by J Metcalfe | Jul 31, 2020 | News, News Releases
BURNABY, BC – July 31, 2020 – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) filed a human rights complaint on behalf of Nicholas Dinardo, a 28-year-old member of the Piapot First Nation, against Correctional Service Canada (“CSC”).
Nick has a history of trauma and their family are residential school survivors. They have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and have attempted suicide many times. Their acts of self-harm have sometimes been so severe that they have required blood transfusions.
“Instead of responding to Nick’s needs with therapeutic and culturally appropriate mental health and healing services, CSC’s primary responses have involved force and isolation,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, PLS’ Executive Director. “[Their] experience is emblematic of how CSC treats Indigenous prisoners, who have often experienced multi-generational trauma tied to colonialism and are more likely to be classified to maximum security, held in isolation, and have officers use force against them. These kinds of responses only serve to further traumatize people who are already suffering, and continue Canada’s legacy of genocide against Indigenous peoples.”
Nick’s emotional distress has been met with extreme force, including the Emergency Response Team (akin to a riot squad), pepper spray, tear gas and batons. Officers recently shot them in the face with a rubber bullet. “At a time when Canada is reckoning with police brutality against racialized people and the harm done when police respond to emotional crises, CSC must also stop responding to emotional distress with violence,” said Ms. Metcalfe.
Nick has also experienced long-term solitary confinement in CSC custody, including an approximate seven-month continuous placement in 2012. Most recently, they were in a “structured intervention unit” (“SIU”) for approximately three months, where they rarely left their cell. SIUs were introduced in November 2019 to replace administrative segregation.
CSC also places Nick in small isolation cells where it monitors prisoners at risk of suicide or self-harm. Prisoners on suicide watch are often deprived of clothing (they must wear “suicide smocks”), belongings, diversions to help occupy their minds, and meaningful human contact. Sometimes Nick does not even have a mattress to sleep on. “One hour can feel like a whole day when you’re in conditions like that,” says Nick. “A weekend can feel like forever and it makes me feel hopeless. It makes me feel worse than I did before and want to kill myself more.”
Even at CSC treatment centres, which are supposed to be therapeutic, Nick has been isolated and antagonized by correctional officers. Nick remember officers telling them they hoped Nick would die.
“Despite the overwhelming evidence and acknowledgement by Canadian courts that solitary confinement causes serious psychological harm, CSC continues to isolate prisoners already at risk of suicide,” said Ms. Metcalfe.
An Independent External Decision Maker who reviewed Nick’s SIU placement concluded: “[t]here is a strong probability that, should serious intervention not be taken, [Dinardo] will die in jail as a result of a successful suicide, or that [they] will enter back into society with the same issues that brought [them] there.”
In 2019, PLS released an analysis of how correctional officers use of force in federal and provincial prisons in BC, based on interviews with over 100 prisoners. The report found that officers were frequently responding with violence to prisoners with mental health disabilities and prisoners in emotional distress, which results in trauma for prisoners and creates an adversarial environment that compromises safety for everyone. The report called on CSC to transform its approach to crisis intervention. CSC did not respond to the report’s recommendations.
Nick’s complaint builds on a representative human rights complaint filed by PLS in 2018, which alleges that CSC discriminates against prisoners with mental health disabilities. This case was recently referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
Click here to see a copy of Nick’s complaint and here to see a copy of the representative complaint.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
by Web Master | Jun 20, 2019 | News, News Releases, Uncategorized
Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services called on the governments of Canada and British Columbia to take immediate and dramatic action to address the crisis of the over-representation of Indigenous prisoners.
Click here to see our open letter to government.
We make this call to action with other leaders in the legal community, including the Canadian Prison Law Association, the Indigenous Bar Association, the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, the Alberta Prison Justice Society.
by J Metcalfe | Jun 17, 2019 | News, News Releases
Burnaby BC
Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society and Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) released Damage/Control: Use of force and the cycle of violence and trauma in BC’s federal and provincial prisons. The report analyzes law and policy governing the use of force by correctional officers in light of interviews with over 100 federal and provincial prisoners and makes 87 recommendations for change.
