Proceeding of the Standing Senate Committee on
Human Rights
Issue No. 22 - Evidence - Meeting of October 25, 2017
OTTAWA, Wednesday, October 25, 2017
The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights met this day at 11:31 a.m. to study the issues relating to the human rights of prisoners in the correctional system.
Senator Jim Munson (Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Chair: Welcome to the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights. We can now see Mr. Wright on our video conference.
[Translation]
Before we begin, I would like all the senators to introduce themselves.
[English]
We will begin with the deputy chair.
Senator Ataullahjan: Salma Ataullahjan from Ontario.
Senator Eaton: Nicole Eaton from Ontario.
Senator Andreychuk: Senator Andreychuk, Saskatchewan.
Senator Pate: Kim Pate, Ontario.
Senator Hartling: Nancy Hartling from New Brunswick.
Senator Bernard: Wanda Thomas Bernard from Nova Scotia.
Hello, Robert.
The Chair: I am Senator Munson. We are doing our study, for the audience’s knowledge, on the human rights of prisoners in the correctional system. We have been at this for some time. We will have an interim report out soon, and we hope to have a full report by the spring or summer of next year.
Our guests today, from the African Canadian Legal Clinic, are Tamara Thomas, Policy and Research Lawyer; and Matthew Boissonneault, Research Student.
As an individual, we have Robert Wright. Robert, we will start with you because we are always worried about video conferencing. We know you will stay with us for the duration, but please start the testimony this morning.
The floor is yours, sir.
Robert Wright, as an individual: Certainly. I don’t know how to start formally, so let me say good morning, senators and guests. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about the human rights of prisoners in Canada’s correctional system.
By way of introduction and context, I wanted to share the types of things that I have been involved in. This is not so much to peruse my resumé with you but, rather, to clearly identify for the committee initiatives that I have been studying; in particular, the mental health service delivery needs of people of African descent have been alive and well for a long time. And we know a significant amount about that.
I’m a clinical social worker whose 28-year career has spanned the fields of education, child welfare, race relations, correctional mental health and higher education. And I have even done a stint in government service delivery. I am an African-Nova Scotian practitioner who, in the early 1990s, was part of a small team of individuals who conceived and implemented an Afrocentric substance abuse prevention program in Halifax.
I mention that because it is important to know that for many decades — in fact, as early as the 1950s — we have known that patterns of addiction and substance abuse and use are different around racial and ethnic lines. Of course, our earliest studies into that were related to what I would like to refer to as White ethnics. In the earlier part of the Industrial Revolution, where we started to become concerned about the effects of addiction on productivity, people studied how is it that Irish people versus Italian people versus Jewish versus Scottish people show up impaired Monday morning at work? That research has expanded to include people of African descent, Latinos and others.
Knowing substance abuse and trafficking patterns differed among different groups, in the early 1990s we constructed an Afrocentric specific substance abuse prevention program. That program was picked up, and elements of it were delivered here in Ontario and different places. I am not sure whether it continues, however.
I served as a race relations coordinator for the former Dartmouth School Board and was the third person to serve in a role like that. Our knowledge of racism and the disadvantaged people of African descent in education is well established. In Nova Scotia, we had the BLAC Report, which detailed that in great detail. From that time until this, under the mentorship of Dr. Edward Nichols, I have worked to hone my practice around the field of cultural competence and culturally specific mental health service delivery.
To that end, I served on a subcommittee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada that studied the provision of mental health services for immigrant, refugee, ethnocultural and racialized groups. That work occurred under the leadership of Dr. Kwame McKenzie from CAMH. Its resulting report, Issues and Options for Improving Services for Diverse Populations, has yet to achieve the legs that the authors hoped it would — legs that would help us establish centres of excellence and networks across the country that would improve mental health service delivery for racialized people in Canada.
After the commission did its study, Nova Scotia did a similar study of its mental health and service delivery system and also found that in service delivery to racialized peoples, the status was dreadful and woeful. I was drafted, with a small group of colleagues, to develop an initiative to solve that problem. That work is ongoing, and it is an Afrocentric mental health service delivery improvement program that we have been involved in.
Most recently, in the summer of 2011, I was part of a small group that continued to operate under the title of the Afrikan Canadian Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. In 2011, we convened to discuss the very question you are studying today about the human rights of Black inmates within the Canadian federal system of corrections. Our work was specifically around this question: Does the inadequacy of mental health service delivery constitute a human rights violation to federal inmates?
It is very notable that that conversation, under the leadership of Sandi Bell, then a commissioner of the federal commission, was a rich conversation that netted some interesting observations. Perhaps one of the most important things was that the Office of the Correctional Investigator had an observer in those meetings who went back to the office, and it was then that OCI said, “Goodness, we haven’t really studied the status of Black inmates in almost 10 years. We should do that.” So the OCI did that, and in 2013, in its report, it highlighted diversity in corrections as a significant issue and talked significantly about the conditions of Black inmates.
In addition to all of that, you may be aware or not that I have also been part of a team of two clinicians who have been working to develop a model, completing impact-of-race-and-culture assessment reports in the courts that were in the process of sentencing Black inmates, to assist courts to make more just decisions and just sentences relating to Black inmates, having more contextualized and richer sociocultural context of the Black offender. In fact, that is why I am in Toronto today video conferencing with you from here instead of from my home in Nova Scotia.
I say all of this to say this: The question of mental health service delivery in Canada and how it is inadequate for racialized peoples has been well established. If we go back to the Donald Marshall inquiry and studies of similar cases, it’s clear, even in the OCI report of 2013, that systemic racism permeates our justice and corrections systems, from first contact with police in the street to integration into community. This systemic racism has a unique presentation or representation as it relates to people of African descent and indigenous people. We are speaking specifically about anti-Black racism that exists in our corrections systems and justice systems, as well as anti-indigenous racism.
This disproportionality that is the result of this anti-Black and anti-indigenous racism that exists is, I believe, the de facto evidence that the human rights of Black folk are in jeopardy or have been violated. I don’t come to debate that question; for me, it is a given. The nature of systemic racism and the disproportionate treatment that African Canadians have within the correctional system are the prima facie evidence of the human rights violations against Black inmates that are occurring in our system.
We could go to the OCI report and take a look at that, as well as similar studies. What do we know? We know that Black inmates are dramatically overrepresented in the federal penal system. We know that the increase in peoples who have been incarcerated in Canada over the last 10 years is accounted for completely by the dramatic increase in incarceration of racialized and indigenous people in Canada, because there has been a numerical decrease in the number of White people in our federal system.
We know from other studies that Blacks who are incarcerated end up with longer sentences than their White counterparts for equivalent crimes. We know they spend longer periods of time in classification units and end up with higher levels of security. As they participate in programming designed to improve their circumstances and result in reduced security levels, we know that the stepping down from higher levels to lower levels of security is a slower process than it is for White inmates. We also know that they tend to spend more time of their sentence behind bars and less of it in the community than their White counterparts.
