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CBC News

Who decides where criminals like Paul Bernardo serve their sentences in Canada?

Revelations about who knew what about serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo's transfer to a medium-security prison have many people questioning how the decision was made. The subsequent public outcry and calls from the Conservative Party for federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino's resignation have also raised the issue of who has the authority to make decisions about prison transfers — and who has the authority to overturn them. Here's a look at that process, as well as what life would look like for Bernardo in a medium-security prison. here are generally three levels of prisons in Canada: maximum, medium and minimum security. According to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, when an inmate enters the system, Correctional Service Canada (CSC) assigns them a security classification based on the severity of the offence, history, physical and mental state and potential for violent behaviour. The process also takes into account the risk of escape, need for supervision and risk to public safety. A review is required every two years, the CSC said in a statement.  "We don't have sentences that confine people to maximum security for all of their sentences," said John Conroy, a British Columbia lawyer who wrote the book Canadian Prison Law. "And I would argue that type of a sentence would be counterproductive. It makes people worse if you give them no hope whatsoever." Read more...

Statistics Canada: Income Research Paper Series

A review of Canadian homelessness data, 2023

On a single day in 2018, more than 25,216 individuals across 61 communities lived in a situation of homelessness, in a shelter or not (ESDC, 2018). Similarly, it is estimated that an average of 235,000 people in Canada experience one of the many types of homelessness each year (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2014). These estimates are a best guess as studying homeless remains quite difficult. The purpose of this document is to start providing solutions to this difficulty and to build on the previous work by enumerating and classifying the available data on homelessness, by identifying existing data gaps and by proposing solutions to fill those gaps. Over the past decade, the above estimate has been frequently referenced in numerous publications regarding homelessness. The proposed figure is intended to be an aggregate of different estimates of unsheltered individuals, those sheltered and those provisionally accommodated. It calls for the use of more precise data sources. Homelessness is defined here as, “the situation of an individual, family or community without stable, safe, permanent, appropriate housing, or the immediate prospect, means and ability of acquiring it” (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2017). It encompasses several types of homelessness. Not all individuals or socio-demographic groups experience homelessness in the same way or at the same rate. The groups more likely to have an episode of homelessness are: single adult males, youth, women, indigenous people, and families. In addition to these groups, personal circumstances play a role in what lead people to become homeless. Read more...

CBC News

Shannon Sargent's death a homicide, inquest jury finds

Shannon Sargent's death in her cell at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) in 2016 was a homicide, the jury at a coroner's inquest has found. The five jurors delivered their verdict late Wednesday afternoon following 13 days of sometimes emotional testimony from witnesses, experts and Sargent's family. Sargent, who was Indigenous, died July 20, 2016, less than two weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery and just hours after being escorted to the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital to undergo a medical assessment. Instead of bringing her to the triage desk, however, the correctional officer in charge of the escort picked up some missing paperwork and they returned to the jail. On Tuesday, counsel for Sargent's family said that amounted to an "omission of care," and asked the jury to list the manner of death as homicide because it amounted to inflicting harm. The verdict does not carry any criminal responsibility or legal liability. Separate homicide investigations are sometimes opened after inquest findings like this, according to co-counsel Christa Big Canoe, but she told CBC on Thursday it's too early to tell whether that would happen in Sargent's case. Regardless, the jury's finding offers a measure of comfort to the family — and especially Sargent's daughter Shauna, who testified on the inquest's first day and believed it was homicide, said Big Canoe. Read more...

Law360 Canada

Winnipeg intervention program could de-escalate intimate partner violence: expert

A domestic violence specialist in Saskatchewan is praising Manitoba’s decision to make permanent a pilot project that embeds victim services staff with police responding to “non-criminal” intimate partner incidents. Jen Renwick, manager with the domestic violence services unit at Family Service Regina, said the Manitoba government’s move to keep the Winnipeg-based intervention project going has the potential to stop lower-risk incidents from becoming dangerous situations. “For victims who are going through something like this, and [for] police … to arrive at their home with somebody in a social worker role, that softens the response and brings an element of specialization,” Renwick recently told Law360 Canada. On May 25, the Manitoba government announced that the program, which started in 2021 as a pilot, involves the “co-location” of three workers from Manitoba Justice’s Victim Services (VS) unit at Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) headquarters to “collaboratively determine the most appropriate outreach for families who call police for domestic incidents in non-criminal cases.” According to a news release, the team receives around 12,000 such calls per year. It notes that the program “is meant to be preventative in nature in the hopes of reducing risk, or the potential for violence, within the homes of Manitobans.” Read more...

