Advocates slam Ford government's revisions to Ontario strip search laws, demand immediate reform

Recent changes made to the legislation that governs how and when Ontario inmates are subject to strip searches are “woefully inadequate” and need to be reexamined, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association said at a news conference Monday.

“A strip search is one of the most invasive acts that the state can do to a person. They should be rare and the last resort,” Shakir Rahim, Director of Criminal Justice for the CCLA, said at the conference.

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When inmates in Ontario prisons are strip-searched, they must remove all of their clothing, and are generally forced to bend over, spread open their buttocks, and manipulate their genitalia and/or cough while squatting – a practice that the CCLA called “inherently degrading and humiliating."

Last month, the Ford government quietly amended the Correctional Services Act in regards to search practices, set to go into effect in the coming months. The changes are meant to more clearly define when such searches are necessary, "ensure respect for human rights and dignity," and "promote the use of less intrusive search methods."

"These changes provide a clear definition of what constitutes a strip search, including with enhanced oversight and accountability, and measures that would ensure respect for human rights and dignity," a statement issued to CTV News Toronto by the Office of the Solicitor General Monday said.

In 2017, an independent panel recommended the ministry make significant changes to strip-searching rules after calling the state of the practice in the province "particularly troubling." 

According to the CCLA, the recent amendments made, which can be seen highlighted in grey in sections 22 to 27 of the online version of the Act, fall short of what is needed to ensure prisoners are treated with basic respect.

There are “three fatal flaws” in the new laws, Rahim said. The first is that the new legislation does not recognize body scanners “as an equivalent”’ to strip searches.

“Second, a person isolated because of a mental health crisis can be strip searched without suspicion they have contraband,” Rahim said. “[And] third, entire groups of prisoners can be searched – if one person is suspected to have contraband, there is no hard limit on how many people can be stripped searched in a group.”

“These policies must address the fatal flaws that I have spoken to you about today,” he continued.

“Anything less flies in the face of basic human dignity and decency.”

 Lisa Moore, director of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, welcomed limiting the scope of strip searches in Ontario prisons when reached for comment.

"The amendments to Ontario’s Correctional Services Act in this regard are overdue and a step in the right direction, but, there is more that could be done to limit the use of this intrusive and degrading practice while ensuring the safety of people working and being held in Ontario’s prisons," Moore said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.

"There is a tendency in our society to treat people in adverse situations inhumanely. It is all the more troubling when this dehumanization is sanctioned through regulations and policies," she continued.

ONGOING CLASS ACTION

Amid the calls for policy reform in Ontario, Canadian authorities are facing a class action lawsuit alleging that officials strip-searched inmates in federal facilities hundreds of thousands of times over three decades. The lawsuit was certified by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in March after the CCLA filed the constitutional challenge last summer.

The statement of claim accuses prison officials of inappropriate conduct, seeks an end to searches that are not authorized by federal law, and seeks compensation for victims.

While laws currently dictate that strip searches should be limited to instances when an inmate might have had access to drugs or other contraband, the lawsuit alleges they were far more frequent, and regularly occurred when inmates left prison buildings or secure areas, entered family visitation rooms or were transferred to different facilities.

Inmates were forced to "remove all clothing, bend over, spread their buttocks, manipulate their genitalia, remove soiled tampons and squat naked while their bodily orifices were inspected," the statement of claim says.

Lawyers for the claimants say this is a violation of basic individual liberties -- and the government must stop breaking its own laws.

But the government is denying the majority of the allegations.

Its statement of defence says when inmates have access to locations where non-prisoners, such as visitors, are allowed, contraband continues to be available and subject to concealment attempts.

"Routine strip searches are an essential component of an integrated safety and security strategy within penitentiaries and in the broader correctional context," the document says.

MOST PRISONERS LEGALLY INNOCENT: CCLA

Out of all the provinces, Ontario has the largest provincial prison population, with over 7,000 people detained.

Most of the people in Ontario’s provincial prisons, including correctional centres, detention centres, jails and treatment centre, are legally innocent, waiting for trial or their release on bail. In 2020, the year with the most recent data, about 77 per cent of people in jail were awaiting trial.