Having said all of this, the OCI report also recognizes that Black inmates have a lower recidivism rate than their White counterparts. One could look at that and perhaps consider the possibility that it’s because all of that correctional programming is doing wonders for Black inmates, but I think the opposite is true. The truth is that Black inmates are often less criminalized and less pathological to begin with. So after their stint in incarceration, despite some of the negative consequences that can happen to Black inmates, they are discharged and end up with lower recidivism rates.
I would go, then, quickly to the question, what do we do? If we accept that the overrepresentation and the statistics that demonstrate that Black inmates have a harder time of it in prison than their White counterparts — and I don’t need to reiterate for this committee the OCI report of 2013 — then I would like to spend just a few minutes asking what we might do.
There are a number of things. When we think about the solutions, not to be too alliterative, but there are things that come to mind. We need better policies. The CSC has been working on policies related to cultural competence, or rather, the service delivery to Black inmates who are incarcerated. I know the ethnocultural advisory committees that exist have been addressing this with increased fervour in recent months. I have been in touch with both national and regional chairs to that end.
We need policy, but we also need programs. I always point out that as our penal system has professionalized, we have depended on professionals to deliver correctional programming. We have professional doctors, nurses and psychiatrists delivering health and mental health services. We have professional educators and programmers.
However, in the area of ethnocultural programming, it seems we are still overly dependent on volunteers. CSC really hasn’t figured out how to craft and develop substantive programming meant to meet the specific treatment and programming needs of racialized inmates, in particular inmates of African descent. Although the knowledge around Afrocentric substance abuse and treatment exists, and Afrocentric health delivery models exist, we have not risen to the challenge of aggressively pursuing that within our institutions.
Policies, programs and I would say, finally, personnel. I have been around long enough to realize that we don’t have enough Black professionals to adequately and proportionately populate every program and every institution into which we deliver, but there has been a call certainly from the Mental Health Commission of Canada to establish a national centre of excellence as it relates to the mental health service delivery to racial, ethnic and immigrant populations. It would be important for CSC to develop a similar model of having centres of excellence in mental health service delivery to racialized and, in particular, Black African inmates.
The Chair: Mr. Wright, we will have a lot of questions in this conversation, and we have other witnesses here. Do you want to wrap up this portion?
Mr. Wright: Yes. I will make one last comment, and then I will go to questions.
The final area is proficiency. We really need to focus on the science of mental health and programming service delivery to African Canadians.
It is about policies, programs, personnel and proficiency. Those would be my suggestions. The recommendations for all of these things exist already in the issues and options paper, the OCI’s report and even going back as far as the Marshall inquiry.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Mr. Wright, for the strong insights we can use in our report.
Next, from the African Canadian Legal Clinic, we have Tamara Thomas, policy and research lawyer, who is joined by Matthew Boissonneault. You have the floor. We will go to questions after your opening remarks. Thanks for being here.
Tamara Thomas, Policy and Research Lawyer, African Canadian Legal Clinic: Thank you. Good morning, chair and committee members.
To start, I will say that our submissions today will complement those of Mr. Wright’s nicely. We endorse everything that he said.
This morning, Mr. Boissonneault and I are appearing on behalf of the African Canadian Legal Clinic, which will be referred to as the ACLC. It is a not-for-profit organization that has combatted systemic anti-Black racism and discrimination in Canada since its establishment in 1994.
We would first like to thank the committee for its commitment to improving and protecting the human rights of Canada’s prisoners, which is an area of particular importance to our clinic. Canada’s Black community is severely over-incarcerated, and there is a profound absence of culturally appropriate rehabilitative programming available to Black prisoners once their sentences begin. Time served by African Canadians amounts to “dead time” in which they are denied any opportunity for personal or professional development, which often can result in recidivism.
Today we are making two main recommendations: first, that sections 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, the CCRA, present an opportunity for African Canadians to benefit from culturally specific, community-based correctional initiatives. We therefore recommend the utilization of community-based wraparound services and reintegration programs similar to the alternatives to incarceration advanced by indigenous communities, to be funded by the ministry pursuant to section 81 of the CCRA.
These services will allow for the incremental decarceration of Black prisoners, allowing them to serve a component of their sentence in their community with both active support from social service providers and training programs directed toward cultivating their human potential. For those prisoners who are neither high risk nor public safety concerns, sentences can be entirely served through such community-based alternatives.
For those prisoners who serve the entirety of their sentences in institutions and who are continuously failed by the currently available rehabilitative programming and services, we recommend an investment into culturally appropriate and practically focused rehabilitation and reintegration programming.
We will be providing a brief statistical overview of the situation that African Canadians in federal institutions face. The ACLC is concerned with both the overrepresentation of African Canadians in correctional institutions and the qualitative deficits faced by Black people who are housed in such institutions. Despite representing only 3 per cent of Canada’s population, African Canadians account for 9.5 per cent of federal inmates. This is unsurprising when considering the 80 per cent increase in Black federal inmates between 2003 and 2013.
There has also been a drastic increase in the number of female Black federal inmates — up by 54 per cent in 2010 and by 28 per cent in 2011. These numbers continue to rise quickly.
It is particularly concerning that half of the Black inmates are aged 30 or younger and that the percentage of Black youth being held in correctional facilities is four times their representation in Canada’s general youth population.
Additionally, Black inmates generally fare worse in the rehabilitative programs currently offered. They are 1.5 times more likely to be incarcerated in facilities where programing, employment, education, rehabilitation and social activities are limited. They are considerably less likely to be employed in CORCAN industries, and they are severely underemployed within institutions. While the general prison unemployment rate in 2014 was 1.5 per cent, it was 7 per cent for African Canadians.
However, research demonstrates that African Canadian inmates experience considerably more success in their reintegration in terms of employment and preventing recidivism when they receive culturally specific, multi-level interventions.
The report by the Office of the Correctional Investigator in 2014 stated that:
. . . opportunities to work, volunteer and participate meaningfully in the community were central to helping offenders return to the community without reoffending.
A key area of concern for the ACLC is the mental health of Black inmates. People with mental health differences do not belong in prisons. Nevertheless, mental health differences continue to be prevalent in inmate populations. Thirteen per cent of federal inmates have mental health issues and up to 60 per cent have substance abuse disorders. The Black population shoulders a disproportionate share of these problems.
Former inmates face the highest risk for relapse in the immediate post-release period. While factors that contribute to relapse include a lack of social support, medical co-morbidities and limited economic resources, factors that protect against relapse include family support, drug treatment programs, spirituality or religiousness and access to community resources.
The ACLC strongly encourages that those with mental health differences be removed entirely from the prison experience and transferred to hospitals or facilities that are specifically designed to work with them and for them. This is consistent with subsection 29(b) of the CCRA. Prison is the last place a person in crisis should be sent to address the difficulties they are facing as a result of their mental health differences.
