Tackle racism in Canada’s prisons, Senate group told
OTTAWA — Natalie Charles has almost completed her goal of becoming a paralegal, but she wants to do her job placement in a government office. The 39-yearold mother of two says a pardon from an almost two-decades-old conviction is standing in her way — and she’s not alone.
Charles’ testimony Wednesday to the Senate’s human rights committee highlighted something well known to the senators studying the federal correctional system: Black Canadians make up 8.6 per cent of the population of federal prisons, even though they account for just three per cent of the overall Canadian population.
And while their numbers have declined alongside the overall prison population, the corrections watchdog’s most recent annual report found that black inmates were more likely to be in maximum security, placed in segregation and involved in violent incidents.
“One of the things that becomes really clear is that changes are needed on every level,” said Sen. Wanda Bernard Thomas, the Senate committee’s chairwoman.
“There are systemic and structural changes that are needed, but also individual problems that you can see at different places in the system and we need to have a commitment … to change and then change will happen.”
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for action to ensure equal opportunity and treatment for the more than one million black Canadians, and Bernard says she expects the government to follow through on that message.
The special meeting Wednesday was called to look at the experiences of black female inmates as part of Black History Month. A second special meeting of the committee will be held at the end of February.