QUESTION PERIOD — Public Safety
Correctional Service of Canada
September 24, 2024
Senator Gold, in the recent court decision of Justice Pomerance in the Warren case, Justice Pomerance ordered, in light of Correctional Service Canada’s track record of not providing appropriate mental health services and treatment, that Mr. Warren be sentenced to serve his sentence in a provincial mental health hospital rather than a prison. In this decision, she looked at the ongoing materials from the Office of the Correctional Investigator and experts on structured intervention units, Correctional Service Canada’s, or CSC’s, mental health services and the particular history of Mr. Warren himself.
Senator Gold, what concrete steps is the government taking to ensure that Correctional Service Canada fulfills the commitments it made in 2019 during discussions on Bill C-83 to contract mental health beds in provincial and territorial health systems?
Senator, thank you for your question and thank you for your continued advocacy on this important matter. I do not have an update at this juncture, but I certainly undertake to raise it with the minister at the earliest moment.
Thank you, Senator Gold. I appreciate that. I’m also advised that Mr. Warren currently languishes in isolation in the structured intervention unit, or SIU, at Millhaven, awaiting Correctional Service Canada’s implementation of the court decision. What specific steps could the government take to ensure correctional accountability on this and other Charter-protected and human rights issues?
Thank you, senator. As we all know, a key safeguard in place is external oversight. Independent external decision makers across the country provide oversight of an inmate’s conditions and the duration of his or her confinement in a structured intervention unit to ensure that Correctional Service Canada, or CSC, is meeting its legal obligations.
I understand that in response to various independent reports, Correctional Service Canada has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve the collection of data to ensure it can effectively demonstrate its compliance with its mandate.
