Rob Tripp's Blog: Cancrime, page 10

Tribunal ruling reveals ugly feud between ex-warden, CSC bosses

A labour tribunal decision has exposed an ugly feud between Alfred Legere (inset), former warden of Nova women’s prison in Truro, Nova Scotia, and top bosses at Corrections Canada, in a case related to the controversial death of Ashley Smith, a teenage prisoner who choked herself to death in October 2007 at  Grand Valley Institution, a federal prison for women in Kitchener, Ontario. Smith’s death is now the subject of a highly publicized inquest that has revealed dramatic CSC failures in the handling of a difficult inmate with serious mental health problems. Legere, who already has testified at the inquest, claims, in internal grievances he has filed, that he has been subjected to harassment, gross mismanagement and he has been scapegoated by CSC over the Smith case. Legere claims that a transfer to another prison was, in fact, a double demotion that amounted to disguised punishment. The details of Legere’s battle with his bosses appear to have been kept quiet, until now. The fight isn’t over so more details may yet emerge.

Amazing Grace echoes through shuttered Kingston Pen

The CSC Pipes & Drums performed “Amazing Grace” from an upper tier catwalk overlooking the main dome of Kingston Penitentiary during the private decommissioning ceremony held at the prison on October 24 (video after jump). VIPs, including former staff, family of staff who died at KP, and Corrections brass were on hand for the formal event marking the end of the facility’s life as a functioning penitentiary, 178 years after it opened in 1835 at Hatter’s Bay. No decision has been made about the fate of the vast property, which comprises more than 40 buildings within the 20-acre walled compound on the shore of Lake Ontario.

The video shows that guests at the event stood on the main floor of the dome and craned their necks skyward, as the band loomed over them from the same spot where crazed convicts screamed for blood during the deadly riot of 1971. During that insurrection, rioters strapped 14 undesirables, snitches and sex offenders, to chairs on the main level of the dome and tortured them (historic photo below of the aftermath in the dome). Two of the 14 torture victims died. Most of the rioters watched the torture from those upper tier catwalks.

There remains considerable resentment and anger over the decision to close KP, as voiced on Twitter on October 24, the day of the decommissioning ceremony, by a member of the union representing correctional officers (screengrab here).

One spectator at the decommissioning ceremony has written about the experience here, explaining that roughly 400 people were in attendance at an event with a sombre mood. According to the account, the name of each officer who died on duty was read aloud, a bell was rung and there  was a moment of silence.

The main dome of KP, where 14 "undesirables" were tortured during the 1971 riot (photo from Canada's Penitentiary Museum)

Government’s crime tactics are “slogans and failed policies”

The Harper government has done a good job of silencing critics from within, bureaucratics and caucus members who disagree with the government’s often regressive and ideologically-driven policies on crime and justice. But the Cons face a formidable new foe who can’t be silenced or dismissed as a crackpot. Six months after retirement, a long-serving and universally admired architect of federal crime and justice measures, Mary Campbell (inset), has unleashed withering criticism of the Tories, calling their so called tough-on-crime measures a series of “slogans and failed policies” that reflect a “deep, visceral nastiness” and “do nothing to reduce or address crime.”

Campbell retired in April from her post as director general, Corrections and Criminal Justice Directorate, Public Safety Canada, the pinnacle of a distinguished public service career that spanned more than 25 years. She’s someone worth listening to, and the Tories can’t write her off as an academic with an agenda or a political opportunist. She is a dedicated public servant who has spent decades working from within to build a better criminal justice system, and now she’s clearly disgusted with the the direction it is being steered by the Harper government.

Doug Quan at Postmedia News appears to have the exclusive scoop on Campbell’s criticisms, in this story. Campbell was honoured three years ago with the Ed McIsaac Human Rights in Corrections Award. The citation praised her for:

In her current position as Director General, Corrections and Criminal Justice Directorate, Public Safety Canada, Ms. Campbell provides expert policy, program, legislative and research advice to support the Minister and Parliament. “For the past 25 years, Ms. Campbell has been at the forefront of legislative, criminal justice and sentencing policy reforms that have defined Canada’s correctional system,” said Mr. [Howard] Sapers. “Mary has served Canadians with unsurpassed integrity, conviction and distinction. Her achievements in the field of social justice, academia and correctional law and policy reform have been nothing short of extraordinary.” A lawyer by training, Ms. Campbell has spearheaded or was a member of major reforms of federal correctional law and related criminal justice statutes including creation and amendment of the National Sex Offender Registry in 2004 and 2010, guidelines for Dangerous Offender designation and enactment of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act in 1992. Her publications in the areas of prisoners’ legal rights, sentencing reform and case law are standard reading in criminology courses and law departments across Canada.

Campbell has always been a voice of reason in the system, advocating what is reasonable and what makes the most sense, if our goal is to make society safer. A brief passage from a 2004 Parliamentary committee meeting illustrates the point. In this passage, Campbell is answering a question from a politician – a member of the committee – about the best way to reintegrate released criminals back into society:

First of all, the research indicates that people who come out under conditions do better than people who come out free and clear.

The second thing is, we see now in the U.S. a real shift back to a focus on prisoner re-entry—they’re now calling it re-entry, not parole—and a lot of recognition that this is the best way of bringing people back. All offenders who are coming back need some period of support and supervision.

That’s a lot of the thinking that’s going on at the two-thirds point in the sentence. I don’t think offenders get a free ride at that point in the sentence. Their past behaviour is very closely examined.

Why don’t we just go to a discretionary decision? Ultimately that’s a decision for Parliament to make. But the Canadian system has been founded on the view that if there are people who can be safely released at an earlier point, that’s the appropriate decision. By the time we’ve reached the two-thirds point, we have a warrant expiry date staring us in the face. What is the best way—and by that I mean for the protection of society—to re-integrate that person? For the majority of offenders, it will be through a very closely supervised release.

