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Page 6 March 6, 2017 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday No judge is an island Revolution in the streets is what leads to decisions in the courts, said a sign I saw last week. It surprised and delighted me, as it was a reference to the fact that our ever-evolving social context can inform our judges and vice ver- sa. While in theory there is a delineated line between the judges and legislators, both are informed by the social climate of our time. Which is why savvy legislator and interim Conservative Party of Canada leader Rona Ambrose has introduced a private member's bill that would mandate that all new judges receive training in deal- ing with sexual assault cases. At first blush, the idea sounds excellent. After all, public discussion around the treatment of sexual assault complainants by police and in the courts has been receiving wide- spread coverage. But, on further examination, the bill itself does not delve into deeper issues, point out critics. Lorne Sossin, dean of Osgoode Hall Law School at York Univer- sity, says, "Picking a single, albeit important, dynamic and requiring that education when we otherwise do not make judicial education mandatory may be difficult to justify." And defence lawyer Anne-Marie McElroy says providing Crown prosecutors with more resources would be a more effective way to go about achieving the bill's goals. Overcrowding at Ottawa jail BY RICHARD CLEROUX O ttawa defence lawyer Law- rence Greenspon remembers visiting the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre two dec- ades ago. It was a model provincial jail. Inmates were trusted to prepare their own favourite food. The best-behaved got free time in municipal swimming pools. They got regular visits from doctors. Psychiatrists were also available. Nurses made three daily rounds, passing out the pills doc- tors had prescribed. Health care in the prison was not the crisis it is now. The public felt that if pris- oners were well treated, it would reduce recidivism when they got out after their sentence. Sadly, public attitudes changed over the next 25 years. The public didn't seem to care how criminals were treated. As a lawyer, Greenspon saw it all hap- pen. People decided that mollycoddling prisoners served no purpose. Medical help came in when prison staff decided it was needed, not when inmates asked for it. The province cut funding to save money. Prisoners were told they were in jail to do time, not to live a privileged life at public expense. Things got worse. Vio- lence increased, drugs and alcohol gained a foothold. When it got really bad, prov- incial corrections ministers were dumped and new ones brought in. The newspapers have regularly been full of prison horror stories — beatings, killings and suicides. The Ottawa jail was pub- licly criticized for the despicable treat- ment of prisoners. In 2012, another Ottawa jail story made the news. Julie Bilotta, several months pregnant, began giving birth to her son Gionni Lee Garlow in her soli- tary confinement cell and bleeding ex- tensively. They were both taken to hos- pital. Her son received medical care but died a year later from respiratory com- plications. Bilotta is suing the Ontario government for $1.3 million. In the past three years, the Ontario government has gone through four cor- rections ministers. The current minister, Marie-France Lalonde, is a former Ottawa social work- er. She took over the position Jan. 12. She followed David Orazietti of Sault-Ste. Marie, Ont., who left provincial politics to re- turn full time to his family. Before him, Yasir Naqvi was corrections minister. Now he is the Ontario attorney general. Previously, another Ottawa woman, Madeleine Meilleur, a former nurse, was the minister. The recent history of the jail continues to be a horror story. Lalonde promises improvements. There have been two more suicides at the jail in the last 10 months. Near-suicides are not even made public. At one point, Naqvi was so fed up with the jail that he ordered no more solitary confinement in shower cells. Nor would prisoners ever again have to sleep at night on mouldy mattresses on the prison f loor. The jail has repeatedly attracted international attention. It has been con- demned in news media across North America. Inspectors who were called in said the Ottawa Detention Centre is not even up to minimum United Nations standards for prisoners. The new minis- ter, Lalonde, speaks with pride that the situation is improving. The crime rate in Ontario has dropped by 34 per cent in the past 10 years, she says. Violent crime has gone down by almost 29 per cent. Nonetheless, Ontario still has about 8,000 prisoners lodged in its 26 prov- incial jails, Lalonde says. Correctional officers are providing "care, custody and control" of inmates, working at jobs she describes as "challenging" and "often dangerous" with a clientele that can be "very contentious." She has a polite way of putting it without insulting anyone behind the bars. Her ministry keeps hir- ing more correctional officers. Since 2013, the provincial govern- ment has hired a total of 1,136 correc- tional officers, she says. In addition, the province is spending $9.5 million to install "full-body X-ray scanners" in all 26 provincial jails. She is proud of those machines. She also has a plan, she says, to hire comedians to entertain prisoners while they serve time behind bars. So far, no comedians have been hired. LT uRichard Cleroux is a freelance re- porter and columnist on Parlia- ment Hill. His email address is richardcleroux34@gmail.com. The bill is a baby step. While proactive educa- tion on sensitive social issues is worthwhile, the malingering issues underneath (such as resourcing of Crowns) is much more complex and difficult to package up as an issue that would gain traction with voters. LT ©2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Law Times disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reli- ance upon information in this publication. 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