It is clear that the correctional system is failing Black people in this country. To begin moving in the right direction, there must be a systemic investment into community-based alternatives to prison. Specifically, the ACLC endorses and is willing to help facilitate the implementation of community-based wraparound services and supports for Black federal inmates. Examples of these services include employment and job readiness training, substance use counselling, family counselling, housing supports and general life skills rehabilitative programming.
Attention should be paid to national and international hub models, which incorporate multiple social service providers under a single banner, thereby offering collaborative support to vulnerable, at-risk individuals.
There must also be an investment in the creation of culturally diverse and relevant programming within prisons. The ACLC and other service providers are routinely denied access to correctional facilities when attempting to provide such programming. In order to reduce the current service deficits, more must be done to increase the access of external service providers to these prisons.
What would this look like in practice? For example, the ACLC operates a host of social programs designed to service Ontario’s Black community. Of particular importance is its Employment Skills Job Readiness Program, or ESJRP, which was implemented as a pilot project in 2014-15 in Maplehurst and the Toronto South Detention Centre. This program teaches essential employability and life skills and connects its graduates to paid apprenticeships and employment with union partners and private employers. The pilot program achieved an 88 per cent success rate, and that is defined as those individuals who secured employment, secured a paid apprenticeship or were streamlined into pre-apprenticeship training.
Every day the ACLC receives calls from incarcerated men and women whose human rights are systemically neglected. The institutional over-incarceration of Black bodies aggravates the stigma that Black people are criminally inclined and deserving of less respect and more fear than their fellow Canadians. Cultural programming can help reduce the stigma and break the cycle of reincarceration resulting in negative socio-economic outcomes. It will provide Black prisoners with the equal rights and opportunities they are currently not afforded.
In conclusion, thank you again for your time and for your dedication to engaging in this often neglected but troubling issue. We welcome any questions you may have.
The Chair: Thank you very much for your testimony.
Senator Eaton: I wish to address the person on the screen, Mr. Wright.
I gather you were a mental health consultant in a prison. I would also like to pursue what you said about perhaps not having enough Black policemen, prison guards, judges and lawyers. Are there 20 per cent? Is there a shortage of 50 per cent? Do you have any idea of the numbers that are needed to bring people on that might be more culturally sensitive to Black inmates?
Can you also address specific barriers, based on your experience in prison and on the street, to treatment for addiction that would be specific to Black offenders?
Mr. Wright: Certainly, Senator Eaton. In terms of experience in the institutions, I did my clinical training at the Washington State Penitentiary and have always been involved in corrections to one extent to another.
Part of the challenge with the issue of personnel that would be necessary to assist all of our agencies to increase their proficiency is that, as Tamara said, we represent about 3 per cent of the population. Though we are dramatically overrepresented in correctional settings, it would be very challenging to expect our population to match, to be able to provide the personnel in numbers necessary to address the overrepresentation. So, if you do the math, we represent 3 per cent of the population and it would be impossible for us to show up as 9 per cent of the staff in policing agencies, as lawyers, as judges, in every location. So that is the challenge.
The solution is to ensure people who are of African descent, who are employed in these settings, are very specifically given the opportunities to be supported as de facto change agents, and given the opportunity to develop their expertise in culturally specific service delivery models that their colleagues of other races can model and benefit from so that we can increase the proficiency of all practitioners, lawyers, police officers, judges, correctional officers, as they serve diverse populations. That would be my comment there, that we need these folk as developing centres of excellence.
In terms of the specific barriers to treatment, one of the things we know about substance abuse treatment, for example, is that if you take one of the cornerstone programs in drug treatment, the 12-step program, there is the principle in 12-step programming that no outside issues should interfere with our adherence to the 12 steps.
Senator Eaton: Could you explain?
Mr. Wright: Certainly. For addicts who are in recovery, addiction is a problem, right?
Senator Eaton: Yes.
Mr. Wright: Any other issues are excuses for our addictions. So in those settings, when people start to talk about the systemic problems that they have suffered, the socio-cultural problems, systemic racism, institutional poverty, those kinds of models are not great at articulating that, hearing it, integrating it into a person’s treatment program.
So we argued for fairly enriched addiction treatment programming that is able to deal with the intersections that Black individuals experience when they experience addiction. So there is the intersection of race and poverty and the systemic racism factors that contribute to that, the very targeted ways in which Black communities are targeted for both the consumption of illicit substances and the trafficking in illicit substances that have a very particular socio-cultural manifestation.
One of the things we do is teach this to people as we begin to help them to address their addiction. We’re teaching them how history has targeted them for addiction and trafficking and criminality. When you do that, and help a person then increase their racial affiliation and their racial identity, you improve their resistance skills to substances and criminality. But very few programs approach Black offenders or even Black patients from that perspective.
Senator Eaton: Thank you.
Senator Andreychuk: I want to pursue the issue of rehabilitation with Ms. Thomas, and perhaps Mr. Wright would want to comment.
Rehabilitation is to suit the individual for re-entry into the community, and I’m sure we both know what that means. I know that there are some across-the-board issues of racism and discrimination that are built into the Black community’s issues, but more recently I’ve been talking to some of the Black communities. They say, “Yes that issue exists and that has to be tackled within the justice system,” but equally, the fact that there are different groups within the Black community and they have come from different areas of the world, particularly more recent immigrants, and that we should be centring on that as well as on the commonality of the issues facing the Black community.
I’ve been pondering how we would go about that. Have you been thinking about that? Is that built into any program that you’re talking about? We have the individual. We have the Black community, and then we have the different Black communities, and when they come in conflict with the law. How do we address all of that?
Ms. Thomas: In response to that, particularly when focusing on the distinctions and the differences within the Black community, whether they be linguistic, cultural, individual histories of those particular ethnic groups, the best way to deal with those specific issues is to rely heavily on a community model where individual community groups are able to take responsibility, work with those individuals and have that similar cultural background and that understanding. That lends nicely into the positive results that would come out of relying on a community-based alternative to incarceration, facilitating those connections between the individual, the inmate or the offender, and the community group from which that person comes.
I think that would also deal with, in part, this issue of the statistical imbalance that Mr. Wright mentioned between the number of Black Canadians across the country, but then the overrepresentation of those individuals, the heightened numbers within federal institutions. You can’t necessarily have a one-to-one ratio in that situation, but if you de-incarcerate and you allow those individuals who can rehabilitate within their community groups to do so, you address that issue of not necessarily being able to have those numbers within certain institutions, but also address the specific circumstance of that individual with all of the cultural background that comes with them — linguistic, religious, et cetera. Did you want to add anything?
Matthew Boissonneault, Research Student, African Canadian Legal Clinic: Sure, if I may. First of all, thanks for pointing that out. It’s a huge concern, in that one of the things the clinic tries to address frequently is that the Black community is not homogenous. That’s why we are endorsing a community model. Because something that would give us pause is that even if the CSC, for example, did focus on increasing a more culturally attentive curriculum, if that curriculum is uniform, it won’t be accessible to everyone.
