Segregation ruling could doom federal prison bill: Senator Pate

We cannot afford the luxury of debating ineffective, inhumane, and potentially unconstitutional reforms to segregation, especially not when individuals across the country are still being subjected to this cruel practice.

Sen. Kim Pate, pictured in 2017 on a fact-finding mission with other Senators, receives a note from a prisoner at the Regional Reception Centre in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. In October 2018, the federal government introduced Bill C-83, which purports to eliminate the use of segregation.It is simply sleight of hand.The bill does indeed remove language about segregation from the Corrections and Conditional Release Act—but it creates 'structured intervention units' (SIUs), which amount to the same thing, writes Sen. Pate. Photograph courtesy of the Senate

Opinion

BY SENATOR KIM PATE

April 8, 2019

The Court of Appeal for Ontario has struck down parts of Canada’s solitary confinement regime in a ruling that could have fatal repercussions for the federal government’s proposed overhaul of segregation practices. Having passed the House,

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