Change? For real?

turnoverarocktoday Justice & the Penal Systems

We should all spend a few hours once each year watching the proceedings in our municipal council chambers, or sitting in the gallery of our provincial and federal legislative assemblies. It would be just as important to spend a half day in a courtroom….any courtroom. Noble intentions like these are pipe-dreams for the most part, but we need be encouraged nonetheless to monitor the people we place in positions of trust and authority.

We spent most of a day in mid-January in Toronto’s College Park 501 Court which is reserved for bail applications. We watched man after man from the Toronto South Detention Centre, Ontario’s notoriously ineptly run super-jail, comment (note we did not say ‘complain’) about lockdowns, no showers for days, no lawyers, no visitors, and no meds. One lawyer had his client brought up in person, not only to hold over the process to another date, but to have the Court intervene with the jail to have the man’s heart medications available.

Jail workers claim these lockdowns are primarily caused by staff shortages, and this is one of the concerns borne out in Patrick White’s Globe and Mail “Ontario indicates that major prison-system changes are in the works”, published on Saturday, January 16th of this year. According to available figures, the union representing staff say there were more than 900 lockdowns in Ontario’s provincial jails in 2014 because of staff shortages. At the same time, that figure is zero in some other provinces.

The Toronto South experience during 2015 suggests that staff shortages in the summer occurred mostly on the weekends, when too many guards called in sick and left the institution short-handed. To some, this was a union-mandated ploy to draw attention to its cause; to others, it was “barbecue-itis”, an inmate designation.

Yasir Naqvi, Ontario’s minister responsible for jails, is calling for some welcome reforms to address the issues which have brought the system to a low regard. Perhaps the most intriguing to us are statistics that show the number of pre-trial inmates in the system currently make up 60% of the jail population, compared to 30% a decade ago. “We don’t deal with capacity issues by building more jails, but by reducing the demand for jails,” according to Minister Naqvi. Mental-health care, and health care in general, are on his list for attention too, after the staffing shortage is addressed.

We can hope the minister’s resolve to push forward his reforms in the prison file are more substantive than his efforts to eliminate police ‘carding’. We’ve written Yasir Naqvi to offer our encouragement……….

January 23, 2016

The Honourable Yasir Naqvi,
Minister of Community Services & Correctional Services,
18th Floor, George Drew Building,
25 Grosvenor Street,
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6

Re: “Ontario indicates that major prison-system changes are in the works”
Globe and Mail, Saturday, January 16, 2016

Dear Minister Naqvi:

I spent most of a day last week in College Park 501 Court (bail applications) to update my observations on the state of the process in Ontario.

Man after man was called up from Toronto South Detention Centre, commenting about lockdowns, no showers, no lawyers, no visits, no meds. Access to lawyers and medications in particular should raise red flags in your Ministry, given the potential liability the provinces faces for damages.

Ontario has a way to go to match operational standards in some other provinces. Too, your intention to reduce the need for jails is both ambitious and warranted.

Be bold!

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen

Brennan Guigue – Justice takes time.

turnoverarocktoday Justice for Brennan Guigue

Our latest data revises some of what is published in “The Light Beam Flickers” on November 9th last year. Specifically, the videos are both more and less revealing than we originally understood …. and expected.

Of the five discs received from Correctional Service Canada in response to our Access to Information request, the first copies video shot using a hand-held camera on July 22, 2014 at the Regional Reception Centre in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines north of Montreal. It commences at 5:11 pm on that day and runs for 32 minutes and 26 seconds. This material was quickly reviewed by Brennan last fall.

Discs #2 through #4 repeat what is on disc #1 and adds additional information, presumably shot in the same mode, except that disc #4 also contains material that may come from a fixed camera. Disc #5 appears to contain information from a fixed camera only. None of the material on discs #2 through #5 is readable, other than what we were able to review from disc #1 and it’s repetition on the next three discs.

Correctional Service of Canada has withheld everything other than those 32 minutes and 26 seconds. Stephen Fineberg has filed a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, suggesting CSC has withheld more than it is legally entitled to prevent us from seeing.

