Public Safety Committee on June 9th, 2021

[Emilie Coyle, Executive Director, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies]

Thank you. I was looking forward to hearing the rest of Dr. Sprott's testimony.

I'm very grateful to be here today with all of you. It's a pleasure to see you all, and I'm grateful that you're working on this topic. You may know about the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, for which I am the executive director.

In the interest of time, I want to make sure that everyone here is aware that we work very closely with those who are serving federal sentences in all of the prisons designated for women across the country. You know that we've been asked to speak on three issues today that are impacting federally incarcerated people. While they're disparate in some ways, I think these issues are connected by power structures that are inherent in the prisons and a lack of transparency, which we were hearing about from Dr. Doob and Dr. Sprott, which are often facilitated by a lack of data collection and reporting.

I will begin today by speaking about the issue of sexual violence and coercion. I believe all the members of this committee will have received our brief ahead of this meeting, so I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I really do hope that you read it. The women, non-binary, trans and two-spirit people in federal prisons designated for women as you all know are some of the most under-resourced, underserved and under-protected people in our communities. They are people who are survivors of trauma and abuse, which is a fact that the Correctional Service of Canada has acknowledged and reported on, but we cannot underscore it enough in this context.

I'm sure you're also aware, because he appeared before you, that the Office of the Correctional Investigator released their annual report in October 2020, and it included a national investigation into sexual coercion and sexual violence. It was entitled, very appropriately, “A Culture of Silence”. We welcome their initiative in taking the first-ever systemic examination of the issue of sexual coercion and violence in Canadian federal prisons, and we agree that Canada is behind when it comes to addressing sexual violence behind bars.

However, while the investigation includes some anecdotal evidence around incidents of sexual violence and coercion involving the actions of CSC staff toward prisoners, this was not the focus of their investigation. It is the focus of mine, because the inherent power imbalance between a correctional officer and a prisoner cannot be overstated, and these harms must be included in further research and action.

We've been made aware over the years of numerous incidents of CSC employees engaging in sexual coercion or violence against prisoners in the prisons designated for women. You can read the details of some of the reported incidents in the brief that I referenced earlier. It is extremely concerning to us.

We also recognize that much of what we are sharing is anecdotal; and herein lies the problem. We're unable to provide a clear picture of sexual violence and coercion perpetrated by CSC staff in the federal prisons designated for women because further accurate and comprehensive data is not collected on this matter.

As you know, in the report, “A Culture of Silence”, the OCI found that “CSC does not publicly report on this problem, does not collect, record or track statistics and has never conducted research in this area.” In this, I am reminded, as I'm sure all of you are, of the power dynamics and the culture of silence that has been exposed in the current investigation into sexual misconduct in the Canadian military. It begs the question: Is this a clear example of apathy on the part of CSC, or a concerted effort to use a lack of transparency to skirt accountability?

So far I've touched on the unsanctioned sexual violence and coercion that happens in the prisons designated for women. However, there are also ways in which CSC sanctions sexual assault, namely through the use of strip searches.

It is well documented that strip searches are traumatizing and harmful. The Supreme Court of Canada has described the practice of strip searching as “inherently humiliating and degrading”. For those who have experienced sexual violence, strip searches are experienced as an act of sexualized violence. The OCI has found that by definition, “a random strip search is beyond the reach of any legal or constitutional standard of suspicion, reasonableness or necessity.” It may not surprise you that CSC does not track or publicly report on the [Technical difficulty—Editor] strip searches meeting the stated objective of preventing contraband from entering the prisons.

To conclude my remarks on this issue, the power structures inherent in institutions like prisons, and the lack of transparency related to data keeping have resulted in opportunities for people to be further harmed by sexual violence while in prison.

I'm speaking very quickly. I'm trying to keep to my time.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

You have two minutes.

[Emilie Coyle]

Now I'll go to my comments on COVID-19.

During COVID-19, there has been less CSC oversight than ever, making prisoners even more vulnerable to abuse. This lack of oversight, we believe, has contributed to unacceptable and unlawful conditions of confinement during COVID-19 that were certainly not contemplated or foreseen by the courts at the time of sentencing of most of the prisoners.

From the very beginning of the pandemic, CAEFS, our organization, joined the calls of prisoners, prisoners' families, prisoner rights groups, academics, politicians, lawyers, health care experts and other NGOs, like the John Howard Society, which I believe you will hear from in the next hour or perhaps next half hour, to depopulate the prisons as quickly as possible. This was following the advice of the World Health Organization and actions taken by other states to keep people in prison safe. These calls were not heeded, and it resulted in prisoners being kept in torturous conditions of confinement and further exposed to the deadly virus.