I know that there are a number of programs that are offered exclusively in the Atlantic region, and that makes sense because the Atlantic region has a different cultural history than Ontario, Alberta or B.C. We understand that the community-based proposal is kind of drastic. It’s a drastic switch from the current paradigm. But it’s a severe problem. By introducing that, it’s allowing people who share the lived experiences with the inmates to help them and assist them in their reintegration because they understand where they are coming from. I think that’s an enormously important but often overlooked aspect of reintegration.
It’s very important that it occurs in the community because it’s almost like an expansion of an experiential learning concept. Somebody is not going to learn how to reintegrate effectively behind bars. If you can wade into the water, so to speak, but with the assistance of different social services all there and collaborating to help you get on the right track, I think that’s enormously important.
I don’t know if Mr. Wright wants to add to that.
Mr. Wright: There is an interesting principle that was put forward by Sue and Sue in their classic text Counseling the Culturally Diverse. That principle is simply this: The closer you are to me ethnoculturally, the easier it will be for me to deliver service to you; the further away you are, the more difficult.
Although there is tremendous diversity within the Black communities in Canada, there is a shared commonality. So I don’t think we should allow the reality of the diversity of our community stop us from pursuing the need to deliver culturally competent programming. We sometimes talk about the ABCs in the community, which are African, Black and Caribbean, the three largest groups within the African-Canadian community: people who are of recent African descent; the group that we sometimes call “indigenous Blacks,” who were here pre-settler, as early as the 1600s; and then people who come here from Caribbean backgrounds.
Although there are differences, you will find in your institutions that where there is a Black chaplain, who may be a Catholic, and that Black chaplain becomes the chaplain to the Black inmates regardless of their religious affiliation. There is an affinity that goes beyond denominational or even historical faith traditions in which even, for example, a Black Muslim cleric in an institution is sought out more regularly by Black Christian inmates than the White Christian chaplains.
I would say that there is the capacity for us to develop the ability to address the diversity that exists within the Black community as we begin to roll out or pay attention to the need of culturally specific programming. Again, it’s about identifying persons who have expertise and weaving them together in a network of expertise.
Senator Bernard: Thank you both for your testimony this morning.
My first question is actually a supplemental to the questions around the diversity within Black communities. I’m going to change the narrative. Instead of saying “Black community,” I think we need to say “Black communities” because that addresses the diversity.
Could you tell us by way of example how community-based programming might look if it’s truly taking into account the diversity within those communities? Since we have a witness from Ontario and one from Nova Scotia, maybe we could have an example from both.
Mr. Wright, I’m thinking perhaps you could speak a bit about the Afrocentric mental health initiative you have been a part of. People listening, watching at home and maybe even some of my colleagues may not know what that is about. If you give us a bit more information on that and use that as an example, that would be helpful.
Mr. Wright: Sure. After the mental health review occurred here in Nova Scotia, the province asked the Health Association of African Canadians to come together to develop an initiative to address the lack of service delivery. A colleague of mine, Lana McLean, and I were the chief consultants to that program. We compiled a small group under the leadership of Donna Smith Darrell at the Health Association of African Canadians, and the initiative had three outcomes: the development of a provincial network of practitioners, the development of two conferences to highlight some of the knowledge and to share some of the knowledge we were gathering, and the implementation of training modules that could be used by all practitioners in the mental health system.
It was as simple as ensuring that, when we compiled the team to address this, we had representation from the various African Nova Scotian communities. We have an organization here called ADAM, the African Diaspora Association of the Maritimes. That is an organization that works with people who come from more recent African immigrant locations. We had individuals from ADAM involved with us. Lana McLean has a Caribbean background. She comes from a community from Cape Breton that has a long history of Caribbean immigration. As for me, I’m a sixth- or seventh-generation African Nova Scotian. Together, we worked on the development of modules that were able to speak to these various constituencies within the Black communities: the African immigrant, the indigenous Black and the Caribbean.
It’s really just ensuring that, in your work, you are informing yourself of the unique historical and settlement history of various peoples, and then, within the context of your work with them, being able to address the particular social and emotional challenges that are a part of their unique experiences. For example, African immigrants have the whole immigration pressure, in addition to the issue of anti-Black racism they encounter, often for the first time upon arriving here at our shores.
We have addressed that by ensuring we have representation from the various communities as we develop these initiatives.
Senator Bernard: Can you comment, Mr. Wright, on how effective those programs have been in terms of the service to Black inmates?
Mr. Wright: In terms of service to Black inmates, that initiative has not really been connected to that work. But I know that Lana, for example, has been involved in the development of the Rites of Passage Program that has been implemented in our juvenile facility in Nova Scotia at the Waterville youth centre. That program targets racial identity development of youth of African descent, recognizing that culture and cultural affiliation are a determinant of health. The Rites of Passage Program provides information, education and intervention to young people who are incarcerated so that they can improve their cultural and racial affiliation as a way of doing things like increasing their frustration tolerance, which is one of those issues that get young people into trouble.
It is a correctional intervention that weaves race, history and acculturation into programming.
Senator Bernard: I had a question for the other witnesses, if I could. To the team from the African Canadian Legal Clinic, could you expand a bit on your first recommendation for the opportunities? Can you say a bit more about what you envision that being? How would that look on the ground?
Ms. Thomas: In terms of how a community-based or community-centred alternative to incarceration could work under those sections that allow for such alternative measures, there are, for example, community hub models that have been developed across the country. I think it started in Prince Albert.
Mr. Boissonneault: Prince Albert is the one we’re most familiar with.
Ms. Thomas: They popped up around the country. What happens in those situations is that service providers from across various sectors come together at the table and discuss individuals they are currently working with that other service providers around that table might also be able to provide assistance to. It’s a conversation about who is able to help in what way. Then what happens is that individual is connected with those resources in that moment and then they move forward accordingly.
So for a community-based alternative of this type, I think we would envision something similar where there is a conversation amongst community groups and culturally specific service providers with regard to those individuals who have been identified as possibilities for going out into the community and serving whatever term they have to serve or undergoing whatever rehabilitative processes they have to serve. Those individuals at the table can then identify how they can help that person and be connected in that way.
So it would be very much a round-table, community working group of sorts towards figuring out the needs of each individual and how the community can service those needs. Through a model like that is one way we could facilitate that kind of community alternative.
Senator Martin: My question is, in a way, a follow up or similar to what Senator Bernard has asked. In your recommendation, you talked about what it would look like in practice and you said there was a pilot project that your organization facilitated or led. So what you’re describing is doing something similar by bringing various organizations together that could provide that wraparound service to the client.
Would it be your organization, or is there another organization or an existing model in Canada other than the example that you provided? What you’re describing kind of reminds me of service providers for new immigrants in British Columbia. We have a good group called S.U.C.C.E.S.S. They started by addressing the ethnocultural needs of the Chinese community, but since then they have expanded and people of all ethnicities who need their services can also go there.
