Corrections Canada ‘forfeited its right to investigate itself’
Canada’s top prison watchdog wants the Ministry of Public Safety and Preparedness to review how the Correctional Service of Canada conducts internal investigations, following a Board of Investigation report into the 2016 riot at Saskatchewan Penitentiary.
“I believe that Corrections in this latest sort of biased investigation has basically forfeited its right to investigate itself, but I’m making it very narrow,” Correctional Investigator Ivan Zinger said in an interview on Tuesday.
“In rare instances where there’s a deadly riot, in cases where there’s a death in administrative segregation or a death following a use of force intervention, I think in those cases, Corrections should not investigate itself.”
In his annual report, Zinger devoted a special section to discussing the riot, a subject covered in his previous annual report. He was critical of the CSC’S assertion that the riot, in which one prisoner — Jason Leonard Bird, 43 — died and eight other prisoners were injured, was random.
Zinger wrote that his office found a series of “concerns” and “gaps” in how the CSC’S investigation into the riot was approached and conducted. He found differences in the internal investigation report — which, to date, has not been publicly released — and the public account posted to the CSC’S website.
The internal investigation report also differed from findings previously presented by Zinger’s office.
“When I got a copy of the investigative report, I thought it was very superficial and self-serving. So, I launched an investigation ... Corrections asked me why am I doing this and I told them, because with respect to food, for us it was pretty obvious that food was a contributor, and yet, the internal investigation found that the riot was random, spontaneous.”
His office requested the information the internal investigation reviewed, and found, for example, that the board interviewed one prisoner and food-services management about the food concerns. Additionally, the board didn’t look at demographics and gang presence in the Saskatchewan Penitentiary.
Zinger said the board should have asked why men who for the most part had short sentences in medium security felt they had nothing to lose and rioted.
In a written response to Postmedia News, the CSC reiterated that the board found the riot was spontaneous and there were no indicators or security intelligence information that would have predicted it.
“Based on the professionalism, expertise, and integrity of the members of the BOI, which included an independent member from the community as well as a member with extensive experience in Indigenous corrections, CSC believes that the evidence presented in the BOI report is based on its own merits and can be substantiated,” the CSC statement read.
There is no plan to change the Board of Investigations process, the statement added, noting that investigations into non-natural deaths in custody include an independent member of the community and the CSC has an independent review committee periodically review and publicly report on its internal investigations.
The Dec. 14, 2016, riot followed days of non-violent prisoner protests and negotiations between the warden and prisoner representatives. Prisoners presented a list of grievances on Dec. 8.
On Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office said an independent review committee of three academics has been studying the matter and its findings are expected this fall.