……OR IS HE?

The Honourable William Sterling “Bill” Blair spent almost forty years with Toronto’s police service, the last ten as Chief. After retiring, he was elected to Parliament in 2015, appointed as a parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Justice, and then the head of a task force to develop a plan for the legalization of cannabis. Last year, he was named Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, and in November of this year, Minister of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness. He’s now in charge of our federal prisons.

Bill Blair will need help, and a December 5th letter offered some advice.

Dear Minister Blair:

A few years ago, as Toronto’s Chief of Police, you made one of many visits to the CBC Radio Metro Morning studio. I was on my first cup of tea that particular morning, going through a newspaper, and with half an ear tuned to your conversation with program host Matt Galloway.

The subject was police response to city crime, its causes and potential fixes. At one point you said, and I think I’ve nailed this with reasonable accuracy, “We need to do more with these people when we have them in custody to help them turn their lives around.” That made me sit up and take notice…not something I expected to hear from law enforcement.

Lee Chapelle of Canadian Prison Consulting estimates that 80% of prison inmates in our federal system are salvageable. I’ve been an activist around prison issues since the 1960s, but it’s been a principal interest for the last 30 years. I know that hundreds of federal inmates, maybe more, want help. They want programming help, they want help with their emotional well-being and mental health, they want help reintegrating.

They’re not getting it.

You oversee the ‘big house’ now. You can “help them turn their lives around.” Don’t let Correctional Service of Canada snow you with reams of budget statistics, policy directives and institutional reports. It’s just paper. Don’t let anyone at CSC tell you all’s well. It’s not.

Yours truly…..

Yes, Minister, you have work to do…..