I came in at a time when people were released at the two-thirds point and were absolutely free and clear. There was no support, no supervision, nothing, at that point. The past 20 years have really just been a progression of tightening up that form of release to a point where it is quite restrictive now but still reflects the principle that people do better—and therefore society is safer—if they have that period.

Here’s the full text of Doug Quan’s Postmedia story,  which includes video of Campbell:

VANCOUVER – A former high-ranking public servant in Ottawa is ripping into the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime policies, saying they reflect a “deep, visceral nastiness” and actually “do nothing to reduce or address crime.”
Mary Campbell retired in April as director general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate at Public Safety Canada. In her role, she says she met almost weekly with the public safety minister or senior staff, giving advice on public policy, programs and research.
Twenty years ago, Canada was regarded as a “world leader” in the corrections field. Today, it has reached its “lowest point,” Campbell told Postmedia News in Vancouver, where she addressed a criminal justice conference Thursday.
“The current government has an approach that they like to call tough on crime. I say that’s the last thing it is. In fact it’s quite soft on crime because it’s really a lot of slogans and failed policies that do nothing to address crime or victimization.”
Some of the rhetoric, she said, was on display this summer when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new legislation for dealing with child-sex offenders.
“The fact is we don’t understand them and we don’t particularly care to. We understand only that they must be dealt with,” Harper said at the time.
Campbell said those remarks are “chilling when we think of them used with other groups of citizens today and in the past.”
“The deeply embedded nastiness of the current governing party is constantly displayed in their actions, whether it be creating even more punitive carceral conditions, erecting barriers to reintegration, never letting the offender be more than the worst thing they have ever done, using victims for political ends – the list is truly endless,” she wrote in her conference speaking notes.
Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, said in an email Thursday that the government “unapologetically puts the needs of victims ahead of convicted criminals” and that “we will continue to do so above the objections of prisoner rights advocates.”
“Canada has a modern and humane correctional system,” he added.
Campbell, a public servant for almost 30 years, stressed she’s “not all about blaming the politicians.” In her speech and interview, she implored senior administrators in the criminal justice field to push for more “progressive” policies and evidence-based programs. Many changes do not require legislative changes, she said.
They could start, for instance, by focusing resources on dealing with high-risk offenders.
“We waste a lot of taxpayers’ hard–earned money on low-risk offenders. We know from the research that we shouldn’t do anything with them … Stop sending them automatically into halfway houses on day parole.”
Money instead could go, for instance, towards women offenders with severe mental illness, placing them in hospital treatment centres where they can get intensive psychiatric care, she said.
“So far that has not materialized and I think it’s frustrating to see the slow pace. You start to wonder what more is it going to take to get some of these agreements going? … The suffering and the harm that’s done is really shocking for a country like Canada.”
Off-site treatment was one of the recommendations in a report released this week by Canada’s prison watchdog, Howard Sapers, documenting the growing number of cases of chronic self-injury among women inmates.
Public safety memos obtained under access-to-information legislation show that the correctional service has been considering a pilot project with regional mental health facilities to address “acute” mental health needs of women inmates.
The memos point out, however, that providing them with in-patient psychiatric services will be more expensive than providing mental health services within the prison system.
Veronique Rioux, a spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada, said this week that those partnerships are still being explored and community health experts are reviewing possible treatment plans.
Campbell also said there is an urgent need for more real-world job training for inmates that will make them marketable when they leave prison.
What exists now are “ad hoc, hit-and-miss contracts for low-grade work, nothing that’s training for a substantial job,” she said.
“Do the labour market analysis so we know where the gaps are and start matching up offenders to that training.”
She said it was “egregious” that women inmates at Joliette Institution in Quebec, for instance, were sewing underwear for male inmates.
“There is a garment industry in Quebec. But I see no evidence that men’s underwear is part of it,” she said. “C’mon, it’s a waste of time.”
Corrections officials said earlier this summer that they have developed a multi-year strategy to “align vocational training with current labour market data” and continue to look for opportunities to expand apprenticeships.
Campbell said there’s an international principle that people go to prison as punishment, but the Harper government has taken the view that people should go to prison for punishment.
That’s been reflected, she said, in the stripping away of privileges, such as access to weightlifting equipment, and reducing how much money inmates can earn. She said she’s even heard suggestions to feed the inmates less.
“It reflects a basic attitude of there’s us and there’s them – they are the worst thing they’ve ever done and that’s all they’ll ever be,” she said.
This negativity, she said, has filtered down to front-line public safety staff. For instance, parole hearings and parole decisions have increasingly become “cutting and cruel,” she said.
Campbell said there’s far too much fixation during parole hearings on grilling offenders on irrelevant matters and assessing offenders’ “moral worthiness” – are they sorry enough? – when it should be about, “Is this the right time and the right conditions to start re-integrating you?”
A spokesman said Thursday the Parole Board of Canada had “no comment to offer.”
Campbell said that in many respects, the U.S. has moved ahead of Canada. Americans are focusing resources on higher-risk offenders, conditions for parole are being reduced and special release measures are being introduced for elderly and sick prisoners. A few years ago, U.S. federal prisons also allowed some inmates access to email messaging.
Advocates say email makes it easier for inmates to maintain ties with family and conduct their legal affairs, and for authorities to monitor communications. It also reduces opportunities to smuggle drugs or contraband via regular mail.
Asked if Canada was contemplating such an idea, a corrections spokeswoman said the government “does not have such a plan.”

VANCOUVER – A former high-ranking public servant in Ottawa is ripping into the Conservative government’s tough-on-crime policies, saying they reflect a “deep, visceral nastiness” and actually “do nothing to reduce or address crime.”

Mary Campbell retired in April as director general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate at Public Safety Canada. In her role, she says she met almost weekly with the public safety minister or senior staff, giving advice on public policy, programs and research.

Twenty years ago, Canada was regarded as a “world leader” in the corrections field. Today, it has reached its “lowest point,” Campbell told Postmedia News in Vancouver, where she addressed a criminal justice conference Thursday.

“The current government has an approach that they like to call tough on crime. I say that’s the last thing it is. In fact it’s quite soft on crime because it’s really a lot of slogans and failed policies that do nothing to address crime or victimization.”