An analysis of that first disc confirms what both CSC and the Office of the Correctional Investigator earlier admitted; namely, the level of force used was inappropriate and inconsistent with their ‘Situation Management Model’, there was no emergency, and the use of OC (pepper spray) was not appropriate.

A closer examination of that video reveals that CSC guards intentionally ignored their employer’s policy, and engaged in prohibited activity. Further, their use of OC did not meet the manufacturer’s recommendations for the proper use of the chemical. Most notably, the CSC guards involved in this incident crossed the line into criminality and acted unlawfully under sections of Canada’s Criminal Code. They also violated provisions of the United Nation’s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, to which this country is a signatory. At a point in the video after the attack, Brennan warns the six CSC employees they will have to answer for their behaviour.

To go further, staff at the RCC was aware boundaries had been overstepped and substituted Brennan on a “load” to Donnacona the following day, where he was placed in segregation and on cuff status, all in an attempt to hide him away. As previously noted, health care at Donnacona refused to document his injuries.

Brennan has insisted that video shot after what we’ve seen is more incriminating (refer to Just Another Day on the Range? from September 26 of 2014), and we’ve asked Stephen Fineberg to relay this to the OPC.

The printed material and translations are also in our possession. An initial read indicates at least a few contradictions. As expected though, no CSC employee will implicate the wrongdoing of another, or admit to breaking rules or the law themselves. We’ll report more on this after additional study.

As always, please stand by………

Gotta Minute? (18)

turnoverarocktoday Constructive Sedition

“First they arrested the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat so I did nothing. Then they arrested the trade unionists and I did nothing because I was not one. And then they came for the Jews and Catholics, but I was neither a Jew nor a Catholic and I did nothing. At last they came and arrested me – and there was no one left to do anything about it.”
Reverend Marin Niemollor (Nazi prison survivor)

This is what can happen when we don’t pay attention.  Remember…..

….no vigilance, no democracy….

Never stop watching, talking, walking.

‘Carding’…..What we can learn.

turnoverarocktoday Policing

This police ‘carding’ business just won’t stop. It won’t go away.

More than two dozen Ontario groups and individuals expressed their concerns in December around how the province’s Community Safety Minister Yasir Naqvi’s proposed legislation contains too many loopholes and exceptions, and doesn’t reflect the minister’s initial intent to put an end to carding. The “policing industry” has come out with its own differing criticisms of what already appears to be watered-down new rules, and which are currently under a 45 day review.

Our police are of course intimidated by any interference in their operations. It would appear though that somewhere between the minister’s first announcement, and his presentation of the draft legislation, police had already managed to intervene on their own behalf, gaining ground against an all-out ban.

What should we take from this on-going debate? Simply, our police services, public servants though they may be, assume they are a force onto themselves, and intend to broach no encroachment upon claims as an autonomous authority.

How is it possible for specific government agencies to hold such sway over the masters we have put in place to act on our behalf?

How is it possible? Again, we let ‘em.

Like we said, will they comply?

turnoverarocktoday Justice & the Penal Systems

Back in July of 2014, the Globe and Mail reported that our federal prison system was using solitary confinement beyond UN recommendations, at the same time other jurisdictions understood the negative impact of isolating prisoners and were moving away from it. Correctional Service of Canada, under Commissioner Don Head, paid lip service to prohibiting the practice “in principle”, but were making no move to change.

Our July 14 letter to Mr. Head criticized the lack of action and suggested new policies could be in place within 72 hours under his direction. In response, a two-page letter from Assistant Commissioner Scott Harris attempted to sidestep the matter by defining solitary confinement as something different from CSC segregation policies. This is one of those examples we often hear of CSC employees looking one straight in the eye and lying without batting a lash. We more or less told Mr. Harris that when his letter was answered on August 23.

Forward to “Great! But, will they comply?”, published on November 18 of this year.

Assistant Commissioner Harris again wrote us:

December 1, 2015

Dear Mr. Klassen:

Thank you for your correspondence of November 18, 2015, addressed to the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), Mr. Don Head, in which you express concerns regarding his testimony at a Senate Committee hearing in March 2015.

