave him a razor blade and “tormented him into thinking that he was a waste of life and encouraged him to end his life,” and that guards would stand there and watch as he cut his arms and legs.
PLS has received several reports from incarcerated people about CSC correctional officers encouraging them to kill themselves and sometimes giving them razor blades.
Mr. Campeau submitted grievances about his mistreatment but CSC’s responses were cursory.
PLS encourages CSC to thoroughly investigate Mr. Campeau’s treatment in its custody as part of its investigation into his death.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca * 604-636-0470
by Web Master | Sep 29, 2022 | News Releases
Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, BC) – Today, Nick Dinardo, a Two-Spirit Indigenous person in federal custody, filed a lawsuit against the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Mx. Dinardo is going to Federal Court to enforce their rights under the Privacy Act and the Charter to access their personal information documenting the use of force against them by CSC correctional officers.
Throughout Mx. Dinardo’s imprisonment, CSC correctional officers have repeatedly harassed, abused, and mistreated them, including by using force against them. Mx. Dinardo requested access to their own personal information documenting several of these uses of force and, more than one year later, CSC has failed to respond to the bulk of their requests. Mx. Dinardo is now asking the Federal Court to require CSC to disclose their information. They will also argue that CSC’s delays and refusals have limited their ability to criticize their unlawful treatment in prison, and that this violated their Charter rights.
Mx. Dinardo had previously filed two human rights complaints against CSC for failing to accommodate their mental health needs and for discriminating against them based on their Indigenous identity and gender identity. These complaints are ongoing.
Mx. Dinardo states: “If people in prison cannot access their personal information in CSC’s hands, how can we possibly speak out about our mistreatment? Access to information is critical for shining a light on what happens behind prison doors.”
Adam Goldenberg, counsel for Mx. Dinardo, states: “Correctional authorities in Canada have a legal duty to provide people in prison with access to their own personal information under the Privacy Act. As Nicholas Dinardo’s case illustrates, systemic delays and refusals to provide legally required access can seriously impede incarcerated people’s ability to express themselves, to challenge their treatment in prison, and to hold correctional authorities accountable. Mx. Dinardo’s case seeks to reaffirm the right of people in prison to timely access under the Privacy Act and the Charter.”
Jessica Magonet, staff lawyer at Prisoners’ Legal Services, says: “Prisoners’ Legal Services has helped over 75 incarcerated people make requests for their own records from CSC. Extensive delays, some in excess of 1000 days, are a chronic and systemic issue. When CSC does respond, their responses are often incomplete. It is time to hold them to account.”
Nicole Kief, legal advocate at Prisoners’ Legal Services, says: “People in prison are especially vulnerable due to the power prison officials have over every aspect of their lives. Often when they complain about mistreatment, they are not believed. Getting timely access to personal records, including video documentation of uses of force, is critical for transparency and accountability.”
Mx. Dinardo is represented in this litigation by Adam Goldenberg and Connor Bildfell of McCarthy Tétrault LLP and Jessica Magonet of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
You can read more about Mx. Dinardo’s human rights complaints here:
Media Contacts:
by Web Master | Dec 17, 2021 | News Releases
Burnaby, BC – Prisoners’ Legal Services
Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) and the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) have come to an agreement to settle a complaint filed by PLS with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2018 about CSC’s administration of Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT). PLS filed the complaint in response to calls from over 75 people who were unable to receive lifesaving OAT in prison due to long waitlists or because they had been inappropriately cut off their medication.
CSC has committed to eliminating waitlists for OAT. When PLS filed its complaint, our clients were regularly waiting months, and sometimes over one year, to receive OAT. CSC’s most recent statistics show that the total number of people receiving OAT in custody has been increasing, and the number of people across the country waiting for OAT has decreased. As of September 2021, institutions in the Pacific region and elsewhere have small or no waitlists, though long waitlists still exist at some institutions, particularly in the Prairie region. CSC will continue to publish waitlist data on its website until waitlists are eliminated at every institution.
People in prison also regularly reported that they would be cut off OAT if they were suspected of giving away their medication, even if they were benefiting from the medication. Some reported being cut off cold turkey, resulting in painful and dangerous withdrawal symptoms. Many discussed their fears of overdosing.