Some of the rhetoric, she said, was on display this summer when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new legislation for dealing with child-sex offenders.

“The fact is we don’t understand them and we don’t particularly care to. We understand only that they must be dealt with,” Harper said at the time.

Campbell said those remarks are “chilling when we think of them used with other groups of citizens today and in the past.”

“The deeply embedded nastiness of the current governing party is constantly displayed in their actions, whether it be creating even more punitive carceral conditions, erecting barriers to reintegration, never letting the offender be more than the worst thing they have ever done, using victims for political ends – the list is truly endless,” she wrote in her conference speaking notes.

Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, said in an email Thursday that the government “unapologetically puts the needs of victims ahead of convicted criminals” and that “we will continue to do so above the objections of prisoner rights advocates.”

“Canada has a modern and humane correctional system,” he added.

Campbell, a public servant for almost 30 years, stressed she’s “not all about blaming the politicians.” In her speech and interview, she implored senior administrators in the criminal justice field to push for more “progressive” policies and evidence-based programs. Many changes do not require legislative changes, she said.

They could start, for instance, by focusing resources on dealing with high-risk offenders.

“We waste a lot of taxpayers’ hard–earned money on low-risk offenders. We know from the research that we shouldn’t do anything with them … Stop sending them automatically into halfway houses on day parole.”

Money instead could go, for instance, towards women offenders with severe mental illness, placing them in hospital treatment centres where they can get intensive psychiatric care, she said.

“So far that has not materialized and I think it’s frustrating to see the slow pace. You start to wonder what more is it going to take to get some of these agreements going? … The suffering and the harm that’s done is really shocking for a country like Canada.”

Off-site treatment was one of the recommendations in a report released this week by Canada’s prison watchdog, Howard Sapers, documenting the growing number of cases of chronic self-injury among women inmates.

Public safety memos obtained under access-to-information legislation show that the correctional service has been considering a pilot project with regional mental health facilities to address “acute” mental health needs of women inmates.

The memos point out, however, that providing them with in-patient psychiatric services will be more expensive than providing mental health services within the prison system.

Veronique Rioux, a spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada, said this week that those partnerships are still being explored and community health experts are reviewing possible treatment plans.

Campbell also said there is an urgent need for more real-world job training for inmates that will make them marketable when they leave prison.

What exists now are “ad hoc, hit-and-miss contracts for low-grade work, nothing that’s training for a substantial job,” she said.

“Do the labour market analysis so we know where the gaps are and start matching up offenders to that training.”

She said it was “egregious” that women inmates at Joliette Institution in Quebec, for instance, were sewing underwear for male inmates.

“There is a garment industry in Quebec. But I see no evidence that men’s underwear is part of it,” she said. “C’mon, it’s a waste of time.”

Corrections officials said earlier this summer that they have developed a multi-year strategy to “align vocational training with current labour market data” and continue to look for opportunities to expand apprenticeships.

Campbell said there’s an international principle that people go to prison as punishment, but the Harper government has taken the view that people should go to prison for punishment.

That’s been reflected, she said, in the stripping away of privileges, such as access to weightlifting equipment, and reducing how much money inmates can earn. She said she’s even heard suggestions to feed the inmates less.

“It reflects a basic attitude of there’s us and there’s them – they are the worst thing they’ve ever done and that’s all they’ll ever be,” she said.

This negativity, she said, has filtered down to front-line public safety staff. For instance, parole hearings and parole decisions have increasingly become “cutting and cruel,” she said.

Campbell said there’s far too much fixation during parole hearings on grilling offenders on irrelevant matters and assessing offenders’ “moral worthiness” – are they sorry enough? – when it should be about, “Is this the right time and the right conditions to start re-integrating you?”

A spokesman said Thursday the Parole Board of Canada had “no comment to offer.”

Campbell said that in many respects, the U.S. has moved ahead of Canada. Americans are focusing resources on higher-risk offenders, conditions for parole are being reduced and special release measures are being introduced for elderly and sick prisoners. A few years ago, U.S. federal prisons also allowed some inmates access to email messaging.

Advocates say email makes it easier for inmates to maintain ties with family and conduct their legal affairs, and for authorities to monitor communications. It also reduces opportunities to smuggle drugs or contraband via regular mail.

Asked if Canada was contemplating such an idea, a corrections spokeswoman said the government “does not have such a plan.”

Alberta man who shot father of 4 “execution style” freed

Eifion Wyn (Wayne) Roberts (inset), an Alberta farmer who shot to death an oil patch worker, a father of four, has been granted full parole, after 15 years behind bars. The decision to release Roberts was made yesterday by the Parole Board of Canada. Roberts shot Patrick Kent on October 3, 1998, on Roberts’ farm near Bowden, 100 kilometres north of Calgary in a killing described in court as “execution style.” Witnesses to the shooting said that Roberts was holding a handgun and shouting at Kent during a confrontation. He fired several shots and Kent fell to the ground. According to the witnesses, Roberts stepped closer to the fallen man and fired several more shots into his body. An autopsy showed that one bullet traveled through Kent’s right wrist, then entered and exited through his abdomen; one entered his left temple; and three entered the back of his head. The three in the back of the head were lethal injuries. With prompt medical attention, Kent might have survived the first two.

Roberts was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years. The Court of Appeal of Alberta dismissed his appeal of his conviction and his appeal against the 15-year parole ineligibility period. The Supreme Court of Canada rejected his appeal of his conviction. Roberts was granted full parole and will be permitted to return to live on his farm with his wife, according to Heidi Illingworth at the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime. Though Roberts is banned for life from owning or possessing firearms, his wife can keep a firearm in a locked cabinet at the home.

At trial, Roberts argued self defence, but the trial judge refused to permit them to consider the notion that Roberts was provoked. The jurors were not permitted to hear about two previous instances in which Roberts pointed a firearm at someone and made threatening comments. The trial judge described Roberts as “a highly volatile and easily angered man who was quick to resort to the use of firearms to deal with those who crossed him or did not do what he wanted. He is a dangerous man.”

