Ottawa – The Senate Committee on Human Rights condemns the refusal of the government to stop prison practices that courts have found to be “draconian” and “cruel and unusual” despite a landmark Senate report on federal prison conditions and another scathing review from the federal government’s own advisors. 

The committee is profoundly disturbed by the federal government’s apparent indifference to the continued use of solitary confinement in Canada’s prisons and dismayed by the government’s unwillingness to take responsibility for perpetuating these practices.

In response to appellate court decisions in Ontario and British Columbia, the government claimed to put an end to the practice of solitary confinement — known as administrative segregation — with the creation of structured intervention units (SIUs) in 2019, which supposedly guaranteed prisoners basic levels of care, human contact and time outside of their cell.

The third annual report of the government’s Structured Intervention Unit Advisory Panel, released in July 2024, came to the same conclusion as their previous reports: “SIUs are not addressing the problems they were designed to address.” The panel found “no meaningful or consistent improvements in operations over four years.”

Since the release of its own report in June 2021, Human Rights of Federally-Sentenced Persons, the committee has sought a meaningful federal response to the many abusive and discriminatory practices it identified over five years of study. Rule 12-23 (1) of the Rules of the Senate allows the Senate to request “a complete and detailed response” from the government to a committee report adopted by the Senate. The government must respond within 150 days or explain why it couldn’t.

When Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc released the initial government response to the committee’s study, a number of recommendations were only partially or inadequately addressed, while many others were completely ignored. The Correctional Investigator of Canada subsequently told the committee the response was “not proportionate to the gravity of the findings” made in the report.

Despite agreeing to meet with the committee, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc subsequently declined to meet with the committee to discuss the government’s response. The committee is also disappointed that Justice Minister Arif Virani and former government leader Steven MacKinnon have not responded to recommendations relating to their areas of responsibility.

The committee turned to the Prime Minister for a more robust response but received a scant, four-paragraph note in which he referred the committee back to the Minister of Public Safety.

As the vast majority of prisoners will be released, perpetuating practices that actively impede rehabilitation and community integration constitutes a real risk to public safety. The government’s inadequate response and the relevant ministers’ unwillingness to defend it shows that the government is unconcerned with public safety, indifferent to the routine violations of human rights in Canada’s penitentiaries, and contemptuous of the parliamentarians and witnesses who contributed to this study.

Quick Facts 

• The committee’s June 2021 report, Human Rights of Federally-Sentenced Persons, was the product of a marathon endeavour that took senators on fact-finding missions to penitentiaries across the country. Launched in 2016, the study saw more than 150 witnesses give evidence; the final report made 71 recommendations aimed at stemming abusive and discriminatory practices that dehumanize prisoners and inhibit their rehabilitation and community integration.
• In the government’s response to the report, at least 18 of the report’s 71 recommendations were not addressed at all, while others were bundled together in a manner that hid whether they were truly being addressed. The committee urges cabinet to produce a detailed response to each recommendation that would include the government’s position on each recommendation, an explanation for its position and, where applicable, a timeline for action. 
• Racialized people are overrepresented in the federal correctional system. Despite representing just 5% of the Canadian population, Indigenous Peoples account for more than 32% of the people serving federal sentences and 50% of federally sentenced women are Indigenous. Similarly, Black people account for 4.3% of Canada’s population but about 9% of the federally sentenced population.

Quotes

“It is disheartening that the federal government — and the prime minister — are so quick to dismiss years of work with glib and incomplete responses that fail to address public safety and human dignity. I am deeply disappointed by the prime minister and cabinet’s abdication of their responsibilities to Canadians.”

- Senator Salma Ataullahjan, Chair of the committee

“The human rights violations that occur in Canada’s prisons each and every day are an injustice. By its inaction and indifference, the federal government is complicit in perpetuating these injustices, particularly against vulnerable and marginalized groups.”

- Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, Deputy Chair of the committee

“It’s been 17 years since Ashley Smith died isolated in a segregation cell. Despite decades of investigations, reports and court cases revealing the urgent need to address systemic discrimination, ensure correctional accountability and remedy wrongdoing, the federal government has virtually eliminated oversight of corrections.”

- Senator Kim Pate, Member of the subcommittee on agenda and procedure

Associated Links 

• Read the report: Human Rights of Federally-Sentenced Persons.
• Find photos and articles about the committee’s fact-finding missions to Canada’s East Coast, West Coast, Prairie and women’s prisons.
• Follow the committee on social media using the hashtag #RIDR.
• Subscribe to email alerts for Senate committees.
• Sign up for the Senate eNewsletter.

For more information:

Chelsea DeFazio
Communications Officer | Senate of Canada
343-576-1481 | chelsea.defazio@sen.parl.gc.ca