DENY, DENY, DENY…
DEFLECT, ATTACK, ACCUSE…
DISPARAGE, REBUFF, SNUB.

How do our public servants learn to ignore facts with a straight face?
Our federal prison industry’s head office in Ottawa has employees dedicated to do just that.  It should be no surprise then that Ontario’s solicitor general’s office can do the same.  But it does take one aback.  And it should.  How dare our employees treat us as an intrusion, to be sloughed off with any handy expedient.

See March 23, “Corrections or Corruptions….”, and review the content about Ontario.  The Toronto Star published at least four additional Brendan Kennedy contributions in the paper’s series on conditions in Ontario’s provincial jails.  One from March 31, “Watch disturbing video shows jail guards carrying out violent, hours-long retribution at Maplehurst,” links to some of the video from the December 2023 attack on inmates by guards at Maplehurst, videos which were released by court order over ministry objections.

Of course, pictures don’t tell the whole story, so says Janet Laverty, representing the guard’s union.  She hadn’t seen video or images from the incident.  “In any case, videos rarely tell the whole story in context.”  Now that’s sick!  And haven’t we heard that before from other sources about prison film.  Well, then let’s add audio to those surveillance cameras.  Horrors, we can’t do that.  It might tell too much of the story and, besides, it’s not needed, it’s not wanted and there’s no budget.

It seems as well that Chelsea McGee in communications at the solicitor general’s office isn’t concerned about jail conditions or the illegal and unconscionable conduct of staff under her ministry’s jurisdiction.  Where do we find these people?  Are they Trump rejects?

)()(

We passed on comments of our own to Miss McGee and Miss Laverty:-

April 4, 2025

Chelsea McGee, Director of Communications,
c/o The Honourable Michael Kerzner, Solicitor General,
Toronto, ON  M7A 1Y4

Re:       “Ontario’s jails are deadlier than ever….”
Brendan Kennedy, Toronto Star, March 24, 2025

Miss McGee:

“There are government sanctioned human rights violations every day in Canada”.  So reads the deck of “Why OPCAT?” published February 9 of this year in turnoverarocktoday.com, copy enclosed.

When Brendan Kennedy quotes you in the Star on March 24 as saying, “Our message to repeat violent criminals is clear – we have room for you in out jails,” you are endorsing human rights violations in Ontario.  I assume you may have sworn at least one oath before taking the office you hold.  Was there any mention of following the law?

This writer is a federal prison industry specialist, but there are also decades of narrow contacts with Ontario’s Toronto East, Toronto South, and the old Don and Toronto West.  What pride you may have in the operation of the province’s jails can be matched by details and reports far less flattering.

One wonders why Canadians responsible for enforcing the law and administering justice have such a strong opposition to substantive accountability.

Yours truly,

……and on the same date:-

Janet Laverty, Chair,
Corrections Division,
OPSEU,
Toronto, ON  M3B 3P8

Re:       “She thought leaving her nephew in jail would help him…”
Brendan Kennedy, Toronto Star, March 25, 2025

Dear Chair Laverty:

“There are government sanctioned human rights violations every day in Canada.”  So reads the deck of “Why OPCAT?” published February 9 of this year in turnoverarocktoday.com, copy enclosed.

This writer is a federal prison industry specialist but also has decades of narrow contacts with Ontario’s Toronto East, Toronto South, and the old Don and Toronto West.  The Toronto Star series authored by Brendan Kennedy focusing on Ontario jails illustrates a grim and familiar picture. 

The strong defence you make for your members and the difficult work they do doesn’t match the day-to-day reality in the trenches.  The only viable explanation for the difference says that rogue guards who pay little heed to policy and the law, and that for example includes the guards in Lyndsay who murdered Soleiman Faqiri in December of 2016, are not OPSEU members.

Michael Kerzner owes you an explanation.

)()(

“Ontario’s jails are deadlier than ever – and this one is ‘the worst in every respect’” from the Star on March 24 and “She thought leaving her nephew in jail would help him get clean.  His fatal overdose raises hard questions about how drugs get inside” published on March 25 are the other two current entries in the Toronto Star series.

If the ‘rule of law’ and ‘substantive accountability’ apply to inmates, why does it not also govern the behaviour of the keepers?