A class action should be immediately allowed in Manitoba for the government to pay money to inmates placed in single prison cells.
The county did not oppose a motion to substantiate the legal action heard Friday by Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Judge Shawn Greenberg.
Said the judge This is a clear case for certification. He will issue a decision soon in which he will explain the reasons why he heard the request.
Attorney James Sayce, who works for law firm Koskie Minsky in Ontario, represents the detainees who took this action, confirming that several thousand people could have participated in this legal action.
It could cost the Manitoba government millions of dollars if class action were accepted.
We are pleased with the hearing and the outcome, and we believe this is a very important step in ending solitary confinement in Manitoba, as we said in this case.said attorney Sayce
He added that the court would have to debate the amount of what represents the time spent in a room the size of a parking space.
If it does bear fruit, class action will include anyone in Manitoba who has spent 15 or more consecutive days in a solitary confinement cell since December 1992.
Solitary confinement is defined by law as a period during which an inmate is in a room without significant human interaction for at least 22 hours a day.
A controversial practice in Canada.
In 2020, an Ontario Superior Court judge awarded inmates $ 30 million in damages after a decision that segregation of incarceration violated the principles of basic justice.
The Ontario government challenged that decision, but the appellate court upheld it last year.
Similar class action cases have been filed in British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia, as well as for federal prisons.
The two applicants in Manitoba were Virgil Charles Gamblin, 32, who was placed in segregation at the Correctional Center of The Pas in December 2020, and a 17-year-old from the Manitoba Youth Center who has been placed nine times in segregation since July 2020.
Segregation cells are often smaller than parking spaces, and many have no windows, the suit says.
Detainees often slept on thin mattresses on the floor and in cells often covered with dirt, blood and dirtcan we read in the court documents.
People have hallucinations and hurt themselves through self-harm, among other things. Many people suffer the rest of their lives from this experience. Once they are out of jail, they can no longer enter a closed spacesaid attorney James Sayce.
He said the former is a good indication for an end to segregation in Manitoba.
CBC contacted Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen for comment, but received no response at the time of publication.
In files from Kristin Annable
Source: Radio-Canada
