PRESIDENT’S REPORT

As I write my last report as President, I reflect on the work of our agency over the past year. I am proud to say that our organization remains strong and united in the face of our struggles to reveal and challenge the realities facing women in conflict with the law. Although I was unable to do much travelling this past year because of my own commitments, our Vice-President, Dawn McBride often filled in for me and I am wishing to express my gratitude to her.

I wish to give special and well-deserving recognition to the driving force of our organization, our staff at the CAEFS office. I have had the pleasure of working closely with our staff of the CAEFS office, Kim Pate and Gayle Bray. It is hard to believe that so much has been accomplished by these two people. Kim Pate, as Executive Director, continues to face the challenges with sincere dedication and persistence. Kim has made significant efforts to build strong coalitions with other groups, especially women’s and Aboriginal groups. This coalition is absolutely necessary to build a stronger voice as we advocate for law reform to ensure justice for women across this country. The issues facing women in prison continue to be voiced by Kim as she testifies in various court proceedings as an expert and as she travels around speaking at national and international conferences, universities and local and regional Elizabeth Fry meetings.

Gayle Bray plays an important role in disseminating information across this country to assist Kim and the Board in our efforts to keep our organization informed and responsive. She also keeps the CAEFS office covered as Kim visits prisoners, CAEFS network and fulfills other regional, national and international obligations. I wish to give special recognition for Gayle’s contribution to our organization’s goals and achievements.

CAEFS has continued throughout this year to deal with issues arising out of the classification and placement of maximum security women. Federally sentenced women who are classified as maximum continue to be imprisoned in men’s prisons. These women lack resources, treatment, programs and legal assistance. Their conditions of segregated confinement and isolation have caused many incidents of human rights violations. These women have little to no access to legal counsel so many if not most go unchallenged. CAEFS continues to strive to find ways to have these women gain access to the legal system and to challenge their treatment and confinement.

CAEFS continues to challenge the realities of minimum security women and their lack of confinement in minimum security settings. We continue to advocate that these women be returned to their children and families in their own communities. The reality is that these women have very limited options with respect to release into the community. We call for immediate action. CSC has still not developed or implemented a national strategy for community release for federally sentenced women.

CAEFS remains concerned about the conditions of confinement for federally sentenced women labelled as having mental health concerns. CAEFS supports these women being placed in the regional prisons and receiving external based counselling, therapeutic and spiritual supports in a women’s centred holistic environment.

As CAEFS approaches the millennium we will continue to challenge the conditions women in prison face. We will continue to advocate for equality in the law for women. We will fight for women to have access to the legal system. We face these challenges with the support of our ever-increasing strength in coalition. I have enjoyed being President of this organization and will continue to support it in any way that I can in the future. I am very pleased to welcome Dawn McBride as the incoming President of CAEFS. She has been a tireless and inspirational advocate and has provided much support to me and to the CAEFS office. We look forward to her leadership.