Mr. Speaker, investigative journalist Michael Harris has produced facts, figures and quotes in his rather scathing indictment of our correctional system.
The solicitor general and the commissioner of Correctional Service of Canada's only response to these alarming revelations is to malign the author of the powerful book Con Game . Dismissing the book as “full of half truths and outrageous statements”, the solicitor general is turning a blind eye to scary realities within Canada's prisons, realities that are resulting in death and serious harm to individuals both inside and outside prison walls.
I implore the solicitor general to immediately call for a royal commission to either dispel or prove the many disturbing allegations that convincingly demonstrate that our prisons are “awash with drugs and alcohol, violent and frighteningly unaccountable” behaviour because they are places “where the criminal is king.”