The Globe and Mail

Ontario justice of the peace unjustly treated after public bail criticism, appeal court says

A justice of the peace kicked out of her courtroom for the past three years after she wrote a newspaper article calling bail hearings “a disgrace” was treated unjustly, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday. The decision in the case of Julie Lauzon, who penned a 2016 cri de coeur – “I can no longer call it a court of law” – clears the way for judges and justices of the peace to speak publicly about problems in the justice system. “Her Worship Julie Lauzon should be sitting as a justice of the peace. That she is not sitting is an injustice to be remedied,” Justice Peter Lauwers began in his 3-0 ruling, supported by Justice Lois Roberts and Justice Bradley Miller. He added: “The record discloses that JP Lauzon is deeply committed to the improvement of the system of justice.” A disciplinary body, the Justices of the Peace Review Council, heard complaints in 2018 brought by three groups of Crown prosecutors. In 2020, it recommended her dismissal from the post, which pays more than $170,000 a year. A senior judge later put her on unassigned status, while she continued to be paid. A lower court declined to review the decision. The Ontario Court of Appeal was careful not to throw the door wide open to judicial speech. It ordered a 30-day suspension without pay and a reprimand for Ms. Lauzon, saying that the Justices of the Peace Review Council made a reasonable decision three years ago when it found she had spoken without caution or restraint. Read more...

The Globe and Mail

Russell Brown’s exit from Supreme Court points to need for better process, Chief Justice says

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada says the allegations against former justice Russell Brown are unfortunate, but Canadians should take heart in the fact there was a process at hand to deal with the situation. At his annual news conference to talk about the state of the court, Richard Wagner said ethical complaints against judges are never acceptable. “It’s unfortunate,” Chief Justice Wagner told journalists on Tuesday in his first detailed comments since Mr. Brown resigned Monday, after eight years on the Supreme Court. “One complaint is one too many. It should never happen, but that’s reality – it happens. … We’re lucky in this country to have some institutions to take care of those things.” He said he took pride that judges in Canada – both federal and provincial – were governed by ethical principles and that “if they make an error, a mistake serious enough, there is a process, there is a way to deal with that.” Mr. Brown resigned Monday, choosing to step down rather than face a public hearing over allegations he harassed women in an Arizona hotel in January. It is the first time a justice on the country’s most powerful court has quit over a misconduct claim since a public complaints process was created in 1971. Chief Justice Wagner, who declined to discuss the specific allegations against Mr. Brown, said he shares public concerns about transparency in the process for reviewing complaints about judicial conduct. Read more...

Toronto Life

“We’re in crisis mode”: A bail lawyer on backlogs and burnout at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre

In February, the Ontario government announced plans to merge Toronto’s six criminal courts into a new 17-storey courthouse near University and Dundas. Meanwhile, the Toronto Regional Bail Centre (TRBC) at 2201 Finch Avenue West is handling all the bail hearings that used to be divided between the six old courthouses—and it isn’t going well. Staff, judges and lawyers are working 13-hour days, and the backlog of cases has grown so severe that some people who merely need consent releases—cases where the Crown’s lawyer has already agreed to release them from custody—are being forced to remain in jail while their hearings are delayed. Bo Arfai, a representative of the Society of United Professionals’ Legal Aid Ontario Local, is one of the lawyers scrambling to handle the overwhelming caseload. Here, he talks about how the amalgamation is affecting him, his colleagues and their clients—and why the situation won’t improve without substantial change. Read more...

