From October 4-6, 2024, legal professionals, scholars, community advocates, students, and formerly incarcerated persons gathered at the Peter A. Allard School of Law for the Canadian Prison Law Conference: Rights, Remedies and Decarceration. Co-hosted by the Canadian Prison Law Association and Allard Law, the conference was a powerful and timely gathering focused on rethinking carceral law and justice in Canada.

Held on the unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people, the conference created space for critical conversations about prisoners’ rights, decarceration strategies, and the future of prison law and legal education. It marked an important moment of collaboration between people inside and outside of the legal system, bringing together perspectives that are too often left out of mainstream legal discourse.

Over the three-day conference, participants engaged with a wide array of urgent topics, including:

• Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous justice practices

• The legal and ethical implications of life sentences

• Solitary confinement and its evolving forms

• Enforcing human rights in prisons

• Abolitionist legal strategies and decarceral frameworks

• Constitutional rights and the limits of Charter remedies

• Prison law and legal education

The panels were rich in insight and grounded in real-world experience. Speakers included legal practitioners with decades of experience, formerly incarcerated advocates, emerging scholars, and front-line community organizers. 

The conference was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Law Foundation of British Columbia and the Peter A. Allard School of Law Research Engagement Fund.

We extend deep appreciation to the organizing committee—Debra Parkes (co-chair), Kate Mitchell (co-chair), Nora Demnati, Nyki Kish, Jennifer Metcalfe, and Reakash Walters—whose leadership brought this important event to life.

On October 4, 2024, the Canadian Prison Law Association awarded Chip O'Connor the CPLA Lifetime Member Award.

Chip has been practicing law in Kingston since 1975, and for most of that time, he has been devoted to correctional law.

Chip was a founding member of the CPLA and also served as Director of the Correctional Law Project (now Queen’s Prison Law Clinic) at Queen’s Law School. For almost five decades, Chip has been an active advocate for incarcerated persons. He has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada no fewer than twelve times, in seminal prisoner human rights cases involving the right to vote, search and seizure, habeas corpus, and the extension of the application of Gladue principles for Indigenous prisoners. Chip has also been counsel in dozens of appellate cases across the country. In addition, Chip appeared before the Prison for Women Commission of Inquiry (1996), conducted by Madame Justice Louise Arbour.

Chip has lectured extensively on the rights of incarcerated persons, including at the Native Law Centre in Saskatchewan and at Queen's Law. He has published a textbook on the subject of prison law through Quicklaw (Halsbury’s Laws of Canada on Penitentiaries, Jails and Prisoners).

Chip was the recipient of the Ed McIsaac Human Rights in Corrections Award from the Office of the Correctional Investigator in 2021. In the press release for this award, Ivan Zinger called Chip "a legend in Canadian correctional law circles". 

Chip also received the Sidney B. Linden Award from Legal Aid Ontario in 2013 for his work defending prison inmates: https://www.thewhig.com/2013/11/25/local-lawyer-wins-award.

The CPLA is pleased to honour Chip's incredible career and commitment to defending prisoners' rights.

The CPLA filed a motion for leave to intervene on January 15, 2025. On January 24, the Respondent the Attorney General of Canada advised that it would not be opposing the CPLA's motion for leave. Accordingly, we expect to file a factum and be entitled to five minutes of oral argument at the hearing, which is scheduled to take place May 13, 2025.

Dorsey is a case on appeal from the Ontario Court of Appeal (2023 ONCA 843) regarding the expansion of habeas corpus as an available remedy in situations where the detaining authority has declined to afford someone an expansion of residual liberty (as opposed to the current state of affairs, in which habeas corpus can only be used to challenge a reduction in residual liberty).

The motion for intervention materials are viewable here. 

The Canadian Prison Law Association hosted a conference “Rights, Remedies and Decarceration” on October 4-6, 2024 at the University of British Columbia, with the generous assistance of the Law Foundation of British Columbia. The program to the conference can be accessed here.

105 people attended in person with 112 attending online for a total of 217 attendees. The conference brought together lawyers, scholars, students, community advocates, and people with lived experience of incarceration to share knowledge and discuss legal strategies for promoting decarceration and prisoners’ rights. 

There were 13 people with lived experience of incarceration who attended the conference in person. One panel was on life sentences and included Yvonne Johnson, Nyki Kish and Sheri Pranteau, who shared their analysis, research and experiences of living with a life sentence on parole. Another panel entitled “Challenging Anti-Black Racism in Prison and Parole” included Renford Farrier, who spoke about his experiences in prison and his release on parole, and Svens Telemaque who spoke about his work in prison reform and with the DESTA Black Community Network’s Escorted Temporary Absence Program.

The Canadian Prison Law Association is partnering with the Peter A. Allard School of Law to bring the Canadian Prison Law Conference: Rights, Remedies and Decarceration to the Vancouver campus on October 4-6, 2024.

The conference will bring together lawyers, scholars, students, community advocates, and people with lived experience of incarceration to share knowledge and discuss legal strategies for promoting decarceration and prisoners’ rights. 

The conference will take place on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territory and will include panels on Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous justice practices, life sentences, solitary confinement in its many forms, enforcing human rights in places of detention, abolitionist legal strategies, constitutional rights and remedial possibilities, prison law and legal education, and more.

