Correctional Service Canada is trying to update its inmate tracking system, while the panel tasked to study solitary confinement is still waiting for any usable information
When it comes to protecting some of the most vulnerable—prisoners and asylum seekers—Canada is not taking any extraordinary measures
The coroner’s report on Soleiman Faqiri’s death in an Ontario prison has finally arrived. It’s long on gruesome detail and short on accountability.
Soleiman Faqiri, who died after a confrontation with prison guards, is just the latest case of an inmate with mental illness dying inside a Canadian prison
It should be easier to search inmates and visitors, say regulations introduced Friday
A review of ‘Inferno: An Anatomy of Punishment’ by Robert A. Ferguson
‘The deeply embedded nastiness of the current governing party’
The Commons: The Public Safety Minister makes himself clear
Bob Rae holds the House with questions about Ashley Smith
Irwin Cotler criticizes the Harper government’s decision to cut prison chaplains.
Prison inmates will now only be served by Christian chaplains.
Inmates of other faiths, such as Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, will be expected to turn to Christian prison chaplains for religious counsel and guidance, according to the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is also responsible for Canada’s penitentiaries. Toews made headlines in September when he ordered the cancellation of a tender issued for a Wiccan priest for federal prisons in B.C.
Toews said he wasn’t convinced part-time chaplains from other religions were an appropriate use of taxpayer money and that he would review the policy. In an email to CBC News, Toews’ office says that as a result of the review, the part-time non-Christian chaplains will be let go and the remaining full-time Christian chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates. “The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … [Christian] chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths.”
Prison guards are planning to protest outside the Prime Minister’s constituency office.