International Women’s Day - March 8, 2001
Human Rights are Women’s Rights

March 8, 2001 (Ottawa) Over the years, we have seen many calls for reform of women’s corrections, in particular, it has been 11 years since the government tabled Creating Choices, the report of the task force for federally sentenced women, and five years since they released Madam Justice Arbour’s report following the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston.

After years of discussions attempting to negotiate with Corrections to implement all of the recommendations of both, as well as legal actions and representations to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, we are now seeking the assistance of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Today , the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and the Native Women’s Association of Canada are filing a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and requesting that the Commission conduct a broad-systemic review. In addition, we are asking the CHRC to use it’s authority pursuant to s.61(2) of the Canadian Human Rights Act to report on the manner in which the Government of Canada is discriminating against women serving two years or more, breaching their human rights. We are alleging that the discrimination is on the basis of sex, race and disability.

As Gayle Horii’s 13 year old Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint and ongoing law suit exemplify, unlike their male counterparts, with the exception of 13 beds that have been slated for closure, women who are classified as minimum security prisoners do not have access to minimum security prisons. Furthermore, there are insufficient community based releasing options for women, especially Aboriginal women. Similarly, in addition to being subjected to a discriminatory classification scheme, women classified as maximum security prisoners and those identified as having cognitive and mental disabilities are not provided with adequate or appropriate carceral placement options.

Aboriginal women represent 1-2% of the population but 23% of the federally sentenced women population. Of these located in the Prairie region, in particular, approximately half are languishing in segregated maximum security units in men’s prisons. Women identified as having mental and cognitive disabilities face a similar plight. In addition to being subjected to a classification scheme that results in too many maximum security designations for these women, they are increasingly isolated in what the Correctional Investigator has referred to as brutal and discriminatory environments.