Kent (inset right) was the vice president of KB Resources, a small oil patch firm that operated an old well on property that it leased from Roberts. The well had leaked and soil around it was contaminated. Roberts has expressed concern about KB’s ability and willingness to clean up the problem. On the day Kent was killed, he and Roberts argued about the cleanup.

This story from 2000 details the conviction of Roberts and was published before sentence was passed:

By Andrew Nikiforuk – For Business Edge

Published: 11/15/2000 – Vol. 1, No. 6

Before the jury quickly delivered its verdict of murder in the second degree; before Judge Peter Martin sonorously delivered his charge; and before the Crown and defence summarized their final arguments, the man accused of murdering oil executive Patrick Kent took the stand last week and told his version of a grim day that shocked the oilpatch.

Eifion Wyn Roberts, a diminutive rancher and welder with a whispery Welsh accent, had a lot to say and often said it in an angry and abrupt manner under heavy cross examination.

The landowner began by admitting he had shot Kent in self defence on the afternoon of Oct. 3, 1998, after threatening to arrest the oil man for trespassing on his land.

Roberts confessed that he never expected the six foot 42-year-old father of four to charge him and react the way he did (“the rage on that man’s face — he lost it completely.”)

“I didn’t want a confrontation that day . . . Surely you don’t attack a man with a gun in his hand. I just intended to wound him and stop him.”

He remembers firing one shot at Kent’s thigh and another somewhere else. Of the three remaining shots that completely shattered Kent’s brain, he has no recollection at all.

“I couldn’t believe that something like that could happen that quick. . . . his reaction and my reaction were totally wrong. . .”

Until the shooting outside of Roberts’ house that day, both men had tangled with each other in a two-year dispute over soil contamination from a suspended oil well.

While Roberts monitored and tried to gauge the extent and scale of pollution on the site on Oct. 3, (and it was sizable), Kent ordered surveyors to determine how Roberts’ barn, house and corral encroached on his company’s lease.

Each man appeared to act as though they had checkmated the other that day without any thought of the deadly consequences of their play.

Under a sharp cross examination, Roberts’ showed the jury that he could “lose it” too.

After replying to a string of questions by Crown prosecutor Larry Stein that suggested the accused had killed Kent to get rid of the well so he could make more money off his land selling gravel, Roberts verbally exploded and insinuated he was the victim of a political conspiracy.

“I think you’ve got me a little bit wrong here, Mr. Stein. What happened at my place, it was a confrontation, pure and simple, between two men . . . Had it been a next door neighbor, you would have charged me with manslaughter, and I still would have had the same defence.

“Because he was the vice-president of an oil company in Alberta, where the oil dollars feeds the provincial coffers, it was, ‘Charge this sucker with murder one. See that he doesn’t get bail, see if you can break him financially. Try to alienate him from his family’. . . Well you haven’t broke me financially, and I am here to make my defence.”

Roberts later exploded at Stein again over his description of the alleged execution-style killing of Kent — three shots to the head. “What I can say categorically, I never shot the man in the back of the head as you insinuated. The (position of the) shell casings prove it.”

Blaise MacDonald began the defence’s final argument by telling the jury “they would never meet more of a straight shooter than Wayne Roberts.”

MacDonald apologetically and quickly amended his description to “frank and blunt.”

After regaining his metaphors MacDonald reviewed ballistic evidence given by two gun experts (and Vietnam war veterans) that suggested that Kent received all five shots while standing or falling to the ground.

MacDonald then chronicled the dispute about the contamination by highlighting “the dark side of Mr, Kent”: a fax calling the landowner a “s___head,” belated rent checks, chronic inaction and an alleged threat to teach the landowner “a lesson.”

It was “Kent who snapped that day,” concluded the Nova Scotia lawyer. “And he came at Roberts, all 250 lbs of him . . . This was a tragic event. Wayne Roberts did not intend to kill Patrick Kent.”

In his final arguments, Stein argued that the murder was a “simple plan hatched by the accused while brooding over his failure to get rid of the oil well.”

He reminded the jury that Roberts shot a defenceless man in broad daylight in front of at least half dozen witnesses and killed the man with shots to the head. “That defies the laws of luck and reasonable force.”

On Oct. 3, it was Roberts, not Kent, who lost it, he said. “Can you imagine how angry he was at Patrick Kent after three years of failing to achieve his goal of getting rid of the well . . . . he picked the time and he picked the place to rid himself of Patrick Kent. You know the truth. The accused is guilty as charged.”

In the end, the Judge reminded the jury of some basic murder jurisprudence.

A verdict of murder one (and Roberts was charged with the first degree) requires clear intent that is planned and deliberate. Second degree may be intentional but not planned or deliberate. Last comes manslaughter.

After 15 hours the jury, an even number of men and women, found the 56-year-old guilty of second-degree murder and recommended no parole for 20 years.

At the announcement the widow of Patrick Kent, Linda, burst into tears while Roberts’ spouse, Jean, cried in sorrow. Sentencing arguments will be heard on Dec. 14.

Violent, relentless bank robber may be on the loose

A notorious bank robber with a 30-year record of nearly 200 violent crimes that led to the rare imposition of a life sentence may have escaped from a federal prison in British Columbia. West Shore RCMP have issued a release indicating that they’re at William Head Institution, a minimum-security facility on the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The Mounties say that Michiel Gordon Hollinger, 61, is unaccounted for. “Police are currently assisting the institution in locating an inmate inside their facility,” the RCMP says, in a release. “It is unknown at this time whether this inmate has left the grounds of the facility.” Hollinger may be relatively unknown in B.C., but he’s notorious in Ontario, where he committed many of his violent robberies. He wrote a book about his exploits, boasting that he’d rather be “wanted than had.” Back then, he was known as Mitchell McArthur, before he changed his name.