The Toronto Star

Sexual assault survivors need more control over publication bans

The criminal legal system was not built for sexual assault survivors. There are many ways it systematically fails to provide survivors support, choice, and agency. How the system imposes publication bans on the identity of complainants in sexual assault cases is one such example. Many women, particularly Black, Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and otherwise marginalized survivors, are blamed and made to feel ashamed for being assaulted. Shielding their identity through imposing publication bans was thought to be a way to protect them when reporting a sexual assault. In recent years, however, we have seen a particular increase in the number of survivors, disproportionately women, who want to speak freely and openly about their experience — to own their story. Where a publication ban has been imposed, sometimes without their consent or even their knowledge, it not only serves as an unwanted muzzle, but as a form of re-traumatization by the very system to which they were encouraged to report. Whether a survivor chooses to have their identity shielded by a publication ban or not, their choice is valid. What our system must strive to do is to make that a meaningful choice and to support survivors in exercising agency to make it. Read more...

The Globe and Mail

Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown resigns before start of inquiry into alleged harassment

Russell Brown has resigned from the Supreme Court of Canada, choosing to step down rather than face a public hearing over allegations he harassed women in an Arizona hotel in January. It is the first time a justice on the country’s most powerful court has quit over a misconduct claim since a public complaints process was created in 1971. Mr. Brown issued a defiant statement, saying his accuser made false allegations to avoid being charged himself for assault. “Because the allegations made against me are false, I had hoped this issue would be dispensed with quickly and would not significantly impact the Court’s business,” Mr. Brown said. “Sadly, that has not been the case.” The resignation of the 57-year-old judge, a 2015 appointee of Stephen Harper, means the loss of a strong conservative voice urging restraint on a court known for its liberal rulings. He accused his more liberal colleagues of expanding the rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to suit their own biases. He helped expand property rights, and supported a proposed Christian law school’s right to ban gay sex among its students, He also defended the rights of the criminally accused from what he deemed unfair police or prosecution powers. With Mr. Brown gone, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has an unexpected opportunity to pick a replacement, bringing the number of Trudeau appointments to six of nine on the country’s top court. By convention, the judge is to be from the West, because Mr. Brown was an Alberta judge. Read more...

The Globe and Mail

How Canada’s FOI system broke under its own weight

A developer from Cornwall, Ont., is perplexed to find that his building permits are suddenly being denied. He files a request under freedom-of-information law for copies of any city records about him or his company. Three months later, he’s told he will need to pay a $1,963.50 processing fee. When he does, he receives pages of mostly blanked-out paper, a full box of his own building applications and files and a note that 3,500 records are being fully withheld. In Saskatoon, a woman wants to learn about the outcome of a police investigation in which she was a complainant. She submits a freedom-of-information request and specifically asks for a copy of her witness statement, as well as copies of e-mails that she had provided as evidence. In response, the police service refuses to release those records without redactions, because of privacy concerns – privacy concerns about records she supplied. A wildlife protection organization is skeptical of an Alberta government claim that scores of wild horses need to be culled to prevent ecological damage. They believe the assertion is based on data that was given to the government by a ranchers’ association. The activists request those records, and are told they will need to pay the association for a copy. The price tag: $110,022.15. Read more...

The Ottawa Citizen

Opinion: Canada must not bow to French demands to extradite Hassan Diab

As scholars and human rights advocates with expertise in antisemitism and anti-minority discrimination, we are profoundly disturbed by the calls to extradite Canadian academic Hassan Diab: tried and convicted in absentia by a French court and sentenced to life, for a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing that by all the evidence he could not have committed. A version of this story was written 100 years ago, by the European Jewish author Franz Kafka. We find it impossible not to see the parallels between Kafka’s The Trial — in which protagonist Josef K is trapped in the gears of a state tribunal for a crime of which he has no knowledge — and the trials of Hassan Diab: a chilling transposition of Kafka’s 20th-century art into 21st-century life. Indeed, the ordeal imposed on Diab is in some ways even more Kafkaesque than a Kafka story. In The Trial, Josef K is presumed guilty without any evidence. Hassan D, on the other hand, has been found guilty, even in the face of contradictory evidence demonstrating his innocence. None of the forensics from the scene of the bombing point to him as the perpetrator, and testimonies corroborate that he was not even in France at the time. The handwriting analysis supposedly inculpating him has been authoritatively debunked — and in fact relied in part on writing samples that were not produced by Diab at all. Read more...

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