When K’s grandfather died, her request for a compassionate temporary absence pass to allow her to attend his funeral was refused. When a Winnipeg police officer exaggerated and misstated the reality of the risk posed by K, CSC and the Solicitor General refused to allow her to pay her respects to the man who had raised her and whom she had known more as a father than as a grandfather.

At the age of 19 years, K was released on statutory release. Although her grandmother requested that K be permitted to live with her, CSC chose instead to force her to go to a men's halfway house. K was the only woman in the house and she became to focal point of more than one resident’s advances. Consequently, it was not surprising that she tried to use any means available to avoid being at the house. As a result, she was deemed to have breached the conditions of her parole and was twice put back into the Portage jail.

When K’s two-year jail sentence expired, she was still not free to move on with her life. She is now subject to a sentence which we consider excessive. When her prison sentence expired, K commenced three years of probation, the conditions of which are more stringent than her parole conditions. In addition to a 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. curfew, she has to complete 400 hours of community service work. These conditions preclude her being able to continue the work she was doing in the evenings while on parole, which means she cannot afford to support herself nor is she able to continue in her educational endeavours. After spending time at her mother’s beyond her curfew, as well as because of difficulties she is experiencing in trying to complete her community service work hours, K has also now been charged with breaches of her probation order.

As K has so articulately challenged us and the members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, where does she go for help and support now? K was in the care of the child welfare authorities at the time of her arrest. The State were therefore her “parents”. Five years later, however, at the age of 21 years, K is “released to freedom” without resources, familial support and now further beaten down by the system. K learned to slash and self-medicate as a means of coping with life in prison. It is all she sometimes feels she has left when she is overcome by the bleak reality of her life -- no family, no money, and no job, but quick action to charge and jail her when she finds she cannot cope and fails to adhere to all of her conditions of probation.