CAEFS' complaint is also being supported by the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, Assembly of First Nations, National Association of Friendship Centres, Federation of Saskatchewan Indian , Nations, Strength In SISterhood, DIsAbled Women's Network Canada, National Action Committee on the Status of Women, National Association of Women and the Law, Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, Canadian Bar Association and Amnesty International and many local members, as well as the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies' membership. Human Rights and Prison Watch International as well as Amnesty International have already indicated their concern regarding the human rights abuses in Canadian prisons for women.

Canada prides itself on its international human rights reputation. When it comes to the manner in which we treat our most marginalized, that reputation is too often not warranted. The Canadian government has refused to implement repeated recommendations by the Correctional Service of Canada's own task forces on federally sentenced women and segregation for external oversight, as well as it's own commission's recommendations for judicial oversight. Canada has even rejected the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights on this point.

c) Police Brutality

CAEFS is extremely concerned about the reaction of the police to several recent highly publicized incidents involving women alleging mistreatment by police. Although it is not surprising that the official reactions had been to minimize and present the incidents as anomalies, we all know the realities of the nature and extent of abuse experienced by victimized and criminalized women. Unfortunately yet understandably, most of these women are not willing to lay complaints against the police. As such, CAEFS believes it is our obligation and duty to document as much information about the these sorts of matters as possible.

Staff Accordingly, the membership continues to be encouraged to document women's stories (ie. number of incidents, nature (harassment, assault, rape) of incidents, demographic information (race, occupation, sexual orientation, et cetera), name/badge #/police officer and which police force is involved, whether a complaint or other action was taken (not likely in most cases), rationale for not reporting (fear of reprisal, explicit threats, lack of faith in follow-up by the . system), whether the woman contacted a lawyer and, if so, what action if any has been or will be undertaken involved.

For women who may have civil claims against the police, it is important that they act quickly to pursue any legal actions, as there are usually relatively short statute of limitation periods on claims against the police and other agents of the Crown/state. In Ontario, for example, individuals only have six months following an incident in which to launch a law suit.