Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members. Thank you very much for the invitation to appear before your committee. Today I will provide you a briefing on my 2019-20 annual report, which was tabled in Parliament last week on October 27.
I will try to keep my opening remarks as brief as possible. I'll focus on two national-level investigations featured in my report, including sexual coercion and violence in federal corrections and learning behind bars.
Before I get into the substance of my remarks, first allow me to say a few words about my office and mandate. As the ombudsman for federal corrections, my job is to investigate, from the law, “problems or complaints of offenders related to decisions, acts or omissions of the Service”. I am independent and impartial, and I am not a prisoners' rights advocate. When my staff investigate, we look for compliance with the law and fair decision-making.
The issues highlighted in my latest annual reports point to significant gaps in how the Correctional Service of Canada meets its legal and policy obligations.
On the issue of sexual coercion and violence behind bars, for instance, my office found that sexual victimization exists in the shadows of penitentiaries and is largely dismissed as an inevitable consequence of incarceration. We found that sexual violence is a pervasive but under-reported problem in federal prisons. Victims do not report their experiences of abuse, as there are too many disincentives and risks associated with disclosure. Many are afraid to report, fearing retaliation, retribution or re-victimization by the perpetrators. They face the risk of not being believed, of being ridiculed or even of being punished for reporting coerced sex. Many victims are survivors of previous abuse and feel guilt and shame.
In responding to my report, the Government of Canada and the Correctional Service issued public statements assuring Canadians that they take this issue “very seriously” and that the Correctional Service has a “zero-tolerance“ approach to sexual coercion and violence.
I want to be clear and forthright with the members of this committee. In conducting this investigation, my office found no evidence to support claims that the Correctional Service of Canada endorses or has adopted a zero-tolerance approach to sexual coercion and violence behind bars. To the contrary, we found a culture of silence and organizational indifference. Indeed, CSC appears to take this absence of evidence as evidence of the absence of a problem.
The agency has never conducted any research or prevalence studies in this area of corrections. There is no stand-alone policy to guide how staff are expected to respond or prevent sexual victimization. The only policy guidance in existence is buried in appendix 7 of “Guidelines on Sexually Transmitted Infections”, which is directed to nursing staff.
There is no specific national program, initiative or office of primary interest at CSC national headquarters aimed at preventing sexual coercion and violence.
There are no mandatory requirements for the Correctional Service of Canada to publicly report on incidents of sexual violence behind bars. Consequently, most incidents are not investigated by correctional authorities, and rarely or never do they reach the courts.
CSC has no strategy to protect vulnerable groups or persons who are disproportionately victimized behind bars, including LGBTQ+, women, and those with a history of trauma and abuse, disability or mental health issues.
There is no coordinated or centralized approach to detect, flag, track or manage repeat or chronic perpetrators of sexual violence. We found that alleged perpetrators were often simply shuffled around the institution or involuntarily transferred to another facility.
In light of these findings, I made three key recommendations that would give practical effect to a zero-tolerance approach in preventing, detecting and responding to sexual abuse and violence behind bars.
I called for legislation that would make public reporting in this area mandatory, similar to the United States Prison Rape Elimination Act, which was introduced almost 20 years ago.
I asked the minister to fund a national incidence and prevalence study to be conducted by a fully independent expert.
Finally, until legislation is passed, I call on the Correctional Service of Canada to proactively develop a comprehensive commissioner's directive that would provide staff with direction on how to prevent, detect and respond to incidents of sexual coercion and violence.
I am pleased that the Minister of Public Safety has requested that this committee conduct a study of sexual coercion and violence in Canadian prisons, including examining legislation that is in effect in other jurisdictions. I sincerely hope that you will accept this request, conduct a timely study and produce a public report that would provide Canada with a legislative road map for eradicating all forms of sexual victimization and abuse in our prison system.
The investigation into learning behind bars looked at access to education and skills training in the federal correctional system.
What is important to note from this study is that Canada is falling further and further behind the rest of the industrialized world in terms of digital learning and skills training behind bars. There are increasing signs of decline, given that little action has been taken to implement dozens of my office's previous recommendations in this area.
Inmates in federal custody do not have access to monitored email, tablets, or supervised use of the Internet. A moratorium prohibiting offenders from bringing a personal computer into a federal institution or purchasing one has been in place since 2002, almost 20 years ago.
Schooling behind bars relies mainly on paper and pens. Textbooks are outdated and libraries are under-resourced. There are virtually no opportunities to pursue post-secondary education...