Nunavik jails like Third World, says Quebec ombudsman
Prison conditions in Quebec’s north resemble the Third World with the basic human right to dignity violated daily while governments take a nonchalant attitude to the problem, the province’s ombudsman said Thursday.
“We’re not far from the Third World,” Raymonde Saint-Germain said after releasing a blistering special report into Nunavik’s detention and justice system. “I had the opportunity to visit prisons in Africa. My first reaction was to say it’s no different from Africa.
“We are in a society with rule of law yet this is getting worse and worse.”
Tabled in the National Assembly, the rights watchdog’s report outlines in graphic detail the horror that is the detention system north of the 55th parallel, home to 11,000 Quebec Inuit.
The ombudsman’s two-person team visited three villages, Puvirnituq, Akulivik and Kuujjuaq, in April 2015 following complaints from prisoners. Under the 1978 James Bay Agreement, Nunavik is under the authority of the Kativik Regional Government.
The report says with no single correctional facility in Nunavik — the idea was ruled out in 2007 in favour of a $10 million-a-year crime prevention program — persons arrested or facing trial are forced to share quarters in village police stations while awaiting bail hearings or trials.
The cells at the Puvirnituq police station are particularly horrific — the report says the stench can be detected when you walk in, with traces of blood and excrement on the walls — but the story is similar for the other villages.
Prisoners are kept in cells 24 hours a day because there are no outdoor courtyards. Depending on the speed of the wheels of justice, some detainees wind up spending as long as two weeks in such “woefully lacking” facilities.
Cells designed to house two prisoners — depending on the moment — can contain from seven to as many as 25 detainees; at times standing, other times trying to sleep on flimsy mattresses strewn on the concrete floor because there are no beds.
Detainees have a choice between filthy sheets or their own coats to keep warm.
Minus tables and chairs, prisoners are fed on the floor of their cells. They can’t even relieve themselves in private as there are cameras trained on them even in the one filthy washroom, which has a blocked drain and no fresh water, the ombudsman wrote in her report.
In Puvirnituq, owing to a lack of space, the shower is used for storage. Some prisoners said they went a full week without the opportunity to wash.
It’s not easy to administer basic justice under such conditions, the report says, noting sexual assault testing kits and evidence is kept in the same refrigerator as the guards’ and prisoners’ lunches.
The scene rocked even veteran members of Saint-Germain’s team.
“It is by far the most deplorable thing I have ever seen,” one official said at a media briefing.
Late in the afternoon, Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux, who is responsible for the province’s jails, downplayed SaintGermain’s call for an immediate action plan.
And he bristled when reporters referred to Saint-Germain’s comments about governments historically sweeping the problem under the rug or arguing the Inuit are accustomed to hardship.
“I am not at all indifferent,” Coiteux told reporters. “It will be taken very seriously. “What I am saying is one part of the solution is on the shoulders of the government and we are going to take our responsibility but we have to work with the community to work at the basic causes of this problem. Prevention is the key word.”
“It’s the gulag,” snapped Coalition Avenir Québec justice critic Simon Jolin-Barrette.
Officials at the Kativik Regional Government, which is responsible for the cells, could not be reached for comment. However, in a statement, Jobie Tukkiapik, president of the Makivik Corporation, which administers the heritage funds in the James Bay Agreement, welcomed the report.
“The Quebec ombudsman report comes at the right time as action is urgently needed,” he said.
But Saint-Germain argued it’s not as if her report is news to any of the parties involved. She described the Inuit as victims of a southern imposed justice system who are being treated as second class. It is not in their nature to be vocal, so they go unheard, she said.
“The solutions are known, we just need to put them in action,” Saint-Germain said. “I hope this sparks something.”
The report also details how transferring prisoners to the south — another option tested — poses another range of problems.
Detainees who land in Amos or as far away as St-Jérôme are completely removed from their family and community support networks and the language barrier — many speak no French and only some English — makes it difficult for them to assert their rights.
In fact, 14 days may elapse between a person’s arrest in Nunavik and arrival in Abitibi for a bail hearing. The Criminal Code prescribes a maximum wait time of three days.
At the same time, basic social problems in many communities mean the Inuit are over-represented in the justice and correctional system, Saint-Germain concluded.
The number of Inuit detained in jails grew by 64 per cent between 2010 and 2015. While the Inuit represent 7.6 per cent of the First Nation population in Quebec, they represent 43 per cent of incarcerated native people.
I (visited) prisons in Africa. My first reaction was to say it’s no different from Africa. The solutions are known, we just need to put them in action.