(UPDATE: At 12:50 PDT, RCMP issued an update, revealing that Hollinger was found on the grounds of the institution by an RCMP dog unit)

Michiel Hollinger (aka Mitchell McArthur), who police believe may have escaped from minimum-security William Head Institution in British Columbia

Police in B.C. who are hunting Hollinger (McArthur) have warned citizens that he is considered dangerous. “Hollinger is considered violent and should not be approached,” police say. “Anyone with any information is asked to contact the West Shore RCMP or the police in your area.” Police have released a photo of the aging bank robber, though the release does not describe his violent background or his better known, previous name. McArthur’s long criminal career involves robberies, assaults, thefts and escapes that began when he was 16 in 1968. His most notable single crime is the 1994 bloody holdup of a bank in Port Perry, Ontario, that led to a shootout with police. It happened when McArthur was on statutory release from a previous prison sentence. McArthur’s infamous arrogance was on display when he was convicted of masterminding the robbery. McArthur smirked and fired imaginary guns at police officers in the courtroom before he was led away. In the holdup, McArthur shot three Durham police officers. Two were shot in the face. McArthur shot bank manager Alan Knight with a pistol before using an assault rifle to gun down constables Mark McConkey, Warren Ellis and Det. Paul Mooy. A stray bullet wounded realtor Debbie Taylor. All five victims recovered. McArthur was convicted of four counts of attempted murder and a slew of other crimes. His sentence was later increased to life in prison, an extremely rare decision for a case that does involve a killing. The appeal court said that the shootings were the product of a “careful plan implemented with deadly detachment and efficiency.”

In the past, McArthur has engineered escapes from a number of prisons, including maximum-security Millhaven penitentiary in Ontario. After that breakout in 1984, McArthur pulled at least three bank robberies in the ensuing 14 months before he was recaptured. He also has escaped from medium-security Collins Bay pen in Ontario and Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert.

McArthur has never been convicted of killing anyone, but police in Kingston, Ontario, allege he’s a murderer. McArthur was charged with murder after a 24-year-old Kingston man, Tom Gencarelli, disappeared in 1982. His body has never been found, but police say they’re certain he was murdered. The murder charge against McArthur was dropped in 1998 when a key Crown witness died before a trial could be held.

If McArthur has, in fact, fled from William Head Institution, he would be the third convict to escape the facility this month. On September 7, two other inmates, Dean Allen Benton, 57, and Brian Peter Patrick, 44, disappeared. They were both back behind bars within 48 hours.

» Three years ago, in this post, I explained that McArthur had won the right to a legal challenge of his treatment in prison. The post also includes past decisions of the parole board involving McArthur.

Who’s telling truth about “explicit” TV content for convicts?

It’s hard to tell who has it right when it comes to “explicit” entertainment that is accessible to roughly 15,000 convicts in more than 50 federal penitentiaries across Canada. Frederik Boisvert, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney was quoted today in a Postmedia News story as saying that his former boss, Vic Toews, instructed Corrections Canada “to eliminate sexually explicit television programming.” Said Boisvert: “We have been assured that prisoners cannot access this material.” This unequivocal claim appears to be contradicted by a procurement notice posted in May this year on a website that advertises government contracts that are open to bidders. The notice, for a $1.7-million contract to provide cable TV service to nine federal penitentiaries in British Columbia, noted that the service could not feature “sexually explicit” adult channels, but some basic channels could contain “explicit content.”

In the Postmedia story, Boisvert made it clear that the minister’s office had intervened with Corrections Canada to ensure that prisoners can’t access explicit content on the television services they pay for.

Frederik Boisvert, a spokesman for current Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, said in an email Wednesday that it is “completely unacceptable” for convicted criminals to have access to sexually explicit programs.

“That’s why the previous minister of public safety instructed prison officials to eliminate sexually explicit television programming. We have been assured that prisoners cannot access this material,” Boisvert said.

Asked if this meant that there is, in fact, an absolute ban, Boisvert replied: “It is our understanding that no access to sexually explicit materials is permitted.”

And here’s the tender document calling for the provision of cable TV service to the nine pens in B.C. that would include at least 60 channels.

Sexually explicit channels are prohibited, and shall not be included in the list of channels … No adult programming shall be included in the Cable services. Some channels under Classic Cable will have explicit content but are not considered adult programming. There will not be any possibility of accessing the internet with any of the equipment installed.

A full copy of the tender notice appears below, since it’s unclear if the notice will remain online indefinitely. The tender notice was published May 27 and the bidding closed on June 10. The notice indicated that the government intended to award the contract to Shaw. The tender notice has been updated twice, the online listings indicate, on August 23 and also on July 12, well after the tender closed and after the contract, a five-year deal in place until 2018, was supposed to take effect.

The Postmedia story noted that Corrections Canada refused to confirm Boisvert’s statement that convicts do not have any access to explicit material. Perhaps the minister’s office isn’t quite up to speed on the latest TV tender calls.

Here’s the complete tender notice:

Television Viewing – ACAN






Tender Notice








Status

Publishing status
Awarded
Days to closing
1 month 5 days ago


Dates

Publication date
2013/05/27
Date last updated
2013/07/12
Date closing
2013/06/10 14:00 EDT
Reference Number
PW-13-00123476
Solicitation number
21801-13-0132
Region delivery
British Columbia


Details

Notice Type
Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)
GSIN







Description


Television Viewing

An advanced contract award notice (ACAN) is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date and time stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

1. Definition of requirement:

The Correctional Service Canada has a requirement to provide a viable and balanced CATV signal throughout the various Institutions of the Correctional Service of Canada location outlets.