So, I ask this to also share that in British Columbia, I think we have a smaller Black community. It’s a growing community, but in order to provide such a wraparound service, it would require so many resources. Could it be shared with others? I was curious about the pilot project that you did, so perhaps you could expand on that and whether it would be your organization or another that would lead such an initiative.
Mr. Boissonneault: The pilot project that we mentioned is called the Employment Skills Job Readiness Program. The idea there is that it’s implemented directly within the institution, but there is also a parallel community-based program offered. It’s multi-faceted in that its focus is on teaching essential employability skills to inmates 18 to 30 years old, and that can be interpersonal communication but also basic, practical skills. And then we can augment that, as needed, with family counselling, anger management courses and, where possible, substance abuse counselling. So that’s one single program that we’re looking to expand.
In response to your question about whether there would be partnerships, absolutely. So the idea that we have is that that would be one person at the table. Then you could also have, say, Across Boundaries and other organizations which offer culturally specific mental health services. The idea is to bring in as many community-based social service providers as possible.
I believe someone mentioned earlier that rehabilitation is specific to the offender, and the idea there is that this person would be anonymously discussed and that someone around the table would say, “You know what? I think we have services that can help that person.” Then everyone who wants to pitch in helping them meets privately at a subsequent meeting, and they develop and put in place a program that that single person can subscribe to and has steps and success markers.
A lot of the hubs are preventative in nature, and we think that subtle retooling to make them rehabilitative is quite practical. The results in Prince Albert, which is the model that the clinic is most familiar with, have been resoundingly successful; I apologize, I had some of the stats from there but I don’t have them with me at the moment. But one of the things that was very striking about that model — which was introduced to alleviate similar issues in the indigenous community in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan — was that roughly 50 or 51 per cent of the cases brought to the hub table were brought by police, and about 15 or 16 per cent were handled by police. The inverse there was made up by social services who came in and said, “The issue with this person is not principally criminal. It could be poverty. It could be addiction or family issues.”
So our vision is to get a number of organizations together who can collaborate to ensure that that person doesn’t have to navigate those systems by himself or herself and has access to them under the same roof.
Senator Martin: I agree that wraparound models and such initiatives are very effective. In your first recommendation, when you talk about the opportunity that would be presented in sections 81 and 84, I wondered whether it is that you don’t have access now like the indigenous communities or if something has to change in order for you to have greater opportunity. I wasn’t sure what you meant by this first recommendation. Is it fairly narrow and limited to indigenous communities, more so than the Black community? What could be done so that such opportunities could be afforded to those who want to support the Black community?
Ms. Thomas: My understanding of the current situation is exactly that: The opportunities just haven’t been there for the African-Canadian inmate population to access these external community supports or to have that facilitation on the part of Corrections. There isn’t that access to those individuals who are currently incarcerated.
There has been a lot of pushback on the part of Corrections when attempts have been made to make those connections with the Black inmate population. So the opportunity that is presented here is to create support for those community-based initiatives and alternatives that are being provided or introduced by groups who are willing to see them through but are having problems making that access for the individuals who need them.
The framework provided and that has been used to facilitate the movement of indigenous inmates or offenders into their community to allow them to engage in rehabilitative processes needs to also now be mirrored for the Black community. That assistance needs to be provided so that we are able to provide those supports to those people.
Senator Martin: I would be curious to hear from Corrections. It would be important to discuss how we can open up the access and the opportunities.
Senator Omidvar: Senator Martin actually asked my question. I just have a little factoid that adds a greater tension or imperative to our conversation. Statistics Canada just came out with its latest demographic release, and Africa has overtaken Europe as the second-largest source region of immigrants, so this has become a little more important, although one can’t assume that A equals B.
What I’m hearing you say, Ms. Thomas, is that sections 81 and 84 of the CCRA — these mechanisms that we have heard about from representatives from the indigenous communities where they are able to use temporary absences, and in certain courts the Gladue reports are used — are not available to members of your community. Why?
Ms. Thomas: I am not certain why.
Senator Omidvar: You are not certain. Maybe Mr. Wright has an answer. Why are they not available?
Mr. Wright: I would say they are beginning to be available. In the Criminal Code of Canada, under 718.2(e) and the sentencing principles, it is stated very clearly that judges must use all available opportunities or strategies to address offenders in front of them before they resort to incarceration. Within the sentencing principles, it is stated clearly that they must do that with particular attention to Aboriginal offenders. You could say there is a clear statutory responsibility on behalf of those judges who are sentencing people to look specifically at the Aboriginal status of a person in front of them and to pay particular attention to finding opportunities other than custody sentences. That follows through with the rest of their sentencing. With the implementation of Gladue reports, of course, now Aboriginal offenders who are being sentenced have somewhat of a detailed record of their needs that are specifically related to their Aboriginal status.
The work that I have been doing in pioneering the concept of impact-of-race-and-culture assessments, which have been implemented here in Nova Scotia — and I am in Ontario conducting the first one here — has been essentially a Gladue for Black folk. I don’t say that lightly; I don’t want to try and appropriate what Aboriginal folk have fought for and have needed specifically because of their constitutional relationship with the federal government, but certainly the statistics suggest that Black folk who come before the correctional system need a similar mechanism to call attention to their unique and special needs as they are entering the correctional system.
I and a colleague have been implementing these in Nova Scotia recently, and courts in Nova Scotia have been receptive to these reports because they believe that they are helping them to arrive at more just sentences. However, it is not enough for that information to inform courts at sentencing. They need to inform the justice system in terms of programming and rehabilitation programming as well.
Senator Pate: Thank you to all of you for your testimony.
To pick up on the themes that have been brought by Senator Martin, Senator Omidvar and Senator Bernard, I would like to give a statement, ask if it is accurate from your perspective and then continue on.
One of the things that has been raised — and I appreciate Senator Martin asking why Corrections hasn’t implemented this — is this: Is it your experience that most people working in the community, working with individuals in prison and out, even know about the provisions like sections 29, 76, 77, 80, 81 and 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act? This is not meant to throw numbers at you. These are the provisions that, as Ms. Thomas, Mr. Boissonneault and Mr. Wright raised, provide options for Corrections to breathe life into provisions like section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code of Canada, and they were all developed in a similar time with the express purpose of trying to reduce the numbers of people in prison, in particular indigenous prisoners but also other racialized prisoners and women. I would like you to also talk about women.
In my limited experience, many groups don’t even know they exist. The policy has been developed in a way that is restrictive and, in addition, most people don’t know they exist because too many people, including those who work within corrections, don’t read the legislation that applies to them. Is that a fair assessment?
How would you see using the resources currently being used now to imprison people if you had access to them as the act indicates would be an option under these provisions? How could you see those resources being used? I am not asking you to repeat everything you already said, because you have given a wide range of potential options that could be used, but are there any other things such as housing or those sorts of areas that you can look to?