The report highlights the stories of 21 people who were subjected to acts of force in the custody of BC Corrections or Correctional Service Canada (“CSC”), including federal prisoner Joey. Joey, who like many people in custody has a history of trauma, began self-harming in prison as a coping mechanism. Because of his self-harm, Joey has been pepper-sprayed and forcibly removed from his cell by the Emergency Response Team, a group of officers in riot gear with pepper spray and shields. He has been isolated in empty, filthy cells with the lights on 24 hours per day and officers sitting outside threatening to pepper spray him if he hurts himself. Joey says these experiences were so traumatic that now, when he worries the Emergency Response Team is coming, he often waits with a razor blade to his throat or a noose wrapped around his neck.
“Joey’s case exemplifies the psychological harm done to prisoners when officers repeatedly rely on force. Using force rather than a therapeutic response has done nothing to stop his self-harm and only exacerbates his distress and thoughts of suicide. This terrible cycle indicates how misguided, counterproductive, and dangerous it is to use a punitive response against traumatized and vulnerable prisoners,” said Nicole Kief, Joey’s PLS legal advocate and the report’s author.
The report finds that both CSC and BC Corrections officers use force in response to prisoners in emotional distress and as a tool to coerce compliance, even when there is no immediate risk to safety. It argues that relying on physical force in these circumstances creates an adversarial environment that compromises safety and wellbeing for both prisoners and staff.
“This report is designed to bring prisoners’ stories to the forefront and highlight the way even ‘justified’ uses of force can create environments of mistrust, trauma and fear,” said Ms. Kief. “Eliminating acts of force, as far as possible, is to the benefit of BC Corrections and CSC, as well as to the people in their custody.”
As part of PLS’s review, BC Corrections made internal materials available to PLS, including video footage and internal reports about many use of force incidents. “We commend BC Corrections for their commitment to transparency and accountability,” said Ms. Kief. “It is unfortunate CSC was not equally transparent.” The report calls for greater public accountability when officers use force, recommending the BC Investigation and Standards Office review every use of force against prisoners in BC Corrections custody. It also calls for prisoners’ voices to be heard in use of force reviews and for prisoners to have access to their personal information when force is used against them.
The report also examines the role of prison medical professionals, who check prisoners for injuries after officers use force. “We found that policies fail to ensure prison medical staff meet their ethical obligations to act with undivided loyalty to their patients and to document and report signs of ill-treatment,” said Jennifer Metcalfe, PLS’s Executive Director.
The report makes 87 recommendations for change, including:
• Using force only when necessary to prevent imminent harm to a person, and never to coerce compliance.
• Limiting Emergency Response Teams to emergencies involving imminent threats of serious physical harm, such as hostage takings or riots.
• Providing officers with in-depth training on working with people with mental health disabilities, particularly when they work at treatment centres, on mental health units, on segregation units, and as members of Emergency Response Teams.
• Creating specialized officer-nurse teams to respond jointly to situations involving emotional or medical distress, following police-health partnerships in the community.
• Developing and expanding mechanisms for prisoners with serious mental health needs, including those who chronically self-harm, to reside at community psychiatric facilities.
• Authorizing the Investigation and Standards Office to review every use of force in BC Corrections facilities.
To view the report, click here.
Media contacts:
Nicole Kief, Legal Advocate
604-636-0470
nkief@pls-bc.ca
Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director
604-636-0470
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
by Web Master | Feb 28, 2019 | News Releases
February 27, 2019 – Burnaby – Prisoners’ Legal Services
Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) filed an injunction in federal court on behalf of Joey Toutsaint, a federal prisoner with serious mental health issues who has spent more than 2,000 days in segregation in Correctional Service Canada custody. Mr. Toutsaint is currently in segregation at Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where he is self-harming on a regular basis and says he thinks of suicide almost every day. The injunction argues he is at risk of death if he is not transferred to a treatment centre.
“It is unconscionable that someone with Mr. Toutsaint’s mental health issues would be held for so long by the government in conditions the United Nations considers torture or cruel treatment,” said Nicole Kief, a Legal Advocate at Prisoners’ Legal Services. “If he isn’t considered inadmissible to segregation, it is hard to imagine who would be.”
