The office was first established after a commission of inquiry into a riot at Kingston Penitentiary in 1971. It was established to address the findings of that inquiry, which in part concluded that the riot, which led to loss of life and massive property destruction, was ignited by the pent-up frustration of there being an inadequate and dysfunctional process for addressing legitimate concerns and grievances of the inmate population.
Parliament created the Office of the Correctional Investigator, first as a commission of inquiry under the Inquiries Act, and subsequently, post-charter, entrenched in law as an ombudsman for federal offenders, reporting to Parliament on maladministration within the Correctional Service of Canada and addressing the concerns of offenders.
That statutory authority—