At the onset, I would like to clarify that the Commissioner/s testimony before the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology on March 12, 2015, related to Bill S-208, An Act to Establish the Canadian Commission on Mental Health and Justice and not specific to the case of federal inmate Edward Snowshoe.

As I previously explained in my letter dated July 30, 2014, administrative segregation is often compare to solitary confinement and segregation as recognized in Canada.

For more information on federal corrections, including administrative segregation, please consult the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA), the Corrections and Conditional Release Regulations (CCRR), and Commissioner’s Directive 709: Administrative Segregation, all of which can be found on CSC’s website at the following link: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/acts-and-regulations/index-eng.shtml.

Thank you for taking the time to write

Sincerely,

Scott Harris
Assistant Commissioner
Communications and Engagement Sector

And again, we responded:

December 16, 2015

Scott Harris, Assistant Commissioner,
Communications and Engagement Sector,
Correctional Service of Canada,
340 Laurier Avenue West,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0P9

Assistant Commissioner Harris:

I’m as baffled today by your December 1st letter as I was when writing on August 23 last year in answer to the July 30th letter you referenced.

When any person or persons employed by Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) removes an inmate to isolation in an institution, confines that inmate to a cell for 23 hours per day or more, and where that inmate is without property previously in their possession, access to programs and/or jobs, and the contacts with population and staff they had prior to the move, that is solitary confinement. You may call it by whatever name you wish, and categorize and sub-categorize it ‘til the cows come home, but it is and always will be solitary confinement.

The government’s intent is to restrict this practice of isolating prisoners, and so it should, in spite of what will no doubt be the protests of CSC’s NHQ. The prime minister and his justice minister may in the end need to appoint at-arms-length compliance officers deputized to enforce PMO instructions without recourse to appeal or delay, as counterpoint to a recalcitrant bureaucracy.

However this will unfold, there are many of us in the community who will be watching.

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen
cc Justin Trudeau
Jody Wilson-Raybould
turnoverarocktoday.com

Sadly, controlling the civil service is like herding cats. It can take more resources than most people are willing to give, and some circumstances leave us suffering unnecessarily.

Omar Khadr: The pendulum swings…..finally.

turnoverarocktoday Constructive Sedition

Justin Trudeau has asked new justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to review the government’s litigation strategy. Included on her agenda is the previous government’s appeal of the decision to release Omar Khadr on bail pending the action to have his U.S. conviction reversed. At this point, she has simply asked for a delay in the process but the smart money and ‘common sense’, as Khadr lawyer Dennis Edney puts it, says the Liberal government will drop the matter.

Staff reporter Ben Spurr’s Toronto Star November 29 “Ottawa delays decision on Khadr appeal” is a quick overview on the subject, and strikes a decidedly sympathetic chord. As well, CBC television’s Firsthand at 9pm on Thursday, December 3, ran Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows, a shorter version of Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

Is sanity really creeping back into Ottawa? We sent a letter off to Minister Wilson-Raybould:

December 4, 2015

The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould,
Minister of Justice,
House of Commons,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Re: Ottawa delays decision on Khadr appeal
Toronto Star, Sunday, November 29, 2015

Dear Minister:

Finally, finally, the sun begins to shine in Ottawa!

The previous government’s shameful treatment of one human being for the sake of questionable ‘heinous’ political gain forever damns it to the sewer of gutter opportunism. And, how blatantly obvious the leaders of that government made their intentions, too.

I propose that Stephen Harper be compelled to hand Canada’s settlement cheque to Omar Khadr during a July 1st celebration on Parliament Hill once the claim against his homeland has been resolved.

In the meantime, I encourage you to withdraw any objection to his parole status, and to support the action to have his conviction in the United States overturned.

Yours truly,

Charles H. Klassen
cc Stephen Harper – House of Commons
Steven Blaney – House of Commons
Ben Spurr – The Toronto Star

Given a better effort to locate a mailing address, we would have preferred to also send a copy of this letter to a previous justice minister, now The Honourable Mr. Justice Victor E. Toews of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench. His was a federal appointment under Harper’s government so we commiserate with Manitoba’s burden. It has been a pleasure to read, though, that Justice Toews’ salary is being garnisheed by Quebec for unpaid rent on accommodation in Gatineau while he was still in Ottawa.