We have documented conditions of confinement that have been implemented at different times for varying lengths of time throughout the last year and a half, which I can't go into because of time, but I will answer any questions you may have about them.

A commonality in the conditions is this restriction of access to mechanisms that support the well-being of prisoners, their timely release and CSC oversight. We are concerned that the conditions under which people have been held have not been to protect their health but rather for the operational convenience of CSC. All of this could have been prevented if the prisons had taken the calls for depopulation seriously and had taken swift action. CSC's operational restrictions cannot and must not be downloaded to restrict the rights and the well-being of prisoners.

Finally, with regard to the structured intervention units, I will try to be very brief, as you have the experts in the room here today, on the lack of transparency, clarity and reporting. We support all the findings of the reports put out by Dr. Doob and Dr. Sprott.

Since the changes to the CCRA through Bill C-83, we have observed that the unconstitutional practice of segregation, often colloquially referred to as solitary confinement, is ongoing. Prisoners are still experiencing the same human rights violations as they were prior to the court rulings of 2019.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

If you could just wind it up....

[Emilie Coyle]

I'll wrap up. This is it. I'm wrapping up.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you.

[Emilie Coyle]

In addition, CSC employs a myriad of other segregation methods to isolate prisoners for unregulated periods of time. I think this is what Dr. Doob was referring to.

I just want to say that we must continue to be guided by the principle that human rights are not just abstract or theoretical. We cannot simply say that someone has a right without then developing and ensuring a functioning process that enables that person to access and protect that right.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, I'm in your hands. Normally, we would go to a round of questions and then call in the other two witnesses, but what I'm afraid of is that the other two witnesses may not ever be heard from because of the time constraints we have.

I want to see if there's an appetite to call on the other two witnesses now and then have one round of questions. We do have a hard stop at 7:10 p.m. I believe that's correct.

Is that true, Mr. Clerk?

[The Clerk]

Yes, that is true.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Mr. Harris.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I would agree that we should call in the other witnesses, but I would also like to move a motion that we continue this study in the week of June 14.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We're going to have to deal with that. If we're going to deal with this at all today—hear these witnesses—we're not going to be able to deal with the motion, even though the motion is in order.

Mr. Clerk, if you could admit the other two witnesses, that would be appreciated.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, may I recommend that you suspend for two minutes while I proceed to sound checks with the witnesses?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Okay.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Can we deal with that motion during this meeting at some point? It's relevant, and it's in order.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

It's in order and it's relevant to the study. The concern is that we're running through time.

[Jack Harris, NDP, St. John's East, NL]

We can't deal with it while the sound checks are going on, I take it?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

No. I don't think so.

Can we move those sound checks ahead?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We are back.

I'll ask Ms. Latimer to speak for her seven minutes, and then Mr. Wilkins for his seven minutes. We'll see where that leaves us as far as members asking questions is concerned.

Ms. Latimer, you have seven minutes, please.

[Catherine Latimer, Executive Director, John Howard Society of Canada]

Thank you, Chair, and committee members. It's good to be here.

There are very few words to describe the current state of corrections in Canada today. Crisis, lawless, unaccountable and tragic would be some of them. In my 30 years as a lawyer I have never seen failings of this magnitude.

Let's start with COVID. In March 2020, CSC assured stakeholders that it was “prepared to handle any cases of influenza or other respiratory illness, such as COVID-19.” Reliance on its influenza strategy soon proved no match for a virus that we knew was far more contagious and deadly than the flu. Epidemiologists from around the world were calling for the safe depopulation of prisons, particularly for those who were medically vulnerable, but this did not happen in the federal corrections system.

Instead, CSC chose to combat COVID with extreme isolation: no activity, no family, no books, no programming, no contact—complete isolation. Inadequate consideration was given to the severe mental health impacts these lockdowns have caused. CSC might claim that these measures were required by public health officials, but ultimately CSC was the decision-maker, and it should have known that Canadian courts have found that this type of extreme, cruel isolation violates prisoners' rights and is prohibited by international human rights documents.

While CSC assured us that everything was under control, its own records show quite the opposite. December 2020 correspondence from the warden at Saskatchewan Penitentiary showed that prisoners had suicide and starvation pacts. Correctional officers kept COVID-positive prisoners in the general population and simply hung flammable shower curtains around their cells to separate them from non-COVID prisoners. This was a formula for spreading the virus.

