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:
- address structural racism in and the over-representation of Indigenous and Black people in prisons (recommendations 84, 129, 130, 133),
- improve prison conditions (recommendations 121, 122, 123, 124),
- restrict or end solitary confinement (recommendations 124, 132),
- adhere to United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) (recommendation 132), and
- invest in community-based, Indigenous-led alternatives to incarceration (recommendation 131).
We also call on Canada to retain an Indigenous organization to conduct an independent investigation into the experiences of Joey Toutsaint, a Dene man in the custody of Correctional Services Canada, who suffers from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of frequent violence from correctional officers, and the symptoms of prolonged solitary confinement. You can read our letter here.