A civil liberties group has filed a lawsuit against the federal government over solitary confinement, two years after the top courts in British Columbia and Ontario ruled there has been a violation of prisoners' constitutional rights.
Prisoner isolation, declared unconstitutional 18 months ago, will remain legal for now after Canada's top court granted Ottawa's urgent request to allow the current law to stay in force for the time being.
Prisoners advocates are asking a Federal Court to intervene in the case of a Dene man from northern Saskatchewan who they say has spent most of his adult life in segregation and is at risk of committing suicide.
A civil liberties group that has launched a constitutional challenge to Canada's segregation laws told a Toronto court today that the rule of law must be brought into the correctional system.
A Regina woman who spent 3-1/2 years in solitary confinement cried as she recalled how a spiritual ceremony led by a First Nations elder helped her through difficult times at a B.C. prison.