Hunger Strike in Saskatchewan Prisons
January 5, 2021
The Honourable Scott Moe Premier of Saskatchewan 226 Legislative Building Regina, Saskatchewan CANADA S4S 0B3
c/c The Honourable Christine Tell
Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety
Emails are: minister.cp@gov.sk.ca and premier@gov.sk.ca and via Twitter @PremierScottMoe
Re: Hunger Strike in Saskatchewan Prisons
Dear Premier Moe,
Wellness Within is a registered non-profit organization working for reproductive justice, prison abolition, and health equity in K'jipuktuk, Mi'kma'ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). We stand in solidarity with prisoners at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre (SCC), Prince Albert Correctional Centre (PACC), Pine Grove Correctional Centre (PGCC), and Regina Correctional Centre (RCC).
On January 4, 2020, incarcerated people across Saskatchewan united in a peaceful protest and hunger strike to call for an official apology and the resignation of the SK Minister of Corrections, Public Safety, and Policing, Christine Tell. This call echoes similar demands by Vice-Chief Kim Beaudin (Congress of Aboriginal Peoples) and NDP MLA Nicole Sauer, both of whom have also called for Tell’s resignation.
Minister Tell and the Saskatchewan Party are clearly guilty of negligence, inaction, and indifference when it comes to the situation of incarcerated people in jails across the province. On two separate occasions in November, prisoner justice advocate Cory Charles Cardinal wrote to the Ministry of Corrections to decry the government’s lack of preventative action and warn of an impending outbreak at the jail, underscoring deplorable conditions, lack of PPE, and increased risk to prisoners with pre-existing health conditions. Mr. Cardinal’s letters received no response, and by the beginning of December, over 107 prisoners and 23 staff had tested positive for the virus, with the numbers later peaking at 142. Most recently, on December 31, news of a substantial outbreak at RCC, with the potential to be similar in scale to the SCC outbreak, came to light.
On December 1, 2020, over 100 individuals and 40 groups across the country signed on to an open letter in support of prisoners at SCC, calling for immediate action to address the COVID crisis and prevent a similarly dangerous spread at other institutions in the province. This letter called for immediate release, adequate post-release supports, sufficient PPE and cleaning supplies, and an apology from Minister Tell. While PPE is now available and numbers at SCC have been reduced, post-release supports are woefully inadequate, and Minister Tell has been steadfast in refusing and deflecting responsibility for the outbreak. Importantly, the number of prisoners at SCC has been reduced not because of government will, but despite it; in fact, Minister Tell proclaimed on more than one occasion that early release would not be considered.
This lack of action and responsibility bespeaks a situation of unconscionable indifference to the health and wellbeing of people in custody. Crucially, as we observed in our initial letter, the health crisis at SCC underscores the fact that COVID-19 disproportionately impacts Indigenous and other racialized communities. In the Prairie Provinces, Indigenous people comprise up to 60% of the federal prison population and up to 85% in provincial jails like SCC. As Mr. Cardinal notes in his recent publication in Briarpatch magazine, current government in/actions in relation to the COVID outbreak must be seen in the context of a 154-year old history of settler colonialism, in which disease and lack of access to health care have been wielded in service of land theft and ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples.
In solidarity with prisoners at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre and throughout the province, we call for:
1. A public apology from the Government of Saskatchewan to prisoners and staff of the SCC for failing to prepare and respond appropriately to prevent the spread of COVID in Saskatchewan jails.
2. The immediate resignation of SK Minister of Corrections and Policing, Christine Tell.
3. The immediate release of all prisoners possible, including but not limited to those on remand, those who are sentenced but near release, those who are immunocompromised, and those over fifty.
4. The provision of adequate financial and other transitional supports to ensure that prisoners who are released are provided with the resources necessary for their health and safety. In addition to adequate funding for existing supports, we call for the creation of post-release transitional supports that are not administered, surveilled, or controlled by criminal justice agents.
5. Immediate and ongoing investment in communities rather than prisons, with the overall goal of moving beyond the current penal system, which is characterized by punishment and control, and which enacts and sustains colonial violence.