Shackled female patient unchained

HALIFAX • An ailing woman who is facing deportation to England has been freed from shackles that kept her restrained in her hospital bed following the intervention of two Nova Scotia cabinet ministers.

Health Minister Leo Glavine said he thought restraining Fliss Cramman was “very inappropriate,” and had discussed the issue with provincial Justice Minister Diana Whalen. “When I have a view of a person chained to a bed, it brings back the 19th century, not the 21st,” Glavine told reporters.

Cramman, a 33- year- old mother of four who has been in the country since she was eight years old but is not a Canadian citizen, has undergone a series of surgeries after being rushed to hospital from a prison facility in Dartmouth, N.S., last month.

The Canada Border Services Agency wants to deport her by Nov. 4, but her doctor told a hearing last week that she has addiction and mental health issues and shouldn’t be removed from the country while she recovers from surgery for a perforated colon.

“I’m very appalled that circumstance would exist today, especially in light of the fact that there is already security in that room,” Glavine said.

Whalen said the case also concerned her, prompting her to order a review of the guidelines for dealing with prisoners who are kept in a hospital setting. As a result, she ordered the restraints be removed Thursday morning.

She said provincial corrections officials were acting on behalf of the Canada Border Services Agency, which wanted Cramman restrained in her room at the Dartmouth General as a potential flight risk.

“I thought it was too much and I thought it should be reviewed,” said Whalen. “The protocol is two guards are there, so I felt that was probably sufficient.”

A justice official said Friday the provincial corrections officials applied the shackles in keeping with their policy while carrying out a detention order for the Canada Border Services Agency.

Darlene MacEachern, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society in Cape Breton, has been lobbying to have the restraints removed and have Cramman taken off a detention list and placed in her group’s care. She is also pressing the federal government to grant Cramman some form of citizenship on compassionate grounds.

Cramman’s case ended up before the Immigration and Refugee Board after she was convicted of offering to traffic heroin a couple of years ago. After serving two-thirds of her sentence she was detained by federal officials after they began looking into her citizenship.

CARRYING OUT A DETENTION ORDER FOR THE CBSA.