APTN News: Issues at the Kenora Jail have sparked an investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman over human rights concerns, APTN News has learned.
Complaints about broken toilets in jail cells, better access to menstrual supplies, overcrowding, and the lack of traditional healing spaces for Indigenous female inmates top the list in the almost 100-year-old facility.
“I’ve seen things in there that I was really shocked to see,” says First Nations advocate Tania Cameron, who brought the concerns to light after touring the facility in the southeast outskirts of the small town in northwestern Ontario.
Kenora is 200 km east of Winnipeg.
Cameron says she saw five men having to share one cell with only a bunk bed and three mattresses on the floor, including one underneath the bed.
“It was really disturbing and it was really enlightening to see the conditions,” she said in an interview.
Cameron first heard about problems at the provincial facility when she was approached by an inmate’s family member.
They told her people who menstruate were not receiving adequate personal hygiene products and sometimes had to wait hours for them after making a request to correctional officers (CO).
Cameron, a member of nearby Niisaachewan First Nation, went to see for herself as part of a tour with the area’s Member of Provincial Parliament Sol Mamakwa last month.
Cameron says inmates said they are only given two options – a small tampon without an applicator that “sometimes it hurts to use” or a thin pad like a pantyliner not suitable for a heavy flow.
“I heard that from four or five women: ‘We don’t get the supply when we need it’,” said Cameron, adding a CO disagreed with the women who spoke to her. “She said, ‘No, no. You get it when you ask’, and one woman countered, ‘I asked three times, and I still never got them!”
Cameron estimates 90 per cent of the female inmates are from First Nations in the area. Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in Canada’s jails and prisons, according to Statistics Canada.
Also, Cameron says they told her they have no access to traditional healing spaces for connecting with their culture like the men do. She says male inmates have a sweat lodge, teepee and tent where traditional teachings take place.
“I don’t know if they recognize how misogynistic that is,” says Cameron. That “there’s only 35 women in there, so you don’t really count and you can live with the broken toilet and you can beg for your period products, and you won’t have access to your traditional teachings or sweat lodge, but the men will have it.”
Cameron says the women’s traditional healing spaces were removed during an expansion of the jail a few years ago and not replaced.
The multi-million-dollar upgrade in 2022 presently houses a few dozen male inmates, she added, but the female side is empty while the women are kept in the original jail.
“It’s ready; it’s beautiful in there, but they don’t have enough staff,” Cameron says. “Why don’t you just take those women in that minimum security and just move them over there and just close [the other building] where the toilet isn’t working?”
Along with making the issues public, Cameron is collecting donations for inmates to buy better period products at the jail’s canteen, where it costs $4 for a pack of pads.
She says an inspector from the Ombudsman’s office is scheduled to visit the jail this week.
The Ombudsman’s office told APTN it can’t discuss individual cases due to confidentiality, but confirmed access to health care is among the most common concerns raised by inmates.
In 2023, the office received 4,444 complaints and inquiries about medical care and overcrowding in correctional facilities.
It suggested anyone directly affected by these types of issues should make a complaint to its office.
Did not respond
Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerzner did not respond to repeated requests for an interview with APTN. Instead, his office emailed a written statement.
“The products that are available free of charge in female units at all provincial correctional facilities include varieties of tampons, varieties of sanitary napkins as well as panty liners,” the statement said.
“Features at the Kenora Jail to honour the unique histories, traditional practices, heritages, beliefs and cultures of Indigenous people include a teepee and a sweat lodge,” the statement added. “The Kenora’s Chiefs Advisory has also supplied additional programing such as the Indigenous cultural wellness program.”
Kerzner’s office did not respond to APTN’s follow-up questions about whether female inmates had access to traditional spaces, what types of personal hygiene products they carry, and if period underwear would be allowed for inmates who have access to laundry machines.
Mamakwa says he last spoke with Kerzner in early June following his visit to the jail with Cameron.
“He reiterated that there was proper menstrual products there, but he wasn’t there,” the MPP said. “It’s based on what he hears, right?
“I think, to be honest, racism is very blatant when you go in there.”
Kenora city Coun. Lindsay Koch put forward a motion Wednesday to help inmates, despite the municipality having no jurisdiction over the jail.
The motiong, which passed, called for a policy to support the delivery of menstrual supplies within 15 minutes, research on whether period underwear is a viable option, better education for CO’s about menstrual needs, and proper and ongoing maintenance of the toilets.
Meanwhile, Cameron says some inmates have reported improved access to menstrual products since her visit in June.
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