Nunavut jail poses 'significant constitutional and legal risks': memo

The Baffin Correctional Centre is a ticking legal timebomb that could go off at any moment, a senior bureaucrat warns in anewly disclosed memo that comes as the territory braces for ascathing report about the notorious Nunavut jail.

The Canadian Press recently obtained a copy of a January memowritten by Nunavut's deputy minister of justice to several of hercolleagues and copied to her boss, Justice Minister Paul Okalik.In it, Elizabeth Sanderson raises "serious constitutional andlegal concerns associated with the ongoing use of the BaffinCorrectional Centre" and urges cabinet secretary David Akeeagok tobrief Premier Peter Taptuna about her concerns.

"In my opinion, the government of Nunavut is likely insignificant breach of constitutional obligations towards remanded accused and inmates housed at the BCC facility, and faces a highrisk of civil liability towards inmates, staff and members of thepublic in tort law," Sanderson wrote.

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On Tuesday afternoon, auditor general Michael Ferguson willpresent a report to Nunavut's legislature on the territory's
correctional services. He delivered similar reports last week to thelegislatures of the Northwest Territories and Yukon.

Sanderson received a copy of the second-to-last draft of theauditor general's Nunavut report, which she told her colleagues"raises extremely troubling concerns about the use of the BCCfacility."

"With the impending release of the (auditor general's) report, Inow want to be crystal clear about the full gambit of potentialconstitutional and civil liability and associated remedies ... thatthe (Nunavut government) faces with the continued use of the BCC," Sanderson wrote.

"The public reports, media coverage and 'ATIPPable' materials asa whole do not simply provide a damning assessment of the BCC; froma legal perspective, these materials provide persuasive evidencethat the (Nunavut government) has, since 1999, failed to takeappropriate measures to correct the constitutionally suspect,legally deficient use of BCC as a correctional facility."

The memo then outlined several sections of the Charter of Rightsand Freedoms that Sanderson said could be violated by the continueduse of the Baffin Correctional Centre. She cautioned the courtscould, among other things, declare the jail unconstitutional ororder that it be shut down.

Sanderson also raised the spectre of a civil or class-actionsuit.

"While any specific legal challenge would require detailedanalysis, we know enough now to appreciate that the (Nunavutgovernment) is failing in its constitutional and legal obligationsin relation to BCC's continued use to house inmates and remandedindividuals," she wrote.

"Even without a specific case coming forward, I remain veryconcerned that the administration of public affairs of the (Nunavutgovernment) in regards to our use of BCC as a corrections facilitydoes not accord with the law."

Sanderson declined to comment.

"The matter to which you refer is confidential and subject tosolicitor-client privilege," she wrote in an email."As you can appreciate, I am not in a position to comment."

'Filthy, drafty and mouldy'

Built in 1986, the Baffin Correctional Centre was never meant tohouse more than 41 minimum-security inmates. But it became theterritory's main jail when Nunavut was created in 1999. The numberof prisoners kept there routinely swells to nearly 100 includingmedium- and maximum-security inmates depending on the day of theweek.

Senior officials and cabinet ministers have been trying to figureout what to do about the jail for years now. There have been publicdebates in the legislature and successive studies over the years. InDecember 2009, Okalik who, prior to his latest posting, previouslyserved as the territory's premier and justice minister from 1999 to2008 moved a motion that was carried in the legislature to scrap aproposed $300,000 study of the Baffin Correctional Centre.

Karen Kabloona, Okalik's executive assistant, said he wouldrespond once he has had time to review the auditor general's report.She did not address Sanderson's memo in her emailed response.

However, a 2013 report by the federal Office of the CorrectionalInvestigator which quietly appeared on the Nunavut JusticeDepartment website last spring listed a slew of serious problemsat the jail.

The place is rife with drugs and illegal contraband. Inmates livein constant fear of beatings and sexual assaults. It is soovercrowded that prisoners are kept in cells with up to four timesthe intended occupancy rate. Some cells have no toilets or runningwater. The prison is filthy, drafty and mouldy. The smell isoverpowering.

"When I first walked through, I was quite taken aback. I wastaken aback at its state of disrepair," Correctional Investigator HowardSapers told The CanadianPress last year.

"The conditions of confinement were certainly well belowanything I had seen in a federal penitentiary."

Last November, Nunavut's legislature approved $850,000 for safetyrenovations at the jail.

Meanwhile, a new minimum-security jail is slated to open later this year, and the capacity has been increased at the Rankin InletHealing Facility. But Sanderson told her colleagues neither ofthings does anything to put her concerns about the BaffinCorrectional Centre to rest.