The Chair: If we can be concise, we have another panel following this one, please.
Mr. Wright: First, I think that few people know, and second, the people who know largely do not have the resources to construct the programming necessary to take advantage of those opportunities. And third, when those things align and the people who know are able to construct the programming, the funding for those services is often restricted or time limited.
There was an organization in Truro called the Community Enhancement Association that used these provisions and delivered a six- or eight-week program to Black inmates who could apply for conditional release into the community to a halfway house so they could take part in this eight-week program. That program ran for a couple of years, but I think it happened during years when funding for these kinds of community-based resources dried up. So where we did have the knowledge and the opportunity, the funding became elusive.
The Chair: Ms. Thomas, we will close off with this answer. To the senators, if you have questions, our other witnesses should be able to answer them. A time of forgiveness, please.
Ms. Thomas: In large part, I think we do agree with that very concise three-point analysis. Not many people know and the resources are sparse. A lot of times, and once again harkening back to those community hubs, the provision of services falls to those service providers. So the funding for the provision of those resources is coming from these often under-resourced community groups.
In terms of how the funding could be used that is currently being used to incarcerate, as I am sure you all know, it is incredibly more expensive to hold someone in an institution than to release them into the community. There would be ample funds available, should there be a move toward decarceration. Those funds could then be used support the initiatives that are identified by those community groups who may not otherwise have been able to present certain initiatives as feasible options because they don’t have the funding to do so.
I believe Mr. Boissonneault wants to add a point.
Mr. Boissonneault: I think the 2014 OCI report said something to the effect that community correctional centres house roughly 6 per cent of federal inmates but account for 1 per cent of the budget. It is an economically efficient model.
In terms of resources, the services themselves that we are talking about can get funding from other sources. For example, if they wanted to request funding from the Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy, that is a possibility as well. It wouldn’t have to come exclusively from the correctional budget. That is more or less my last point.
The Chair: If you want to put a question, they can respond in writing because we have to move on.
Senator Omidvar: Would you recommend that the policy guidelines in the CCRA, which refer to special instruments available to the indigenous communities, should be extended to members of the Black communities, given the overrepresentation?
The Chair: We could get that in writing.
Senator Andreychuk: Mine is just a follow up, talking about the communities within communities in the Black community. We talked about the differences in there, but are you building in any justice models that replicate what they may have come from? I’ve worked a lot in Africa, and there are different justice models there. They might be more appropriate for rehabilitation in Canada if we understood what made sense to them as justice and perception of justice, et cetera, both for the offender and for the community. I leave that one with you.
The Chair: That is food for thought. We appreciate all of you being here, Mr. Wright, Ms. Thomas and Mr. Boissonneault. This has added a great deal to our testimony and hearing. In the interest of fairness, we do have another interesting panel coming up. If the audience is watching, stay tuned.
We are continuing our study into the human rights of prisoners in the correctional system, and our witnesses, at this time, are from Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society, Luketa M’Pindou , Executive Director; and, from the Afro-Canadian Center of Wellness and Prevention of Alberta, Jacques Kanku, Project Coordinator.
You are with us by video conference. Gentlemen, welcome to our committee. We have a number of senators here who are anxious to ask you some questions after you have done your opening statements. Welcome to this conversation and to our committee. Who would like to go first? We can see you. Mr. M’Pindou, would you like to start off with your statement?
[Translation]
Luketa M’Pindou, Executive Director, Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society: Mr. Chair, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank the organizers of this public hearing for inviting me to appear before the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights. I wish to inform you that I have had several opportunities to appear before standing committees of the House of Commons. This is my very first appearance before a standing Senate committee and, in particular, the committee on human rights. Thank you for this invitation.
I am appearing this morning, first, in order to share my own experiences as an executive director of an organization that has been working on crime prevention among young francophone immigrants in Alberta since 1999. Second, I am appearing as a former member of Correctional Service Canada’s National Ethnocultural Advisory Committee, the NEAC, since 2005 and chair of the Regional Ethnocultural Advisory Committee, or REAC, for the Prairie Region for seven years.
Through our organization, Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society, we have been working with Correctional Service Canada on various initiatives, such as the initiative to fight racism and intimidation in correctional facilities, the pilot project for Black offenders focused on the objectives of commissioner’s Directive 767, as well as the Looking Ahead project, in collaboration with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
As a member of the Ethnocultural Advisory Committee, I have seen how much the face of correctional facilities is changing with inmates from more culturally and ethnically diverse groups. That multicultural presence justifies the implementation of commissioner’s Directive 767.
A few of the above-mentioned projects show how important it is to focus on harmony, equality, respect for difference and dignity, in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Inmates come from the community and they return to the community. That is why we must work closely together to help those inmates become good citizens when they return to the community.
In September 1999, at a seminar marking the tenth anniversary of the Association multiculturelle francophone de l’Alberta, I gave a speech on the topic of Congolese youth in Canadian society. I said the following in the document you see:
For your information, a young offender in prison costs the federal government about $50,000. . . If our prisons are full of young offenders, imagine how many line managers’ salaries are wasted on keeping those young people incarcerated. The point of this consideration is to show you the importance of crime prevention in our society.
I would like to share with you a few concerns some ethnocultural inmates raised in workshops. Offenders often say that searches are carried out without respect for religious texts such as the Koran, the Bible and others. When they are incarcerated, it takes a few weeks for them to get in touch with family. Our rights depend either on prison governors or correctional officers.
Enforcement of the legislation changes with circumstances. Respect for human rights is not experienced in the same way in penitentiaries. Prison libraries contain no books in French. French is not equal in status to English as an official language in penitentiaries and, by extension, within correctional services. It takes a long time for inmates to be paroled.
In view of all that, we should recognize the fact that correctional service continues to build relationships with communities in order to encourage offenders to establish and maintain ties with their family and the community to facilitate their return to the community. That relationship-building can be done by emphasizing employment, housing and mental health initiatives.
Mr. Chair, there is no doubt that respecting inmates’ rights improves the quality of life in prisons. In 2003, our organization published an educational guide on human rights entitled La différence, ça s’apprend. As I mentioned at the beginning of my presentation, the face of correctional facilities is changing. That is what is happening. We have to ensure to create the right conditions for all inmates, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disabilities.
In closing, I would like to propose the following recommendations to you: that the Canadian government adopt a fair and equitable policy in programs and services for ethnocultural offenders; that the members of the Regional Ethnocultural Advisory Committee work together with the members of the Citizens Advisory Committee to review certain complaints brought by ethnocultural offenders; and that workshops on offenders’ rights be incorporated into prison training programs.
Let me congratulate you and thank you for the work that has already been done across the country. On behalf of all the members of our organization, Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society, I wish you all the best and thank you for your attention. I look forward to your questions.
