News release: On Monday, November 16th a coalition of groups invested in prisoner justice are launching a 15-day spotlight on the ongoing practice of solitary confinement in Canada.
Join us Tuesday, Oct 27 at 6 pm ADT for our second event in the Criminal Justice Speakers Series – Social Justice Advocacy in Women’s Prisons.
Senator Kim Pate: “This Prisoners’ Justice Day, and every day, let us honour those who have died, including as a result of COVID-19 and other illnesses and conditions that are preventable and treatable in our communities, and as a result of systemic silence, neglect, discrimination and violence.”
To mark Prisoners’ Justice Day, August 10, Books Beyond Bars will hold a panel discussion tomorrow featuring people who have experienced incarceration.
I remember being taken aback when I first arrived in Nova Scotia a long time ago, reading the full names and addresses of people involved in the criminal justice system in the newspapers. In Holland, where I was born, identities of accused and even convicted people are never published. If it were up to me Canada would follow the dutch example, but I realize that’s asking for a huge change. That said, I would love to see a discussion about those cases where people are merely charged with a crime. Do we really need to know their names?
People imprisoned at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) are conducting a hunger strike after the jail failed to honour the agreement that brought a previous hunger strike to an end on June 4. This is a letter in support of their efforts by the people engaged in the 2018 Burnside prison strike.
Martha Paynter, Keisha Jefferies and Leah Carrier: “Nursing has a long history of complicity in exclusion, oppression, and exploitation of BIPOC. Changing that course requires abolitionist action, and the 2020 International Year of the Nurse and Midwife should be devoted to that change.”
As soon as COVID-19 spread to North America, health professionals, scholars and activists expected widespread outbreaks in prisons. Advocates pleaded for governments to release prisoners. One province, Nova Scotia, heeded this call.
The joint housing initiative between John Howard, Elizabeth Fry Mainland and Coverdale that has supported 34 people who have exited jail during the pandemic is being shut down as of June 30 as the federal funding has ended. Despite the groups’ best efforts we have received no commitment from the provincial government. Sara Tessier is a peer support worker for the project and has penned this op/ed.
Three community-based organizations serving criminalized people in Nova Scotia have developed and launched a pilot housing project to support people exiting jail during the global pandemic Covid-19.