If you file a complaint or grievance, keep a copy of it for your records. If you receive any written documentation from prison staff, the CSC, an outside organization, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Courts, or anybody else – keep it in as safe a place as possible! This will be very helpful in helping you to resolve your problem. You may also want to give copies of your paperwork to someone outside of the prison.

What is a problem that I should try to remedy?
Any decision or action by a staff member that makes you unhappy or compromises your dignity may be a problem. Any decision or action that denies your rights or further restricts your liberty is almost definitely a problem. Here are some examples:

• poor treatment by a staff member (e.g. the way you are talked to otherwise dealt with);
• denial of your yard time;
• denial of your documentation;
• denial of a phone call;
• prison placement;
• inaccuracy in your file(s) or report(s);
• new (higher) security classification;
• reduction of your visiting rights;
• disciplinary charge;
• placement in administrative segregation;
• involuntary transfer.

Why should I seek a solution to my problem?
Perhaps the most obvious reason to seek a remedy for your problem is that success will mean an immediate improvement in your personal situation. However, there are a number of other reasons that may be just as important or, ultimately, even more so.

Perhaps one of the most important reasons to file a complaint or grievance is that now you have that right. While generations of prisoners before you had no such law to protect them, the CCRA now states that decisions made about you must be made in a forthright and fair manner and that, if this is not the case, you have the right to an effective grievance procedure.²⁸⁹ You also have a right to be treated with respect and dignity and the right to validation when someone treats you otherwise. However, history shows that rights can be lost as well as gained, and that one of the best ways to keep your rights is to exercise them.

When you use the grievance procedure successfully, you reinforce the notion that there is a need for the formal procedure and you also demonstrate that the procedure can work. If, on the other hand, you can’t get a problem resolved through the grievance procedure, you still document that something is going wrong, and therefore help to build the argument that other alternatives are needed. In short, you can help to maintain or even advance your rights simply by exercising them.