The work will involve the following:

1.1 Objectives:

The service must be provided using the currently installed coaxial cable infrastructure.
All-inclusive fixed price for fees, for the services herein described.
Sexually explicit channels are prohibited, and shall not be included in the list of channels.
There will not be any possibility of accessing the internet with any of the equipment installed.
To provide a viable and balanced CATV signal throughout the Pacific Region to 1600 CATV outlets

1.2 Tasks:

The main CATV feed for the service to the fence. From there the feed will be distributed and amplified, as required, to provide a viable, balanced 0dB signal to each of our 1600 CATV outlets.
The conduits, cables, wires currently existing on the property shall remain the property of CSC and will be maintained by the sites. Any communication facilities, hardware and/or equipment on the premises installed by or on behalf of the Contractor on, in or to the premises shall remain the sole and exclusive personal property of the Contractor.
The stations to be provided must include a minimum choice of SIXTY channels. Included in the sixty channels must be the following bulk channel lineup options available for sites to choose:
Option 1 Basic Cable 2-28
Option 2 Classic 2-58
Option 3 Classic +Movie Central (MC 1, 2, 3, & 4 (HBO Canada)) + Speed and Encore Channels

No adult programming shall be included in the Cable services. Some channels under Classic Cable will have explicit content but are not considered adult programming.
There will not be any possibility of accessing the internet with any of the equipment installed.
• Outlet counts will occur twice per year in February and September, or if there is a significant decrease or increase of (20%) of the population.
• Shared accommodations will only be charged for one outlet.
• All Vesima equipment will be provided by Shaw as required.
• Five Year (5) Agreement no price increases.
• This contract is an inmate paid Agreement.

1.3 Maintenance:
Any work or maintenance must be performed during hours agreeable to both the contractor and the Project Authority, and done such that there will be a minimum of impact to the normal institutional routine. All work and requests from the contractor will be addressed to the Project Authority and or their delegate.
1.4 Performance standards:

Speed/timeliness of service delivery or work completion;
Technical conformity of the work to specifications (i.e. accuracy and completeness);

1.5 Paper consumption:

a. Should printed material be required, double sided printing in black and white format is the default unless otherwise specified by the Project Authority.

b. The Contractor must ensure printed material is on paper with a minimum recycled content of 30% and/or certified as originating from a sustainably managed forest.

c. The Contractor must recycle unneeded printed documents (in accordance with Security Requirements).

1.6 Constraints:

1.6.1 Conflict of interest:

A. Contractor and the Contractor's Personnel shall have no direct or indirect financial or other interest that would constitute a conflict of interest in the performance or the outcome of the work. Should such an interest be acquired during the performance of the work, the Contractor shall declare it immediately to the CSC PA, who will determine, at his sole discretion, whether it constitutes an unfair advantage or creates a conflict of interest.

B. Contractor, any of its subcontractors, any of its respective employees or former employees who are involved in any manner in the work under the contract will not be able to bid, or provide assistance to any bidder, on any request for proposal resulting from the work under the contract.

1.6.2 CSC business environment:

A. The Contractor shall note that the environment in which CSC conducts its operations to meet its mandate may change quite rapidly, depending on legislative or policy changes or incidents related to correctional operations. The CSC may request that the Contractor modify the deliverables to be produced under the contract, in response to these changes.

B. Entry to the sites will be allowed to only those who have been successfully cleared for such access and a list of all tools and equipment to be utilized will be provided to the officer in charge of the Principal entrance.)

1.7 Location of work:

a. The Contractor must perform the work at for the number of outlets:

1. Kwìkwèxwelhp Institution
15700 Morris Valley Rd.,
Agassiz, BC
V0M 1L0
Number of outlets: 48

2. Ferndale Institution
33737 Dewdney Trunk Road
PO Box 50, Mission BC
V2V 4L8
Number of outlets: 133

3. Kent Institution
4732 Cemetary Rd,
PO Box 1500, Agassiz, BC
V0M 1A0
Number of outlets: 292

4. Matsqui Institution
33344 King Rd,
PO Box 2500, Abbotsford BC
V2S 4P3
Number of outlets: 285

5. Mission Institution
8751 Slave Lake Rd,
PO Box 60, Mission, BC
V2V 4L8
Number of outlets: 250

6. Mountain Institution
4830 Cemetary Rd,
PO Box 1600, Agassiz, BC
V0M 1A0
Number of outlets: 276

7. Regional Health Centre
33344 King Rd,
Po Box 3000, Abbotsford, BC
V2S 4P4
Number of outlets: 372

8. Fraser Valley Institution for Women
33344 King Rd,
Abbotsford, BC
V2S 6J5
Number of outlets: 41

9. William Head Institution
6000 William Head Rd,
Victoria, BC
V9C 0B5
Number of outlets: 130

• Subject to change based on population
• Inmate Paid services

b. Travel

i. No travel is anticipated for performance of the work under this contract.

1.7.2 Language of Work:

The contractor must perform all work in English.

1.7.3 Security Requirements:

All of the Contractor’s personnel who will be visiting CSC Penitentiary institutions will be submitted to verification through the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) at the institutions’ entrances.

2. Minimum essential requirements:

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:

1. Must be able to use current infrastructure to set up the service.
2. Must be able to obtain security requirements to enter a CSC instittution

3. Applicability of the trade agreement (s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement (s):
Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada-Peru FTA, and Canada Columbia FTA.

The procedural requirements of the other international trade agreements will be fulfilled following compliance to the procedural requirements of NAFTA and/or the WTO-AGP.

4. Set-aside under the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

This procurement is not subject to any set-asides for Aboriginal Suppliers.

5. Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement

This procurement is not subject to a Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement.

6. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

Shaw Cable Systems is the only source capable of successfully performing the work as they possess the capability to provide the essential requirements for CSC - Pacific Region

7. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)

The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection:
6 (d) only one person is capable of performing the contract.

8. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons

The following exclusion (s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the section of the trade agreement (s) specified:

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - Article 1016: Limited Tendering Procedures, section 2.

(d) for additional deliveries by the original supplier that are intended either as replacement parts or continuing services for existing supplies, services or installations, or as the extension of existing supplies, services or installations, where a change of supplier would compel the entity to procure equipment or services not meeting requirements of interchangeability with already existing equipment or services, including software to the extent that the initial procurement of the software was covered by this Chapter;

Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) – Article 506, 12.
a. to ensure compatibility with existing products, to recognize exclusive rights, such as exclusive licences, copyright and patent rights, or to maintain specialized products that must be maintained by the manufacturer or its representative;

9. Ownership of Intellectual Property

Ownership of any foreground intellectual property arising out of the proposed contract will vest with the Contractor.

