In a letter endorsed by two former Liberal cabinet ministers on Monday, 40 advocacy groups demanded Ottawa to heed the recommendation by the Abdurahman Ibrahim Hassan inquest jury.
The five jurors reviewing Hassan’s death made 53 recommendations directed at federal and provincial authorities, police and correctional services and the Peterborough Regional Health Centre. Their first recommendation was for the federal government to “seek and allocate resources to develop and implement a plan to end the practice of housing immigration detainees in provincial correctional facilities in Ontario.
Advocates said there are currently no laws or regulations governing when and under what circumstances people in immigration detention can be transferred to, and incarcerated in, a provincial jail. The Canada Border Services Agency’s “decisions regarding where people in immigration detention are incarcerated appear to be implemented in an ad hoc, inconsistent, and even discriminatory manner,” states the letter, endorsed by Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock, who served as foreign affairs minister and Justice minister respectively in Jean Chrétien’s government.
The advocacy groups, led by Human Rights Watch, said they are particularly concerned about the jail detention of those with a pre-existing mental health condition or disability. “They are placed in provincial jails, regularly handcuffed and shackled, and they endure lockdowns, constant surveillance, and even solitary confinement,” said their joint letter, citing 17 immigration detainees’ deaths since 2000, including two last year in British Columbia and Quebec.
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