On December 24, the same institution said, “The health and safety of our employees, offenders, and the public remains our top priority during this public health pandemic.” Further inconsistencies are revealed in internal documents, from wardens telling correctional officers to ignore the advice of health authorities, to wardens telling prisoners that correctional officers do not need to wear masks. We have lots of documented inconsistencies that we would be happy to share.

Prisoners were generally not consulted about what steps should be taken to protect their health. When protests arose, usually about correctional officers failing to wear PPE, significant force was brought to bear: concussion grenades in one case and rubber bullets in another. The correctional investigator, Ivan Zinger, in his second update on COVID in June 2020, stated, “Some of these restrictions reach beyond measures or controls contemplated in either domestic or international law. Public health emergencies must be managed within a legal framework. Rights need to be respected and restored.”

I agree with Dr. Zinger. Rights were violated and legal limits were exceeded in CSC's approach to the pandemic.

In the end, COVID-19 technically decimated the federal prison population, with more than 10% contracting the disease, six deaths and unquantified enduring health complications.

The Liberal Party made a commitment, a campaign commitment, to implement Ashley Smith's coroner's recommendation, which included limiting solitary confinement to 15 days. In 2018, administrative segregation was ruled unconstitutional in Canada as violating charter rights.

In 2019, we were told that abusive solitary confinement had ended and was being replaced by structured intervention units, where prisoners would be out of their cells for four hours a day with two hours of meaningful human contact. As we learned from Dr. Doob and Dr. Sprott, this is not happening.

Among the significant problems that have been identified, the structured intervention units are not delivering the measures the government promised they would, and 10% of the placements in structured intervention units experience the same prolonged solitary confinement condition that the courts found violated charter rights that are defined in international human rights documents as a form of torture. Yes, Canadians are being tortured by state officials.

Minister Blair accepted these findings before this committee, yet the government has not directed CSC to stop placing people in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days.

Section 4 of the Department of Justice Act requires the Minister of Justice to see that the administration of public affairs is consistent with the laws. The Department of Justice has lost litigation in class action lawsuits on the basis that prolonged solitary confinement violates prisoners' charter rights.

The publication of the Doob and Sprott report last February should have signalled to the Minister of Justice or his staff that CSC was not administering public affairs in a manner consistent with the charter. He has not acted on his statutory obligations. This tolerance for the torture of Canadian prisoners should shock the conscience of us all and needs to stop immediately.

I'm delighted that the committee has agreed that the disclosures from CSC that are required will be made public. There is a profound public interest to know how this dire situation arose and has been allowed to persist: why 44% of SIU prisons are indigenous and 18% are Black; why Canada chooses to ignore international human rights standards, like the Nelson Mandela Rules, yet calls on other countries, like China, to respect those rules in relation to the treatment of the two Michaels; whether, as many feared, the SIUs are simply solitary confinement renamed, as the commissioner herself said in response to the Doob and Sprott finding of torture in the SIUs. She said, “I always stress with staff the importance of speaking of structured intervention units and not administrative segregation/solitary confinement.”

Whatever it is labelled, wherever it is occurring in the federal correction system, keeping prisoners in their cells for more than 22 hours without meaningful human contact is solitary confinement, and such confinement for more than 15 days is prohibited as a form of torture and a charter violation. It must end.

I know I'm running short on time so I'm going to be quick.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

You have 30 seconds, please.

[Catherine Latimer]

Regarding violence, images are more powerful. I would encourage everyone to take a look at the recently released video of the Black prisoner who was assaulted at Millhaven institution. I'd be happy to answer any questions on that.

In conclusion, the failure of the Correctional Service of Canada to respect the spirit of the charter and the findings against prolonged solitary confinement and the international minimum standards that prohibit the form of confinement is shocking. While this confinement has been worsened by COVID, not even a pandemic can justify the rights abuses we have seen over the last year.

I hope this committee will support the public's petition for a judicial inquiry into this fiasco which the government is required to answer by June 26.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Ms. Latimer.

Mr. Wilkins, you have seven minutes, please.

[Jeff Wilkins, National President, Union of Canadian Correctional Officers]

Thank you and good evening, Mr. Chair and the members of this committee.

I'm Jeff Wilkins, the national president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

I'm going to focus my opening statement more on the first part of the what the committee is looking into, and that's the current situation in federal prisons in relation to the Correctional Service response to COVID-19, but I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have with regard to the structured intervention units or the reports of sexual coercion and violence in Canadian prisons.

