The story of what happened with the panel the government assembled to oversee its supposed elimination of solitary confinement in federal penitentiaries has been a slow-burning story this week, but indicative of some of the incomprehensible ways in which this government operates. The practice of solitary confinement has been declared inhumane and contrary to the Charter by courts across the country, and the government promised to reform it with these “structured intervention units,” but that was already dubious, and unlikely to satisfy the courts – and they knew that, but went ahead with it anyway. A year later, the panel that was supposed to oversee it quit in frustration because they couldn’t get any information they needed to do their work (and the Correctional Investigator gave Correctional Services a pass on this because apparently, they’ve been implementing new software and this has been a problem). But it was only when this story leaked thanks to Senator Kim Pate that Bill Blair sprang into action, promising to reappoint the panel and implement a “work plan” to get them the information.
Well, turns out members of that panel aren’t exactly keen to be reappointed because they’ve been jerked around for a year, and were doing this on a volunteer basis, which cost them a lot of time and money for nothing but headaches. But this all feels like another case of this government meaning well, and talking a good game without doing the actual work involved and then hoping that everything will be forgiven because they have good intentions. That’s not good enough, and yet they keep behaving like that’s all well and good. It’s not.
I've now spoken with three members of the independent panel — none have committed to accepting the invitation to be reappointed unless they see serious changes to how this review is operating.
— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) August 28, 2020
Jones has had a bunch of clients who have spent time in solitary. She contends that throwing someone in the hole isn't just bad for their mental health, it's a risk to public safety. Releasing someone into the public after they've been locked in solitary is asking for trouble.
— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) August 28, 2020
Ultimate, Jones suspects the main reason Correctional Services was reticent to hand over the data is because COVID-19 basically meant prisons were entirely ignoring their own guidelines (and the court rulings.) But CSC refused to discuss those issues with the panel.
— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) August 28, 2020
Jones, by the way, hasn't heard from Blair or anyone in government.
Blair's office went to Doob, offered to reappoint the panel with a "work plan" to get the necessary data, Doob said "not good enough" and Blair turned around and announced it anyway.
This is absolutely wild.
— Justin Ling (Has Left) (@Justin_Ling) August 28, 2020
Good reads:
- Travel restrictions for international travellers have been extended to September 30th, as airlines try to cajole the government into loosening restrictions.
- While the government has spent millions on ensuring domestic capacity to start producing PPE like N95 masks, there are questions why these were sole-sourced.
- Unsurprisingly, the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected Senator Mike Duffy’s attempt to sue the Senate for suspending him and recouping expenses. (Decision here).
- Given that Andrew Scheer plans to stay on as an MP and run again, here is a look at the few past opposition leaders who also stayed on.
- Liberal-turned-Independent MP Marwan Tabbara’s court case has been pushed back another month.
- Kevin Carmichael bemoans the country’s economic policy drift rooted in assumptions that are three decades old (though he gives O’Toole too much credit).
- Colby Cosh considers the pre-redacted documents on the WE Imbroglio handed over to committee to be contempt of Parliament, and he’s not wrong.
- My weekend column looks at why the trend of having leaders expel MPs from caucus at the first sign of controversy is bad for our democracy.
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So have the PM declare the whole batch of documents as cabinet confidence and the law clerk will have to redact everything just the same. Enough of this Hillary’s Emails nonsense already. There’s a second wave on its way, an economic rebound to focus on, and chaos south of 49. The media in their Trudeau-derangement bent obsesses over angels dancing on the head of a pin, and Poilievre and his useful-idiot sidekicks in the NDP are beating a dead horse into glue. A pox on all their houses.