NEWS RELEASES
MEDIA ADVISORY: Indigenous and prison rights organizations at United Nations to call on Canada to redirect funding from prisons to Indigenous bodies
WHAT: Statement to United Nations Human Rights Council by Indigenous and prison rights organizations in response to Canada’s Universal Periodic Review WHEN: March 25, 2024 WHERE: 55th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland - live...
CAP and PLS demand Correctional Services Canada address warehousing of Indigenous prisoners and allegations of abuse
Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, British Columbia) / Unceded Algonquin Territory (Ottawa, ON) -- Today, the Congress of Indigenous Peoples (CAP) and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PSL) wrote to Correctional Service Canada (“CSC”) to raise the alarm about the...
NEWS RELEASE: Human Rights hearing begins for formerly incarcerated Two-Spirit person challenging violence and abuse in federal prisons
Victoria, BC (Lək̓ʷəŋən traditional territories) – From Monday, February 12 until Thursday, February 15, 2024 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will hear the case of Nick Dinardo (they/them), a formerly incarcerated Two-Spirit and transfeminine member of the Piapot...
News Release – Parole Board of Canada releases terminally ill man to live in the community
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...
News Release: Indigenous organizations and legal aid clinic rebuke Canada for mass incarceration of Indigenous people, call for redirection of funding to Indigenous governments and organizations as part of Canada’s human rights review by the United Nations
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...
News Release: Correctional Service Canada finally releases video footage of guards’ excessive force against a person in prison
[Warning, this post includes graphic violence that may be disturbing to some readers/viewers.] Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Burnaby, British Columbia) – Today, Nicholas Dinardo, a Two-Spirit Indigenous person in federal custody, makes public a video of...
News Release: Report calls for significant shift of funding from Correctional Service Canada to Indigenous governments and organizations
Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services released Decarceration through Self-determination: Ending the mass incarceration of Indigenous people in Canada. The report calls on Canada to shift $1 billion each year from the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) to Indigenous...
News Release: Indigenous Woman Files Human Rights Complaint About Discrimination Against Transgender People in Prison
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...
News Release: Indigenous Man Asks Supreme Court to Hear Case About Unethical Health Care in Prisons
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...
News Release: PLS calls for CSC to consider systemic abuse of Indigenous people in prison in its investigation into the death of Kendal Campeau
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...
Incarcerated Two-Spirit Person Sues Correctional Service of Canada for Denying Them Access to their Personal Information, Breaching Privacy Act and the Charter
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...
News Release: Human rights complaint results in a settlement that will improve services for people in prison with opioid dependency
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...
News Release: Human rights complaint alleges correctional officers used violence to cut off man’s clothes and break a bone in his face while he was restrained on suicide watch
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...
News Release: Prisoners’ Legal Services successful in securing the right to counsel for people held in Structured Intervention Units
November 30, 2021 – Burnaby, BC – On the two-year anniversary of the implementation of Structured Intervention Units (SIU), Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) has secured the right to be represented by legal counsel for people held in SIU. Despite legislation protecting...
News Release: PLS releases paper documenting Canada’s ongoing genocide against Indigenous people in its prisons
BURNABY, BC – September 29, 2021 Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services released a paper documenting government reports that confirm Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people held in its prisons constitutes a continuation of genocide and crimes against humanity. Indigenous...
NEWS RELEASE: Two-Spirit prisoner files human rights complaint over violence and harassment in federal prisons designated for men
BURNABY, BC - August 19, 2021 - Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) filed a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on behalf of Nick Dinardo, a 29-year-old Two-Spirit and transfeminine member of the Piapot First Nation, against Correctional Service...
NEWS RELEASE: Indigenous prisoner faces abuse in CSC “Treatment Centre”
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...
News Release: Report exposes Canada’s use of widespread isolation in its prisons
Burnaby BC Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) released Solitary by Another Name: The ongoing use of isolation in Canada's federal prisons. The report identifies ways that the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) continues to...
NEWS RELEASE: Prison Justice Advocates Call for Formal Investigation into Abuse of Man with Mental Health Disabilities Held in Solitary Confinement
Burnaby, BC - Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services (“PLS”) called on Correctional Service Canada Commissioner Anne Kelly to convene a formal investigation into the abuse of a federal prisoner being held in solitary confinement. Thirty-one year old Shane Yukich has been...
NEWS RELEASE: Correctional Service Canada uses violence and isolation to respond to self-harm and distress, human rights complaint alleges
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...
Call to action on the eve of National Indigenous Peoples Day
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...
News Release: Report calls use of force practices in BC and federal prisons traumatic and harmful and makes recommendations for change
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...
News Release: Suicidal Man Held in Long-Term Segregation Files Injunction for Treatment
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...
News Release: Kent Institution Cancels Legal Clinic for Segregated Prisoners
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...
News Release: Prisoners without immigration status in Canada win human rights
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...
BC College of Physicians and Surgeons must address ethical issues surrounding solitary confinement
August 13, 2018 – Burnaby BC – Prisoners’ Legal Services On August 9, 2018, the Health Professions Review Board issued an important decision requiring the BC College of Physicians and Surgeons to directly confront the issue of medical professionals’ ethical duties...
News Release: Human rights complaint calls for end to solitary for prisoners with mental disabilities and independent health care in federal prisons
BURNABY, BC, June 20, 2018 Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society (WCPJS) filed a human rights complaint against the Correctional Service of Canada on behalf of prisoners with mental disabilities. “CSC is still using solitary confinement against prisoners...
News Release: Human Rights of Federal Prisoners with Opioid Use Disorder Being Violated, Says Prison Justice Group
June 4, 2018 – Burnaby BC Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society (WCPJS) filed a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission against Correctional Service Canada on behalf of all federal prisoners who have been denied life-saving treatment for opioid use...
Joint News Release: Changes to the way transgender offenders are accommodated in Canada’s federal prison system
An important collaboration spanning several years between the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), and Prisoners’ Legal Services (PLS) has resulted in changes to the way transgender offenders are accommodated in Canada’s federal prison system.
Laying the groundwork to abolish segregation in Canada and BC
The current use of segregation and separate confinement in Canadian and BC prisons amounts to torture or cruel treatment. Today we released a new report which provides a comprehensive framework of why and how it should end. Solitary: A Case for Abolition is a detailed...
Transgender Prisoners
CSC has adopted new policies to protect transgender prisoner rights long recommended by the West Coast Prison Justice Society, including placement by gender identity.
Prisoners reach settlement on access to drug treatment in provincial jails
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...
SCC Decides Pre-Trial Credit Case – provision is overbroad and unconstitutional
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...
WCPJS files human rights complaint on behalf of transgender prisoners
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’ New Trans Policy
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...
CSC fails to bring transgender policy in line with international standards
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’ Rights Group Takes BC to Court Over Unfair Prisoner Disciplinary System
News Release May 12, 2015 Today, the West Coast Prison Justice Society (WCPJS) filed a lawsuit against the BC government challenging the fairness of the BC Corrections’ prisoner disciplinary system. In BC, prison staff adjudicate disciplinary hearings against...
BC Court of Appeal affirms Human Rights Tribunal’s role in advancing public interest
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...
Prisoners’ Legal Services
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Email: info@pls-bc.ca
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