10. The period of the proposed contract or the delivery date(s)

The proposed contract is for a period of Five (5) years, from June 10, 2013 to May 31, 2018.

11. A cost estimate of the proposed contract

The estimated value of the contract, including option (s), is $1,728,000.00 (GST/HST extra).

12. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier

Name: SHAW Cablesystems G.P.
Address: Suite 900 – 630 - 3 Avenue SW,
Calgary, AB
T2P 4L4

13. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN, may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date and time of this notice. This statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

14. The closing date and time for a submission of a statement of capabilities

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is June 10, 2013 at 2:00 PM PST.

15. Enquiries and submission of statement of capabilities

Enquiries and statement of capabilities are to be directed to:

Jason Kwan
Contracting and Procurement Specialist
PO Box 4500, Unit 100,
33991 Gladys Avenue,
Abbotsford, BC
V25 2E8
Telephone: (604) 870-2512
Facsimile: (604) 870-2444
E-mail: Jason.Kwan@csc-scc.gc.ca

Convicts turn plumbing pipes into working shotgun

Say “prison weapon,” and most people think of handcrafted knives – known in convict parlance as ’shanks’ and ’shivs.’ They’re the most plentiful illegal weapons found inside jails and prisons because they are easily crafted and concealed. Often, they are crude – sharpened butter knives or spoons that have been flattened and honed to a point, for instance. But some convicts combine equal portions ingenuity, resourcefulness and desperation to produce truly remarkable prison weaponry. Frighteningly deadly and destructive arms turn up every so often and fortunately, most such weapons are ferreted out by prison staff before they’re put to use. Such was the case in 1972 at medium-security Collins Bay Institution in Kingston, Ontario, where staff discovered that a convict or convicts had crafted a deadly, working shotgun (pic after the jump) using common bits of hardware.

photo by Rob Tripp

This single-shot shotgun was fashioned from standard plumbing pipe and fittings and a spring-loaded firing mechanism. The spring loaded ‘trigger,’ a welded bolt shaft, is visible in the photo. The device has been on display at the Penitentiary Museum in Kingston, Ontario this summer. The device was found before it could be used to blast through a wall or locked gate, perhaps as part of an escape attempt. It’s unlikely that the weapon was crafted with the intent of killing one or more other prisoners, since it would be overkill for that purpose. Prison murders are more easily carried out with shanks. The pipe gun, which was loaded with a shotgun shell, was found during a search and was later test fired by penitentiary staff. It fired successfully on the first attempt.

» Previous post on illegal prison weapons that highlighted a remarkable, miniature crossbow made from toothbrushes

Internal document pegs value of prison system at $5 billion

What is Canada’s federal prison system worth? It’s a sprawling network of 75 properties that cover more than 6,000 hectares (that’s roughly the size of 10,000 Canadian football fields) across the country and includes 56 institutions. The figures come from an internal 2008 Corrections Canada document (after the jump) that was made public some time ago by the Information Transparency Project, a group based in Kingston, Ontario. The group says it obtained the document through Access to Information law. Though the doc is five years old, it contains a fascinating figure, the estimated replacement cost for the entire prison system. The price tag is a whopping $5 billion. That’s enough cash to build more than 450 typical elementary schools.

Here’s the document made public by ITP:

On a mobile device? Click here for doc.

The document was produced in 2008, before the federal government announced in April 2012 that it would close three facilities, maximum-security Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario, the regional treatment centre inside KP’s walls and medium-security Leclerc Institution in Quebec.

The document here lists 58 institutions but Corrections Canada now claims, on its website, control of 56 institutions.

Double murder of two teens stunned Sarnia 30 years ago

Three decades have passed since the southwestern Ontario city of Sarnia was rocked by the double murder of two teenage girls. On August 21, 1983, Kim Sauve, 15, and her close friend, Shelley Brazeau, 16, disappeared. Their bodies were found three days later in a cornfield. The pair died from repeated blows to the head. Richard Lawrence Boudreau, 25, (inset), a Sarnia drug dealer, was arrested the next day. Boudreau eventually admitted that he picked the girls up in his car on Aug. 21, but he maintained his innocence. Strong circumstantial evidence led to his conviction on two counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years.

Boudreau’s 1984 murder trial was significant. Though formal victim impact legislation was not finalized until four years later, the families of the two murdered girls successfully campaigned for the right to speak to the court to describe describe the effect the crimes had on them. Pauline Brazeau held a photograph of her dead daughter, looked at Boudreau and wept as she told the judge how her daughter’s death affected the family:

This man has denied us of walking Shelley down the aisle. This man has denied us of her children. We were a happy family. Now our Sunday drives are to put flowers on our daughter’s grave.

The judge who sentenced Boudreau, Mr. Justice Coulter Osborne, said he’s personally not in favour of the death penalty, “but for those who are, this man is a walking advertisement.” Boudreau testified at his trial, and acknowledged the girls were in his car that day. He unspooled a fantastic tale of having picked them up in downtown Sarnia that afternoon. The girls told him, he testified, that they were running away from home. Boudreau claimed that he took them to London where he told them he could set them up in a prostitution ring or pornographic film making operation. Boudreau claimed the girls were murdered by London drug dealers who he refused to identify. He said the drug dealers would kill him. The judge called Boudreau’s explanation “bizarre.”

Canadian criminal law now provides that a sentencing judge must consider a victim impact statement, if one has been prepared. Statements are sometimes read aloud by a family member or victim, they can be read aloud by a Crown lawyer or a written statement is sometimes filed with the court, without being read in open court.

The statements are optional and, in some cases, either families or the victims themselves are not prepared to submit one or no one is available to submit a statement. In the Shafia murder case, in which four family members were murdered by three others, no victim impact statements were submitted.