Mr. Toutsaint is an Indigenous man from northern Saskatchewan who grew up on the Black Lake Denesuline First Nation reserve. He experienced trauma as a young person that continued during his time in prison. He spent several years at Edmonton Institution, now notorious for its culture of fear, intimidation and bullying, where he suffered both physical and sexual violence. Mr. Toutsaint was recently diagnosed by an independent psychiatrist with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder.
Mr. Toutsaint has a very lengthy history of self-injury, which includes cutting, head-banging, punching himself in the face, choking himself and biting himself. He has been on suicide watch numerous times and placed in restraints to prevent him from hurting himself. He has been OC sprayed and confronted by guards in riot gear (known as the Emergency Response Team) in response to his self-harming. In May of 2018, he slit his throat, severing his jugular vein and suffering extensive blood loss.
“My body is covered in scars. I used to cut from side to side, but now I go up and down because I’m running out of space. I used to take out my anger on other people, but now I take it out on myself. I feel broken,” Mr. Toutsaint said. “When I worry that the Emergency Response Team is coming, I wait with a razor blade to my neck. I’ve been through that so many times and I can’t go through that again.”
In June of 2017, a CSC psychologist found that Mr. Toutsaint’s mental health was deteriorating in segregation. An independent psychiatrist also concluded, in October of 2018, that Mr. Toutsaint’s psychiatric problems were greatly exacerbated by his isolation and that being in solitary confinement was making him more suicidal.
Despite these findings, Mr. Toutsaint has continued to be placed in isolation, where he continues to self-harm on a regular basis. CSC mental health staff have repeatedly found him fit to remain in segregation.
“Mr. Toutsaint’s case illustrates the need for independent health care services for prisoners in Canada. Why does an independent psychiatrist consider him to be clearly suffering from major mental illnesses and at risk of suicide in segregation, while CSC health care professionals consider him fit for segregation?” said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners’ Legal Services.
Mr. Toutsaint has made numerous requests to be transferred to a treatment centre to get help with his mental illnesses and his self-harming. These requests have gone unanswered.
In May of 2018, PLS assisted Mr. Toutsaint in filing a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission about discrimination on the basis of his mental disability and his Indigenous identity.
Today’s injunction asks the court to move Mr. Toutsaint to the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon and provide him with meaningful treatment for his trauma and loss as well as access to Dene traditional practices, arguing that failure to do so would place him at high risk of life-threatening self-harm and even death.
Media contacts:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
Nicole Kief
nkief@ps-bc.ca
604-636-0470
by Web Master | Feb 22, 2019 | News Releases
February 22, 2019 – Burnaby – Prisoners’ Legal Services
Maximum security Kent Institution has canceled Prisoners’ Legal Services’ legal clinics for segregated prisoners, despite the BC Court of Appeal’s January 7, 2019 order that segregated prisoners must be provided enhanced rights to legal counsel.
PLS has been providing the bi-monthly clinics to prisoners in Kent’s segregation unit since February 2015. PLS started the clinics in recognition that prisoners with severe mental health issues often end up in segregation. These prisoners may not know that legal services exist or seek out legal services by phone.
Research demonstrates that segregation can result in depression and feelings of hopelessness. Symptoms of existing mental disabilities can be exacerbated in segregation. The United Nations considers the use of solitary confinement for more than 15 days, or for any amount of time for someone with an existing mental disability, to constitute torture or cruel treatment.
“Some prisoners with serious mental disabilities end up doing a cross-country tour of maximum security segregation units, in what feels like an endless cycle of isolation. These prisoners may not know that legal help is available to them in British Columbia”, said Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of PLS.
“Some prisoners with mental disabilities need to develop a trusting relationship with legal service providers, which can only be done face-to-face. The clinics were intended to ensure that the most vulnerable prisoners have access to legal services to assist them to get out of solitary confinement as soon as possible”, said Ms. Metcalfe.