Carding: no grave too deep!

turnoverarocktoday Policing

“(Carding) is a form of arbitrary detention contrary to section 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” André Marin, former Ontario Ombudsman

Back in the third week of September, the Peel Police Board, which includes the mayors of Mississauga and Brampton as members, instructed their police to suspend carding. But, Police Act restrictions do not give police boards the authority over operational functions, and Peel police chief Jennifer Evans refused to implement the ‘recommendation’.

That is but one recent example fueling the protests against carding, and which prompted Ontario’s CSCS minister Yasir Naqvi to announce on Thursday, October 22, that the practice would be illegal “by the end of fall.”

Well, not quite. The Toronto Star’s headline a week later read, “Random Carding – The End” heralding Ontario’s announcement of a strict set of regulations for the interaction of police with members of the community. In other words, administration but not elimination. Desmond Cole’s companion piece that day, “You can’t legislate police decency”, applauded the new policy but argued that this good start is only a beginning to protect marginalized people from abuses of power.

Both the Star and the Globe ran editorials the next day on October 30. The Globe’s “Don’t regulate carding. Just ban it”, was echoed by the Star’s “Good riddance to carding.”

As expected, by November 7, the Star was reporting that “Chiefs, officers push back against new carding rules.” Police were making a last-ditch effort of halt aspects of the province’s restrictions on street checks before they became law during the 45 day review period of the proposed legislation. What impact they have is pending.

Arguments are now made from different sources that what’s proposed are nothing more than ‘toothless political band-aids’, that the Police Act must be changed to empower civilian police boards to control operational procedures, and that police officers will continue to do as they wish, law or no law.

Only we can bury carding. That, and lots and lots and lots of cameras. Most people don’t know their rights, are too timid to speak up for themselves or others, and frequently believe they are not vulnerable to abuse. Those attitudes must change.

Remember, the People are sovereign in a democracy, police officers are first and always public servants, deserving of respect and good will, but in the end, we still pay for their underwear.

Great! But, will they comply?

turnoverarocktoday Justice & the Penal Systems

“Liberals to curtail solitary confinement” ran over Patrick White’s byline in the Globe and Mail’s Saturday, November 14 edition. The story was subtitled, “Trudeau directs Justice Minister ban long-term isolation and implement recommendations from inquest into Ashley Smith’s death.”

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society filed a January suit claiming solitary confinement contributes to prisoners’ deaths, indiscriminately targets mentally ill and aboriginal inmates, and is unconstitutional. Separately, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies also filed a lawsuit asserting the federal practice is unconstitutional.

Don Head, Correctional Service Canada Commissioner, denied federal prisons use ‘solitary confinement’ when he testified last March at a Senate Committee hearing into the death of Edward Snowshoe. Mr. Head is full of bovine excrement! A short letter copied below tells him so.

The move would bring Canada into line with guidelines set down by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the direction both the United Kingdom and the United States are taking. Needless to say, it also reverses the so-called ‘tough on crime’ agenda of the previous government.

“This is a good start,” according to Howard Sapers, our federal inmate ombudsman. But, like him, before we celebrate an end to our medieval penal practices under a new and enlightened Liberal government, let’s remember that while it is one thing to order change, it may be quite another for a sometimes obstreperous civil service to enthusiastically carry out those orders.

November 18, 2015

Don Head, Commissioner,
Correctional Service Canada,
340 Laurier Avenue West,
Ottawa, ON K1A 0P9

Re: Liberals to curtail solitary confinement
Globe and Mail, Saturday, November 18, 2015

Commissioner Head:

You testified at a Senate Committee hearing last March into the death of federal inmate Edward Snowshoe.

“The term ‘solitary confinement’, which has been used in the medial quite a bit, actually refers to something different than what we do in Canada,” you were quoted by the Globe as saying at this hearing.

Mr. Head, you are full of bovine excrement!

Very truly,

Charles H. Klassen

cc turnoverarocktoday.com