Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale responds to the 2019 Spring Reports of the Auditor General in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Goodale is disputing claims that a bill to end solitary confinement in Canada’s prisons is merely “linguistic trickery” that maintains the practice under a different name. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Minister Ralph Goodale responds to the 2019 Spring Reports of the Auditor General in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. Goodale is disputing claims that a bill to end solitary confinement in Canada’s prisons is merely “linguistic trickery” that maintains the practice under a different name. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Goodale disputes charge that bill maintains solitary confinement by another name

A bill to end solitary confinement in Canada’s prisons is merely “linguistic trickery”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale is disputing claims that a bill to end solitary confinement in Canada’s prisons is merely “linguistic trickery” that maintains the practice under a different name.

Goodale says the bill, which would create new “structured intervention units,” is much more than semantics.

He says inmates confined to such units would get twice as much time out of their cells and at least two hours of meaningful human contact every day.

READ MORE: U.S. officials mark new $33M border post at Canada border

As well, he says they’d have access to mental health care, rehabilitation programs and other intervention services not available to segregated prisoners now.

Goodale says the objective is to limit as much as possible the use of segregation, but there are instances in which it will remain necessary to separate prisoners, for their own safety and that of other inmates and guards.

READ MORE: Federal prisons taking aim at special deliveries from the sky

He is responding to criticism from independent Sen. Kim Pate, a former prisoners’ rights advocate, who argues the bill simply rebrands the cruel practice of solitary confinement with a new name.

The Canadian Press

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Be Among The First To Know

Sign up for a free account today, and receive top headlines in your inbox Monday to Saturday.

Sign Up with google Sign Up with facebook

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Reset your password

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

A link has been emailed to you - check your inbox.



Don't have an account? Click here to sign up
Pop-up banner image