….. HARBOURING “SECRET ONTARIO.”

Provincial jails in Ontario fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Solicitor General but are run by ghostly covert forces, shadowy bodies with no face or form, no office or officers, no accountability, no liability, a protected potent blight infesting the weak and vulnerable.  Its corruptive cankers are wherever there is the powerless…jails, youth group homes and foster care homes, places where the elderly are stored, anywhere the defenceless are gathered.

How else do we explain the difference between policy and practice?  How do we square what the people we’ve entrusted with power tell us against the truths hiding beneath the rocks under their feet?  “Secret Ontario.” **

Avoiding scrutiny is paramount.  Our governing institutions invoke the Victorian maxim often used in this space, “I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses.”  No one can know.  Maplehurst did well at hiding the chaos and lawlessness guards and management inflicted on 192 inmates in December of 2023; that is, until courts began staying inmate charges, reducing inmate criminal liabilities, and issuing damning condemnations against the jail.  Then, as whatever it is we like to call it, hit the fan and we saw videos and heard testimonies.

So, what has happened?  We continue to hear of stayed or reduced charges for Maplehurst inmates impacted by the events of December 22-23, 2023.  A class action lawsuit is underway.    What of the perpetrators?  What came from the two investigations?  Have you heard anything?  Has anybody heard anything?  Imagine the anger at Queen’s Park for Maplehurst management and staff allowing itself to “frighten the horses.”

In a freedom of information (FOI) request, we asked for the name of the current Maplehurst superintendent. The answer confirmed that today’s Millhaven superintendent is not the same person as was in that office in December of 2023.  We didn’t ask where that superintendent was now because, as it turns out, that information would have been none of our business.

Three further freedom of information (FOI) requests were submitted in December of 2025.  One asked for the number of Correctional Officers charged with criminal or policy offences arising from that pre-Christmas incident in Maplehurst in 2023.  Another asked for the number of criminal and policy offences laid against guards.  The third wanted to know how many guards had been dismissed because of that disorder at the jail.

All were answered with the same response.  “Please be advised that access to the requested records is denied.  Access to the responsive information is denied in accordance with section(s) S.65 (6) of the Act as follows: S.65 (6), Labour Relations & Employment Related Records.”  In other words, as noted earlier, this is none of the public’s business.  Privacy issues are a real and justifiable concern, but should civil service wrongdoing be privileged?  Criminal charges are in the public domain unless otherwise court-ordered, but Ontario will do what governments always aim to do.  Minimize the damage.  I doubt there’ll be any charges.  We passed on appealing to the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario……this time.

Another FOI was submitted on March 6. 
“What do your records show are the number of institutional and criminal charges laid against Correctional Officers at Maplehurst Correctional Complex arising from the incident at the facility on December 22-23, 2023?
This is not a request for the number of Correctional Officers who have been charged of for any information which would identify any Correctional Officer.”

We expect the same previous response, but this time the option to appeal will be exercised.  Let our provincial government double-down on its right (power?) to support “Secret Ontario.”

Ever feel governments take on more power than we intend them to have?

**”SECRET CANADA” IS A PROJECT OF THE GLOBE AND MAIL.  TAKE A LOOK.