Canadian Justice - Human Rights Abusive?

"We expect full co-operation.  That's what we want to see.  This has been a tragedy.  What we've seen in the videos is completely unacceptable...  [T]his is an important inquest so we want to see CSC co-operating fully with the coroner".
Candice Bergen, parliamentary secretary to Vic Toews, Public Safety Minister

That full co-operation on the part of the Correctional Service Canada in the inquest into the death of Ashley Smith, a disturbed 19 when she died of self-inflicted strangulation is certainly a fundamental requirement to attempt to fully understand how it could be that in a country like Canada, a young girl could be incarcerated for the initial public offence of a complaint that she had tossed a handful of crabapples at a postal delivery person.




Ashley Smith was fifteen years of age when she was sent to prison for a month.  The young girl was defiant and she had a mind of her own.  She was non-compliant and adversarial, resistant to authority.  She was judged to be slightly mentally incapacitated.  Her original month-long prison sentence somehow was strung out for four years.  During that time she was moved from one penal institution to another, under different jurisdictions, province to province, in both federally and provincially-administered institutions.

The longer she remained incarcerated, the more resistant and difficult she became to control.  She began administering self-inflicted wounds, cutting herself, tying ligatures around her neck.  She clearly had no reason to be in prison.  Ashley Smith needed understanding, compassion, some authority to be concerned about her well-being.  The young girl was in need of psychological assessment and counselling assistance.  And this she never received.

She gained a reputation of being obstructive, difficult, and averse to direction and compromise.  At first, when she was seen to be in danger, guards would rush to her cell and remove that danger.  Toward the end of her life guards were instructed not to interfere.  And they watched while Ashley Smith died of strangulation by a ligature she had wound around her neck.  No one had informed the girl that she would no longer be assured of help when she needed it.

But then, Ashley never did receive the help she needed, not when she needed it, not ever.  She died at the age of 19, having wound a strip of cloth around her neck, five years ago at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ontario.  She had been treated brutally throughout her years at various penal institutions, having her hands bound with duct tape, being given anti-psychotic drugs against her will, her need for medical attention constantly ignored.

The year before her death she had been held in segregation.  She had spent six years' worth of penal custody for 'infractions' while in youth custody - which led to her being installed in the federal adult prison system.  Not for any crime she had committed, but for being non-compliant with the system.  During her time in federal custody the young woman was transferred 17 times between nine institutions in five provinces.


This is Canada's shame.

When videos were released that showed her ill treatment, guards duct-taping and drugging her against her will, threatening her and silencing her, they produced a sensation of disgust and disbelief among all who viewed them.  Among those who saw the videos was Prime Minister Stephen Harper who failed to be impressed with the professionalism of correctional authorities, deploring their unacceptable response to their prisoner.

While government lawyers have resisted co-operating with the inquiry into the circumstances of her death, attempting to keep videos respecting the young girl from public scrutiny, they have now been informed that they should withdraw from that tack.  "The Smith family and other parties have received the following statement from counsel for the Department of Justice: Canada is withdrawing its submissions regarding the scope of the inquest and the issuance of out-of-province summonses", the family's lawyer advised.

This dreadful case of a young girl spending lost years of her life in a prison system not geared to assist her, in an instance of an individual being institutionalized and her welfare ignored in a manner insulting to the guarantees under the Canadian justice system and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is an assault against the entire society.  We should collectively hang our heads in shame.

Which will be of no solace to Ashley Smith nor her bereaved parents.  Justice is much too late for Ashley Smith.