s. 6(1) The following rules shall be applied impartially. There shall be no discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

In accordance with the interpretative guidelines, set out in section 6(1), and in light of CSC’s failure to provide adequate programming to FSW (which meet their varied needs, taking into account their race, gender, cultural, social backgrounds, etc.), it is evident that CSC has breached s. 59, 66(1) and 67 of the SMRs.

Finally, CSC continues to breach s. 51(3) of the SMRs which provides that “[w]omen prisoners shall be attended and supervised only by women officers.”99 After three years of monitoring and reporting on the use of male guards as frontline workers in federal women’s prisons, the Cross-Gender Monitors (the “Monitors”) recommended that men not be employed as front-line Primary Workers.100 In their third and final report, the Monitors found that the number of privacy violations by male Primary Workers had increased and that the protocols instituted for the screening and training of front-line workers had not been followed and, in some cases, had been purposefully violated. The Monitors’ findings make it clear that Canada continues to breach s. 51(3) of the SMRs and that CSC must, at a minimum, immediately implement the Monitors’ recommendations.101

ii) Body of Principles and Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners

CSC’s Working Group on Human Rights identified two additional instruments, endorsed by Canada, which reinforce the protection of prisoner’s rights:

  • Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners. Adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly resolution 45/111 of 14 December 1990; and

99.

Section 51(3) goes on to say, “This does not, however, preclude male members of the staff, particularly doctors and teachers, from carrying out their professional duties in institutions or parts of institutions set aside for women.”

100.

See Thérèse Lajeunesse et al., Third and Final Report of the Cross-Gender Monitoring Project (2002), especially Recommendation #1, available at www.csc-scc.gc.ca.

101.

The Monitors’ other key recommendations include the need for women-centered training and for independent, arm’s length review of sexual misconduct allegations by FSW against staff and others, among other key recommendations.
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