CSC’s OAT program will now be overseen by a National Medical Advisor for OAT, a new position within CSC. CSC has also made changes to its Guidance document on OAT to ensure that medical professionals act in the best interest of their patients and follow the United Nations Mandela Rules, which outline ethical obligations of healthcare providers in prisons.
CSC has now made it clear that OAT must not be discontinued unless it is clinically appropriate or at the request of the patient. Health care providers will work with patients to help them engage in treatment that is right for them, and if patients are benefiting from OAT they should not be discontinued. Any withdrawal symptoms will be treated urgently. All involuntary discontinuations will now be reviewed by the National OAT Medical Advisor, and the patient is entitled to a copy of the review.
CSC has also included Good Samaritan principles in its policy on institutional discipline so that people can seek medical assistance for potential overdoses without fear of being charged.
PLS’ human rights complaint also addressed the lack of psychosocial support for people with opioid dependence, in addition to medication. CSC has committed to implementing Self-Management and Recovery Training (SMART), which will be available at each penitentiary in Canada. Additional or different psychosocial treatment will be offered when clinically indicated.
CSC has also engaged with a medical records specialist to address the difficulty patients have getting timely access to their own medical records.
“Canada is in the midst of an overdose crisis,” said Prisoners’ Legal Services Executive Director Jennifer Metcalfe. “Access to OAT is an essential health service and we are pleased CSC has committed to making sure people in federal custody can access it without unnecessary barriers or delays. We are also pleased that CSC’s OAT program will be governed by international ethical standards for prison healthcare and overseen by an addictions medicine expert.
“Our work is driven by the concerns of our incarcerated clients, and we filed this complaint after hearing over and over that they could not get OAT. This settlement helps to affirm the human rights of people in federal custody who use drugs,” said Nicole Kief, Legal Advocate at Prisoners’ Legal Services.
Click here to see CSC`s news release regarding the settlement.
Click here to see CSC`s factsheet on its OAT program.
Media contacts:
Jennifer Metcalfe
Nicole Kief
604-636-0470
by Web Master | Dec 16, 2021 | News Releases
Burnaby BC – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services filed a human rights complaint on behalf of Perry DeFazio against the Correctional Service Canada for discrimination based on mental health disability.
Perry has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has a history of self-harm and suicide attempts. He is a survivor of childhood physical and sexual abuse.
On January 28, 2020, Perry was put in an isolation cell for suicide monitoring at Correctional Service Canada’s Regional Mental Health Centre in Quebec. Correctional officers forcibly tackled Perry, held him down on the bed and cut off his clothes.
Later the same day, Perry was strapped to Pinel restraints to prevent self-harm, where he was taunted by a correctional officer. He spent hours in the restraints. A nurse saw that his foot was injured and asked officers to adjust the straps. An officer accused Perry of spitting at him, although officers were wearing face shields. An officer then punched Perry in the head twice. Another officer hit him in the face three times. He was eventually taken to the hospital where he saw in a mirror that his face was swollen like a balloon. Hospital records confirm that officers used so much force that the bone around Perry’s eye was fractured and his nose was injured.
“I feel traumatized and I am afraid when guards come near me” Perry says in his complaint. He also describes experiencing anxiety attacks.
The Correctional Service Canada reviewed the use of force and concluded that the force was not necessary or proportionate. The Office of the Correctional Investigator confirmed these findings.
“It is appalling that physical violence is used at a Treatment Centre against someone in emotional distress. Treatment centres should be safe and therapeutic environments where people are treated compassionately by health care professionals. Instead we see people facing isolation and violence when they feel suicidal,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
CSC health care staff did not speak with Perry about this violent experience, or help him to process it.
“Trust is an essential foundation to any therapeutic health care relationship. How can people in prison have trust with mental health care providers if they fail to acknowledge the trauma of these kinds of abusive practices?” said Jennifer Metcalfe.
Prisoners’ Legal Services takes the position that correctional officers should not be on living units of treatment centres unless called in by health care staff for assistance, and that interventions for people in emotional distress should be led by health care staff.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
604-636-0470