Jacques Kanku, Project Coordinator, Afro-Canadian Center of Wellness and Prevention of Alberta: Mr. Chair, it was my pleasure to accept the invitation to appear before your committee and to make my presentation in your study on the situation of offenders from minority communities, more specifically Black offenders in federal corrections. Thank you for this kind gesture toward me and our organization, the Afro-Canadian Center of Wellness and Prevention of Alberta. My name is Jacques Kanku, and I am a nurse by training. From 2013 to 2014, I worked as a nurse in the Edmonton maximum security prison. I am currently working as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital in Edmonton, in the forensic unit, where we receive patients with mental illnesses who are in trouble with the law.
Mr. Chair, the organization I represent is a non-profit organization involved in health care. The centre was created to fill the void created by a lack of viable community health structure likely to meet the specific needs of Afro-Canadian populations and provide culturally adapted health services in Alberta. As its name implies, the centre works on promoting health and the prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, mental illnesses, as well as alcohol and illicit drug abuse by Afro-Canadian populations, especially among young people aged 11 to 25. The centre also works as a group of ethnocultural experts in collaboration with Correctional Service Canada, more specifically in Edmonton, Alberta, to identify support services that should be provided in terms of cultural and linguistic considerations to Afro-Canadian offenders in Alberta’s federal institutions. It was in the context of that collaboration that we accepted this invitation to come talk to you about the situation of the Afro-Canadian population in federal corrections.
All the statistics show a steady year-to-year trend of an increase in the Black or Afro-Canadian population in Canada’s correctional services. The latest statistics indicated an increase of about 70 per cent. We know that numerous efforts have been made to improve services in Canada’s correctional systems, with visible results, but we have also noted that Correctional Service Canada’s policy focuses especially on Aboriginal women, and rightly so, given their characteristics and their special needs. Appropriate programs and services have been established to meet their specific needs.
Our appearance today can be summarized in one thought or one question, as to why groups of Black or Afro-Canadian offenders are not being given the same special attention, considering their characteristics or their uniqueness. We know that, generally speaking, those offenders are members of ethnocultural populations from countries where violence is systemic. They have suffered both physical and mental trauma that has negatively impacted their daily lives. It has been shown that, if an individual has not only inherited a life of poverty and social exclusion, but also experiences racism or systemic discrimination in all areas of their life — especially in terms of work, education, health care, interpersonal relationships and, finally, even their prison experience — that individual could adopt certain behaviours and language that do not meet the general standards. So it would be desirable to give them special treatment that is likely to help them and mitigate the negative effects of their social background.
To do that, the Afro-Canadian Center of Wellness and Prevention of Alberta has a few recommendations. We think that special attention should be given to the Afro-Canadian prison population, as in the case of other groups, given their uniqueness and their social backgrounds. To do that, additional research should be carried out to shed light on this issue. It would also be necessary to develop appropriate programs, services and cultural interventions likely to meet the needs of Afro-Canadian offenders; enhance the partnership between Correctional Service Canada and community-based ethnocultural organizations; increase the cultural diversity of police officers and Correctional Service Canada’s staff; ensure training on cultural competency and on recruitment of staff members with ethnocultural values; and, finally, build bridges with ethnocultural liaison officers within Correctional Service Canada.
I think I have managed to share my thoughts with you, and I thank you for the time you have given me.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
[English]
Senator Hartling: Thank you very much for your presentation. In terms of the use of administrative segregation, I am wondering what the effects are on the Black population in prisons, especially women and those with mental health issues. What happens to them when they are in segregation?
[Translation]
Mr. Kanku: I will answer based on my personal experience. Administrative segregation results in the person feeling even more isolated, and that gives rise to consequences that are not often positive for their mental health or in general. I can say that there are negative effects on health as a general rule.
[English]
Senator Pate: Mr. Kanku, I was interested to hear that you work as a nurse in the forensic unit at the Alberta Hospital. That, as you no doubt are aware, is the hospital used, through an exchange-of-service agreement, by the Correctional Service of Canada, for section 29 transfers under the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. I’m just curious how often you see it being used for those with mental health issues, and, to pick up on the question of Senator Hartling, what kinds of particular programs have been developed that would assist those coming from the prison into the Alberta Hospital.
[Translation]
Mr. Kanku: I am aware of those services. At the Alberta hospital, there were two units: one for active diseases and the forensic unit, for inmates with mental illnesses. When those individuals arrive, they are kept in their unit and provided with legal aid services. I know that there are services for them. They are in the forensic unit and are cared for by physicians specializing in that area.
[English]
Senator Pate: Do you know how many women and how many men come under section 29 to the hospital in any one year? If not, would you have access to provide that information for us?
[Translation]
Mr. Kanku: I don’t have the exact information, but I know that the forensic unit has about 120 patients. At my hospital, we receive an average of five to seven individuals a month from correctional facilities. However, I don’t have the exact statistics with me.
[English]
Senator Pate: Is it possible to get those, for men and for women?
[Translation]
Mr. Kanku: Yes, I will find them for you.
[English]
Senator Pate: That would be very helpful. Thank you very much.
Senator Andreychuk: I want to pursue the comments made that there are particular issues when it comes to the Black population that comes from Africa. I would presume that’s recent immigration. We know that some of the people have spent years in refugee camps because of the civil strife in the countries they’ve been in. We also know that they have been caught, sometimes, in these war situations, and then there are, of course, those that come for economic reasons. So immigration covers a lot.
Do you work with trying to identify how the immigration services treat new immigrants to try to provide them the services they need? Some of them are mental. When those are not dealt with, of course, they become community issues and often end up in the courts, but the problems probably had their roots long before. So do you work on those issues, the coordinating with the immigrant communities, with the services that are given to immigrants, long before it becomes a criminal justice issue?
[Translation]
Mr. Kanku: We are working on it. Perhaps I did not mention this, but our organization is still young. We work with the institution that receives new immigrants to identify individuals likely to develop mental illnesses early, so that they can be directed to the appropriate services. We work in partnership with that service.
[English]
The Chair: Mr. M’Pindou, would you like to respond to that question?
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: Yes, to complement what Mr. Kanku said, when newcomers have health problems, especially when they come from refugee camps or war-torn countries and are traumatized, there are services in place to take care of them, help them successfully integrate into the community. I want to let you know that some of those people are francophones, but they are not directed to our communities or our services, as we lack resources to help them. When they use anglophone services, they struggle more because they lack proficiency in English. How can an organization like the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, which receives newcomers suffering from trauma, be providing services only in English? That could further traumatize people. We would like you to make recommendations, so that our francophone communities would obtain the resources they need to receive those people with trauma.
[English]
Senator Andreychuk: Could I just follow up? You’re saying you need francophone services, but I’m hearing something a little different. What you’re saying is that you need someone who understands the issues of these people but communicates in the language that they speak. My concern is that you can get someone who speaks French but comes from a community and doesn’t understand the needs of that person. So we have to match the language with the needs and, therefore, the competence to give that service.
If that’s the case, are those resources available in Edmonton?