Visit the conference event page to view the program, register, and book accommodation. 

From October 4-6, 2024, the Canadian Prison Law Association and the University of British Columbia will be hosting a prison law conference at the Peter A Allard School of Law in Vancouver. Registration will be opening soon, and details will be posted here, so stay tuned.

The Canadian Prison Law Association is calling on the Ontario government to apologize to the family of Soleiman Faqiri, and take immediate steps to implement the 57 recommendations that resulted from the coroner’s inquest into his death.

Soleiman Faqiri died in December 2016 at the Lindsay Jail. He had been arrested in the midst of a mental health crisis, and once in jail his mental health deteriorated significantly. He died after being violently tackled by numerous correctional officers. In December 2023 the coroner ruled his death a homicide.

This morning Soleiman Faqiri’s family stood in the Ontario legislative building, calling for an apology and urging the government to move forward with the inquest recommendations that are intended to prevent similar deaths in the future. CPLA echoes those calls, and in particular calls on the Ontario government to implement the recommendation to establish an independent prison inspectorate for provincial facilities. 

In 2023 the CPLA filed access to information requests to obtain the strip search policies of all the provincial and territorial correctional systems. We have decided to post the policies so they can be used in advocacy and research:

• Alberta: Body Orifice Security Scanner Chair; Strip search
• Manitoba
• New Brunswick
• Newfoundland
• Nova Scotia
• Nunavut
• Northwest Territories: Policy 1; Policy 2
• Ontario
• PEI: Adult; Youth
• Saskatchewan
• Yukon: Policy 1; Policy 2

On December 14, 2023, CPLA vice president Jennifer Metcalfe, Executive Director of Prisoners' Legal Services, spoke to the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs regarding Bill S-230. Read Jennifer's remarks below. 

The CPLA supports this bill. 

Bill S-230, section 2

We agree it is important that people in all forms of solitary confinement, including in dry cells, lockdowns and suicide observation cells, have procedural protections.

We are also concerned that people experience solitary-like conditions through institutional movement routines in many maximum-security prisons, that can be more restrictive than SIU. So, the comparison to the mainstream population may not be helpful.

We recommend expanding protection against isolation by adopting the language of the US “End Solitary Confinement Act”, which would require 14 hours per day out of cell in shared spaces, including at least 7 hours of programs and education. Under this bill, cell confinement for de-escalation or lockdowns is limited to 4 hours per day, and 12 hours per week.

Bill S-230, sections 3 and 4

We support health care assessments by independent clinicians and transferring people with disabling mental health issues to a hospital, or mental health facility, if they wish.

We are especially concerned that people with mental health disabilities are being held in isolation, and CSC-employed health care staff are not advocating for their patients to be removed from isolation when their mental health deteriorates.

Research by Drs. Anthony Doob and Jane Sprott found that CSC health providers recommended removal from SIU in only 0.15% of cases [3 out of 1,983 SIU stays they looked at], despite their estimation that 28% of SIU stays constituted solitary confinement and that 10% of stays constituted torture under the UN definition [of stays of more than 15 days duration].

In our view, “disabling mental health issues” should go beyond a DSM-5 diagnosis and should include the symptoms of solitary, including self harm and suicidal ideation, and trauma that result from uses of force. We have clients who are engaging in regular self-harm and suicide attempts who are turned away from CSC Regional Treatment Centres.

Everyone with a disabling mental health disability would not be suitable for detention in a hospital. We recommend amending s 29.02 to include community-based mental health services, to allow people to be placed in health care environments that are most appropriate for them. 

We recommend removing the word “including” from s 29.02, so it would read:

… the Commissioner must authorize that person’s transfer to a hospital, including or any mental health facility…

Bill S-230, section 5

The CPLA supports judicial oversight of placement in SIU of more than 48 hours. CSC and IEDM reviews do not allow people to meaningfully exercise the right to counsel. CSC, and now IEDMs, refuse to share documents with counsel for reviews. Judicial oversight would address this problem, among others.  

Any review of SIU placements must have the authority to order alternatives besides being returned to the mainstream population of a maximum-security prison, which has comparable levels of isolation to SIU.

Bill S-230, section 8

The CPLA supports expanding opportunities for disadvantaged groups to serve sentences in the community. We suggest adding poverty to the definition, and recommend legislation require at least equal funding for community-based alternatives to prison. This could be done through a significant shift of funding from CSC to community-based services.

Unfairness in the Administration of a sentence

The CPLA also supports judicial oversight of unjust administration of the sentence.

Joey Toutsaint’s situation provides a good example of the need for this amendment. He spent 2,180 days in segregation and continues to be isolated since the regime changed. He is unlikely to be able to get out of maximum security because he experiences the normal responses to isolation and trauma, which include anxiety, angry outbursts, depression, paranoia, self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

Joey Toutsaint is in the same position as many other Indigenous people who are twice as likely to be classified to maximum security, (Indigenous women are 4x more likely to be maxed) and less likely to be released on parole.

Joey Toutsaint’s continued imprisonment is not fulfilling the purpose of CSC; it is not “safe” or “humane” and he is not being assisted in his “rehabilitation” or “reintegration into the community”.

The ability to apply for a reduction of sentence to court for the reasons set out in the Bill, would significantly improve the basic rights of people in prison.