CSC AND THE 2 PER CENT SOLUTION:
THE P4W INQUIRY

Kim Pate

Although the Inquiry has been over for a number weeks and the final report of The Commission of Inquiry Into Certain Events at the Prison for Women at Kingston, Ontario is due out March 31, 1996, I feel as though I am only now emerging from the shroud of the events and proceedings. I am left without even a fleeting sense that things might actually change as a result.

As I write this, many of us are grieving the suicides of yet another two women in our prisons. I hope both Brenda and Denise may now rest in peace, and that the rest of us have the strength to continue on in our push for justice. I pray that we will see a time when no more women will lose their lives or their spirits in our prisons. I wish the Prison for Women (P4W) and other prisons could close permanently. I find myself increasingly vibrating between despair and anger. Rather than be immobilized by the despair, I urgently call for action.

Before I discuss what happened to whom and when, what my personal and CAEFS responses were, I need to start by articulating what I consider to be the most profoundly disturbing and disappointing revelations of the Inquiry. Throughout the process, I was shocked by the disdain for the women and the flagrant disregard for the law exhibited and articulated by Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) witnesses. This extended from those on the front line to those at the top, including the Commissioner and his Senior Deputy Commissioner. I was also incredulous at the extent of the systemic disorder and ineptitude of what seemed to be a bureaucracy out of control.

In the end, it was most disturbing to realize that every matter raised by Commission counsel in their final submissions to Justice Arbour had been raised prior to the C.B.C.'s Fifth Estate expose, with the Commissioner of Corrections, and in many instances the Minister as well. These matters were raised by the women themselves, via third level grievances as well as direct appeals to the Commissioner, and the Minister and some of his colleagues in Parliament. They were also raised by the Correctional Investigator. Issues were of course also raised by CAEFS, our membership, as well as our coalition partners in the women's social and criminal justice network.

In all cases then, the Commissioner had heard the same matters raised once, twice, three, or more times. This fact notwithstanding, he had chosen to believe the information he was receiving internally, even after such input had been clearly shown to be significantly flawed or obviously wrong. In the final days of the Inquiry, briefing notes disclosed that even after such issues as the use of force, the involvement of men in strip searching of the women and the women's lack of access to counsel had been established in evidence, the Commissioner was still being given erroneous information.

Kim Pate is the Executive Director of The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS), which is the national organization representing the twenty-one volunteer societies. For a broad explication of the context of these events at P4W, see Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, (1994) Vol. 5:1.