NEWS RELEASES 

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver, British Columbia) – Beginning on October 15, 2024, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will hear a historic case about the rights of Deaf people in federal prison. It is widely acknowledged that Deaf people in prison face...

Victoria, BC (Lək̓ʷəŋən traditional territories) – From September 23-27, 2024, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will continue to hear the case of Nick Dinardo (they/them), a formerly incarcerated Two-Spirit and transfeminine member of the Piapot First Nation. Mx....

Prisoners' Legal Services, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs call on Canada to act on the recommendations it adopted during its 4th Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations in March 2024. These included recommendations to:...

For Immediate Release Ottawa, ON (unceded Anishinabe Algonquin Territory) – Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) is thrilled by the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. Power, which confirms that governments aren’t protected from compensating...

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, British Columbia) – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) announces that the Federal Court has cancelled a decision finding one of its clients, who is Deaf and Indigenous, guilty of a serious disciplinary offence. The client...

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, British Columbia) / Unceded Algonquin Territory (Ottawa, ON) -- Today, the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PSL) wrote to Correctional Service Canada (“CSC”) to raise the alarm about the...

Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, British Columbia) – Ed Speidel, an incarcerated person at Matsqui Institution represented by Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS), was granted parole on September 28, 2023. In deciding to grant Mr. Speidel’s application, the...

Geneva – Today, Dene lawyer Jennifer Duncan is in Geneva leading up to Canada’s 4th Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Pre-Session to draw international attention to Canada’s continued mass incarceration of Indigenous people. Jennifer Duncan is voicing the calls of the...

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...

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...

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...

BURNABY, BC – Nick Dinardo, a Two Spirit prisoner diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, reports being met with violence by correctional officers while in a CSC “treatment centre.” Nick is a member of the Piapot First Nation, and their family are residential...

  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...

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...

A group of prisoners who filed a Charter challenge last month in BC Supreme Court reached an agreement with BC Corrections today that will save them the effort and the enormous expense of having their case go to court. Their challenge was against a provincial prison...

On April 15, 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada decided that a provision limiting the discretion of a judge to give enhanced pre-trial credit was overbroad and unconstitutional. The West Coast Prison Justice Society/Prisoners’ Legal Services was represented at the...

The West Coast Prison Justice society has filed a human rights complaint against the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) on behalf of transgender prisoners. CSC's policies require prisoners to be placed in male or female prisons according to their genitals, rather...

Prisoners’ Legal Services applauds BC Corrections decision to amend its policy on transgender prisoners to comply with human rights law. The new policy is similar to the policy implemented by the Ontario Correctional service, which requires: placement according to...

May 21, 2015 The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has ignored the most significant recommendations for respecting the rights of transgender prisoners made by Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS). Over a year after PLS provided CSC with policy recommendations  regarding...

Prisoners’ Legal Services filed a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal on behalf of Mr. Charles Mzite, a prisoner with HIV. While being held in provincial custody, Mr. Mzite experienced regular interruptions of his HIV medication. The Tribunal accepted his...