Victim impact statements are still controversial. Some organizations, including the John Howard Society, have argued that they’re not the best way to engage victims in the criminal justice process. Surveys of judges have found that, for the most part, they don’t believe the statements are helpful in determining sentences for convicted criminals.

This summary, completed in 2004, outlines the origin and evolution of victim impact statements in Canadian criminal law:

Imprisoned police officers live in dread, in isolation

It is unlikely, if history is a guide, that Constable James Forcillo (inset), the Toronto police officer charged in a fatal streetcar shooting, will be convicted and sent to prison. No Toronto officer has ever been convicted of murder in an on-duty killing, according to the Toronto Star. But, if Forcillo were convicted, what would life be like in prison? It would be a hellish experience in which he’d be forced to live in protective custody, segregated from other prisoners, mindful always that fellow convicts would be plotting to kill him. A bounty might be placed on his head and the fellow con who succeeded in killing him would be regarded by other inmates as a hero. “To be a police officer in prison is very difficult,” former Niagara Region officer Lawrence Squire said in feeble voice, speaking to a documentary film crew from his solitary confinement cell at maximum-security Kingston Penitentiary, where he had been confined after his conviction for non-capital murder more than 30 years ago.

Imprisoned former police officer, Lawrence Squire interviewed through the bars of his solitary confinement cell at Kingston Pen in 1978 by the makers of the NFB documentary A Warehouse for Bodies

Forcillo was charged today with second-degree murder in the shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim in a Toronto streetcar. Squire was convicted in the 1973 shooting of 19-year-old man, Norman Tremblay. Squire was off duty, drinking during a pub crawl with fellow officers when the fatal shots were fired. An investigative expose by the Toronto Star, published in 1977, later raised doubt about whether Squire had been drugged and was impaired by a combination of a substances and alcohol at the time. Imprisoned former police officers hold a particularly low position in the social strata of prison life. They are despised by other convicts because they represent the ’system,’ the criminal justice process that has imprisoned stand-up crooks. When an officer arrives at a penitentiary, he is marked for death by fellow prisoners and he must be kept in protective custody. To their credit, Corrections Canada has done a remarkably consistent job of keeping imprisoned ex-officers alive. A National Film Board of Canada documentary crew secured extraordinary access to Kingston Pen in 1978 for the documentary that featured Squire, though his identity was crudely concealed by an electronic black mask that covered his eyes. His last name was not revealed. In an interview from behind his solitary cell door, Squire was asked about life inside Kingston Pen.

Here’s what he told the National Film Board in its revealing documentary, A Warehouse for Bodies, in 1978:

“I’ve been in prison 50 months now for a crime I’m not guilty of. I’m still trying to fight my case. It’s been a long fight and very difficult one. I was not given a fair trial and uh, this can be easily proven.”

Interviewer: “Why are you in solitary confinement?”

“Well (clears throat), I’m an ex police officer and I was a police officer when this happened and uh, I’ve been in prison now for 50 months and out of that 50 months I’ve spent 28 months in solitary. To be a police officer in prison is ah, (clears throat) very difficult and uh, the inmates, when they found out, they will not allow a police officer to be in their midst, they ah, they feel that it is some type of, ah, well, going by their code, it’s something that they don’t allow, and it’s something that they don’t feel safe with and I’ve had attempts on my life, I’ve had so many things happen to me that solitary is the only thing that the prison authorities had left, at least under the present conditions anyways.”

Interviewer: “Lawrence, what’s your opinion of the penitentiary system, now that you’re on the other side of it?”

“Well, when I was working as a police officer I had no idea that, had no idea of the prison system, what it was, what it was supposed to be doing. I was under the impression that it was trying to help me, trying to get people back into a new lifestyle, but my experience since I’ve been in is that prisons are simply warehouses, simply places to lock somebody up for so much time and then release them.”

After Squire’s first conviction, he won an appeal at the Ontario Court of Appeal but that was reversed by the Supreme Court of Canada. Other police officers have gone to prison and lived to tell about their experiences. Former RCMP officer Patrick Kelly was imprisoned for killing his wife. His life inside is vividly documented in Michael Harris’ excellent book, The Judas Kiss. Former Toronto police officer Rick Wills was convicted in 2007 of murdering his mistress. He’s still alive behind bars.

Here’s the full text of the second news release regarding the arrest of Constable Forcillo issued today by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, the body that probes incidents involving police that involve serious injury or death:

Update on Arrest of Toronto Police Service Constable James Forcillo

Case Number: 13-TFD-181

Other News Releases Related to Case 13-TFD-181
Mississauga (19 August, 2013) — Arrangements have been made through Constable James Forcillo’s lawyer, Peter Brauti, for his client to surrender himself into the custody of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) tomorrow morning, Tuesday, August 20, 2013. Cst Forcillo will be transported to the Old City Hall and make an appearance before a Justice of the Peace shortly after the arrest.  Pursuant to the provisions of the Criminal Code, he will be detained in custody. The Criminal Code allows an accused to have the detention order reviewed in Superior Court and seek bail at any point in time.

Because Cst Forcillo has been the recipient of threats, we are not disclosing the location of the arrest.

Earlier today, SIU Director Ian Scott caused a charge of Second Degree Murder contrary to s. 235(1) of the Criminal Code to be laid against the officer in relation to the shooting death of 18-year-old Sammy Adib Yatim. The incident took place on a TTC streetcar around midnight on July 26-27, 2013.

The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. Under the Police Services Act, the Director of the SIU must

consider whether an officer has committed a criminal offence  in connection with the incident under investigation
depending on the evidence, lay a criminal charge against the officer if appropriate or close the file without any charges being laid
report the results of any investigations to the Attorney General.

Monica Hudon

SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES

Telephone/No de téléphone: 416-622-2342 or/ou 1-800-787-8529 extension 2342

A conviction for second-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 to 25 years. The parole eligibility is set by the trial judge, after taking a recommendation from the jury, if the case is tried by jury and if the jurors choose to make a recommendation.

Here’s one of the bystander videos that captured the shooting of Yatim by Forcillo: