WHY DID CAEFS LAUNCH THIS COMPLAINT?
"One must resist the temptation to trivialize the infringement of prisoners' rights as either an insignificant infringement of rights, or as an infringement of the rights of people who do not deserve any better. When a right has been granted by law, it is no less important that such right be respected because the person entitled to it is a prisoner."
On International Women's Day, March 8, 2001, CAEFS, together with the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), wrote to the Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) to urge the Commission to conduct a broad-based systemic review and issue a special report, pursuant to section 61(2) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, regarding the treatment of women serving federal terms of imprisonment. CAEFS Submission supports and builds on a complaint already filed by Saskatchewan Elizabeth Fry Society. It has the support of 27 other equality-seeking groups in Canada. The areas of concern are:
discrimination on the basis of sex faced by all women throughout the system as it contravenes several of the prohibited grounds articulated in s. 3(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act. This discrimination affects the way women are classified, the kind of programs and treatment they receive and the timely manner in which they are released back into the community. The situation facing Canadian women prisoners has been well documented in a series of reports. See:
Justice Louise Arbour: Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston: http://www.justicebehindthewalls.net/resources/arbour_report/arbour_rpt.htm
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/20030404ce.html/$file/20030404ce.pdf
Amnesty International Brief to UN 2002
discrimination on the basis of race that is the particular experience of Aboriginal and other racialized women. Aboriginal women represent 30% of the total population of federally sentenced women, yet they are less than 3% of the population of Canada. The over representation is all the more pronounced among prisoners classified as maximum security, where Aboriginal women usually represent approximately 50% of the maximum security population. As well, Aboriginal women are 14% less likely to be released into the community on conditional release than are non-Aboriginal women. See submission of Native Women's Association of Canada.
Annual Reports of the Correctional Investigator (1999 -2003):
http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/reports_e.asp
discrimination on the basis of disability that is experienced by federally sentenced women with cognitive and mental disabilities. A lack of appropriate placement options and treatment programs, re-training, classification as maximum security inmates, contributes to worsening the situation for the growing number of women with disabilities now in Canadian prisons. See the submission of the DisAbled Women's Network of Canada.
Canadian prisons, like their US counterparts, are rapidly becoming "dumping grounds" for the mentally ill in lieu of community-based support and treatment programs. See a special report on US prisons by Human Rights Watch International http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/10/us102203.htm
The complaint launched by CAEFS and other national equality seeking groups, focuses on the systemic discrimination experienced by federally sentenced women. The named party responsible for that discrimination is the Government of Canada, and not merely the Correctional Service of Canada. The facts associated with the sheer numbers of women serving federal sentences, their demographics, particularly those with respect to race and disability; present a prima facie case of discrimination. Accordingly, it is the contention of CAEFS and other organizations that the onus falls on the Government of Canada, including the Correctional Service of Canada, to establish how they will address the discriminatory patterns evidenced by their own data and research.
http://www.elizabethfry.ca/eweek03/factsht.htm#prison