I'd first like to express my pride in representing such an incredible group of professionals, the correctional officers of Canada, who have worked through this pandemic with pride, who have sacrificed their own health and safety in their mandate to protect the Canadian public, and who all too often are unrecognized for the vitally important role they play in the criminal justice system.

Over the last 15 months, our members have been on the front lines battling this pandemic and performing the duties of all first responder groups. Arguably, one of the most dangerous occupations in the country is that of a correctional officer, and the global pandemic only increased the danger for our members. While countless public servants were sent home and workplaces were closed, our members continued to don their uniforms and enter the institutions.

Over the last 15 months, there have been significant outbreaks within institutions in every region except the Atlantic region. In recent statistics, it is known that there have been approximately 5,000 reported cases of COVID among federal public servants of the core public administration. Correctional officers represent nearly 450 of those cases, meaning that our members represent approximately 10% of the recorded cases of the entire public service. That's interesting when you calculate that our membership represents only 2% of the core public administration. Furthermore, our members were unable to telework, so our rates of infection were, for the most part, a result of work.

The waves of this pandemic resulted in a turbulent wake that some institutions are going to feel the effects of for years to come. We saw cases where the workforce of correctional officers was depleted in some of our institutions to about 30%. Forced overtime became a reality for our members in many of our institutions.

The pandemic choked the induction training programs for new correctional officers entering the service, just when that relief was needed. When restrictions began to lift after the first wave, the service scrambled to try to put on as many correctional officer training programs as they could; however, we're still behind, and our members will face another summer where forced overtime will be a reality.

UCCO-SACC-CSN was encouraged at the beginning of this pandemic when virtually all provinces moved to strengthen the front lines by providing a hazard allowance, while also creating and promoting morally inspiring messages about those working on the front lines. For those who stepped into the line of fire, it is both important to reward that bravery and to provide messages of thanks, respect and encouragement. Rightfully, front-line workers have been portrayed as heroes across this country, and I would like to highlight to this committee that the members of UCCO-SACC-CSN, Canada's federal correctional officers, are heroes as well.

The heroes I represent have not made the spotlight of recognition. Nowhere have I witnessed a message of thanks for the correctional officer. Since the beginning of this pandemic, UCCO-SACC-CSN has been asking about that recognition in the form of a hazard allowance from this government to help encourage and recognize the work being performed for the public. Unfortunately, the government has not moved in a direction to recognize this. However, this government does remain committed to subsidizing the provinces to recognize the essential workers in their jurisdiction. For the members of UCCO-SACC-CSN, this failure is demoralizing.

This pandemic has brought on many challenges for corrections, to say the least. The very nature of a penitentiary is to provide control by restricting movements and associations, while working to rehabilitate the population to become law-abiding citizens. Ironically, the way to control the spread of a pandemic in civil society is also to restrict movements and associations. Our institutions are essentially communal living facilities, not much different from long-term care homes. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it's how quickly the virus can spread in places where there's an inability to create individual space.

Of course, the population in our structured intervention units, our SIUs, has also been affected. The SIU model, which replaced segregation in November 2019, can only be assessed based on the four months it was running before the pandemic took hold in March. Though the members of UCCO-SACC-CSN and other institutional staff have worked tirelessly to meet the mandate set forth in the CCRA, it has proven extremely difficult to do with the necessary institutional restrictions.

UCCO-SACC-CSN has been vocal on many fronts with our employer, as well as the government, throughout this pandemic. We have raised and debated everything from personal protective equipment to leave restrictions, institutional routine change, risk mitigation strategies, vaccination priority, hazard pay and now, obviously, the work being done to return to normal routines.

As COVID fades into our history, we'll always need to be aware of the devastation that comes with a pandemic of this magnitude and be prepared for a future crisis.

As we come out of this pandemic, proper attention needs to be given to the mental health of our first responders and essential workers, who have made sacrifices for the public. Essentially, a battle has been waged against this virus since March 2020. All of those who have been on the front line, as well as those helping to stop the spread by following public health orders, are tired, physically and mentally. Mental health will need to be on the forefront of any agenda moving forward.

I thank you for the opportunity to make this opening statement, and I welcome any questions from the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Wilkins.

Colleagues, we have about 15 minutes left before our hard stop.

We're going to be able to do only one round of questions. I'm proposing that it be four minutes for each party, starting with Mr. Van Popta. I see it was scheduled to be Ms. Damoff, but I'm assuming Madam Khera is taking her place. I see Madam Normandin is in, and I welcome her to the committee. We will finish up with Mr. Harris.

With that, for four minutes, go ahead, Mr. Van Popta.