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: Individuals would have to specialize in communicating in French to address those issues. We need resources. They could be people who are qualified to work with newcomers and can speak French. Our minority organizations are there to defend and promote French.
[English]
Senator Pate: Following up on the question from Senator Andreychuk, I’m particularly interested in what services are provided in the community for Black women, and also for the children of women who may be incarcerated. We know that about 90 per cent of the children of women who go to prison end up in the care of the state versus about 10 per cent of the children of men.
Also, picking up on Senator Andreychuk’s question, have you looked at any of the approaches that have been taken in other countries? Specifically, in South Africa, when Nelson Mandela became president, one of the things he did was free all of the women who had children under the age of 12 because he recognized that to sentence a woman to prison was to subjugate generations to come to further discrimination. I’m just curious if you have done any work on those areas, or if you have additional information you could share. Thank you.
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: I want to begin by saying that we come from countries where prisons are not divided like they are here. Here, there are prisons for women and prisons for men, and detention centres for minors aged 12 to 17. There are various levels of prisons in terms of security: minimum, medium and maximum. That is not the case in our home countries. We need to recognize that Canada is well organized in terms of correctional services, but there are still challenges to overcome.
In African culture, mostly francophone men are in prison. There are fewer women in prison. Crimes are often committed by men. That is starting to change a bit here. When men are in prison, women are there to take care of the children and the family can visit the man while he serves his sentence. We are currently defending that situation in order to figure out how to help incarcerated individuals understand their rights, and we guide them so that they can successfully reintegrate into society. That is why we have come here before you.
Mr. Kanku: In response to your question, Senator Pate, I would like to share an experience I had when I worked in the prison. There was a female offender who had two children. Her family was looking after her children. It was probably her younger sister who was looking after them. On the weekend, the younger sister had to take the children to see their mother, which added to her family responsibilities. In our minds, as Africans, we would rather the children stay with our family, that is, with our family members. That is problematic because it becomes an extra, unanticipated responsibility for the family, for a sister or a cousin, for example. In my opinion, certain mechanisms and services should be established for such cases. These cases can occur, although they are rare.
[English]
Senator Pate: This is a supplementary question, please, for both of you. Mr. M’Pindou, I know you mentioned that it’s mostly men who you’re seeing in prison, but do you have any particular concerns about the human rights issues for Black women who are imprisoned?
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: Could you clarify your question, Senator Pate? Are you referring to Canada or Africa?
[English]
Senator Pate: Canada.
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: In Canada, for male offenders, what we want above all is to help them reintegrate into the community successfully. As I said, we are there to facilitate the relationship between the offender and their family. We work with Correctional Service Canada to help bring them together. It is an initiative that should be commended. They want communities to know that is in their interest to help male offenders in prison and also to look after their families. This is an important link. We do not want to deprive offenders of their families. There is cooperation with the correctional services to help male offenders serving their sentence keep in touch with their families. As members of the community, we must create that link.
[English]
Senator Pate: Thank you very much for that response. That’s made me want to ask the next question, then, which is the following: Given your positive relationship working with the Correctional Service of Canada, have you been approached to provide any section 81 or 84 types of support contracts so that individuals who are from your community can serve their sentence in your community or be paroled into your community?
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: Thank you for your question, Senator Pate. As you know, sections 81 and 84 pertain primarily to Aboriginal communities. As for ethnocultural communities, that is something we are working on with Correctional Service Canada so that we can access those benefits. To date, the only provision for ethnocultural communities is the commissioner’s directive 767, which I mentioned earlier, which pertains to programs and services to meet the specific needs of offenders from ethnocultural groups. We have not even got to sections 81 and 84.
[English]
Senator Pate: I’d just like to clarify something. The policy that the Correctional Service of Canada has promulgated limits it to just indigenous prisoners and only in certain circumstances — the law actually provides a priority for indigenous prisoners — but the subclauses of sections 81 and 84 allow for it to be for other prisoners as well. So there is no requirement for a change in the law. I would suggest that with a change in policy, CSC could make it so that you could access those provisions.
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: Yes, exactly. Section 84 provides for cooperation with Aboriginal communities. Will there be ethnocultural officers to look after those offenders? That is the problem. An offender who is a member of an ethnocultural community cannot access all aspects of their culture in a safe house or a halfway house in Aboriginal communities. We would like it to be specifically for offenders from ethnocultural communities.
Senator Pate: Thank you.
[English]
Senator Andreychuk: For my information, you’re relatively new in Edmonton, and you are providing attention to an issue that we need to address. Do you work with other communities, say in Western Canada, providing similar perspectives and services? In other words, I want to know if there is a network that you can build on to bring to light that there are needs for services in French in specialized areas like yours. Do you work with Winnipeg or Vancouver, or are you concentrating purely on Edmonton?
[Translation]
Mr. M’Pindou: Senator, I am not new to Edmonton. I have been here for close to 20 years, and have worked for the Alliance Jeunesse-Famille de l’Alberta Society for 17 years. I was the first vice-president of the Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta. I also represented Alberta on the national committee on francophone immigration. I served as director for Western Canada and the North for the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada. So I am very familiar with the francophone and Acadian communities in Canada.
We have contacts for our programs in all the Western provinces that you mentioned. We work with other partners in the Prairie region. I said I am a former member of the National Ethnocultural Advisory Committee. I also chaired the Regional Ethnocultural Advisory Committee for the Prairies for Correctional Service Canada. So the challenges we face with ethnocultural offenders in the Prairie region, although there is not a strong presence, but the few that there are — Actually, looking at the Edmonton area only, there are three Black offenders from Somalia, Sudan or elsewhere in the Bowden and Drumheller institutions. So we are already beginning to see how we can help these offenders and facilitate their reintegration into their communities. That is how we are collaborating with Correctional Service Canada.
[English]
Senator Andreychuk: I think you misunderstood me. It’s not the work you were doing before; it’s the work that we’re zeroing in on, which is the incarcerated population and their needs. You did answer it in the end, that you are working with the new immigrant communities. My concern is that as we have more immigration from different places in Canada, we need to be sensitive to these people and their needs. I wondered whether you were connecting to other communities in Western Canada who are experiencing that same different immigration shift regarding the needs of the people, particularly coming from Africa, with whom I’ve worked. That was the point I was making.
Are there similar organizations addressing this new need?
[Translation]
M. M’Pindou: Yes, there are, senator. The National Ethnocultural Advisory Committee comprises members from various organizations that work on this issue. They are familiar with it. The majority of the members have the same problems. You will see that when people from British Columbia, Manitoba, and even Quebec and Ontario meet up, we share the same challenges with regard to ethnocultural offenders in our communities. There are challenges, and certain rights are violated. We need honest cooperation, while also complying with existing legislation and helping offenders become good members of the community.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Mr. M’Pindou and Mr. Kanku, for appearing today. Your testimony and recommendations will be valuable for our report. Thank you very much.
(The committee adjourned.)