On January 15, 2019, Kent’s Assistant Warden of Management Services notified PLS that Kent has canceled the clinics without explanation. PLS followed up with the Warden of Kent on January 18, 2019 and with the acting Deputy Commissioner for the Pacific Region on January 28, 2019. PLS did not receive a response until after it contacted CSC Commissioner, Anne Kelly, on February 6, 2019.
On February 8, 2019, Cari Turi, the acting Pacific Region Deputy Commissioner for CSC confirmed the cancellation of the clinics, citing the BC Court of Appeal’s January 7, 2019 order for additional policies and procedures in relation to segregation as the reason that Kent is “no longer able to accommodate the group clinics”.
“We are dismayed that Kent is not following the spirit of the BC Court of Appeal’s order by further restricting segregated prisoners’ access to legal support when they need it the most”, said Ms. Metcalfe.
Media contact:
Jennifer Metcalfe
jmetcalfe@pls-bc.ca
604-636-0470
by J Metcalfe | Oct 22, 2018 | News, News Releases
Prisoners’ Legal Services – Burnaby BC – October 22, 2018
On October 18, 2018, the Federal Court of Appeal decided that federal prisoners without immigration status in Canada are protected by the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The Act protects the human rights of individuals who are “lawfully present in Canada”. A previous decision of the Federal Court of Appeal found that prisoners must have immigration status in Canada to be protected by the Act. Thursday’s decision finds that the previous decision was wrongly decided, and acknowledges that individuals who are serving sentences in Canadian prisons are lawfully present in Canada, and are protected by human rights law.
Prisoners’ Legal Services represented Kien Beng Tan in the case. Mr. Tan is a federal prisoner who is a citizen of Malaysia and a practicing Buddhist. He filed a human rights complaint when he and others were denied access to minority faith chaplains in prison. The Canadian Human Rights Commission refused to consider his complaint because it considered him not to be lawfully present in Canada.
The Honourable Justice Rennie wrote the majority decision. He found that Mr. Tan is lawfully present in Canada because he is serving a sentence to a term of imprisonment in Canada, which is authorized by the Criminal Code and theCorrections and Conditional Release Act. The stay of his removal order under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and the fact that his entry to Canada was authorized under the Extradition Act also indicate that his presence in Canada is lawful.
Mr. Justice Rennie departed from the previous Federal Court of Appeal decision, quoting Lord Denning for the principle that “[t]he doctrine of precedent does not compel [us] to follow the wrong path until [we] fall over the edge of a cliff”.
The Federal Court of Appeal notes that if it did not depart from the previous decision, Mr. Tan could be required to remain in prison for his entire life “under the greatest restriction of liberty and government control possible, in all aspects of life and wellbeing, yet cannot make a human rights complaint merely because he does not hold some form of immigration status and is subject to a deportation order if ever he is released.”
The court found it would create an absurd consequence to deprive a prisoner without immigration status of human rights protections, when a Canadian prisoner, could make a human rights complaint for the same discrimination, even if the former was serving a life sentence and the latter a short sentence.
“I am very glad that people who had no human rights protections in Canadian prisons now have rights. I am thankful that my case will help other people like me,” said Mr. Tan.
Fadi Yachoua, lawyer and co-founder at Embarkation Law Corporation, and Prisoners’ Legal Services Executive Director, Jennifer Metcalfe, represented Mr. Tan in the appeal.
“This is a good day for human rights in Canada. Prisoners without immigration status are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized members of our society, and now they are protected by human rights law,” said Ms. Metcalfe.
“We are thrilled that the Canadian Human Rights Act will be applied fairly going forward, and that prisoners in federal penitentiaries, be they Canadian citizens or foreign nationals, can file human rights complaints if they experience discrimination,” said Mr. Yachoua.
The federal government supported Mr. Tan’s interpretation of the Canadian Human Rights Act to include foreign national prisoners serving a sentence in Canada under its protections.
Click here to read the decision Tan v. Canada (Attorney General), 2018 FCA 186.
Prisoners’ Legal Services
302-7818 6th Street
Burnaby, BC
Tel: 604-636-0470
Fax: 604-636-0480
Email: info@pls-bc.ca
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