Join the #NOPE / No Ottawa Prison Expansion readiness team!

While Premier Doug Ford and his team make deep cuts to education and social services, the provincial government announced it's moving forward with a new and bigger jail in Thunder Bay, which Infrastructure Ontario estimates will cost hundreds of millions of dollars just to design, build, finance and maintain through a 30-year public-private-partnership.

We need to be ready to respond quickly if Premier Ford and his team also move forward with a new and bigger jail in Ottawa that was previously announced by the Liberals under the leadership of then Premier Kathleen Wynne. In a terrible trade-off, the new Ottawa jail is projected to cost up to $500 million to $1 billion, all while the Progressive Conservatives are cutting $1 billion in social services across the province. 

Please join the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project's #NOPE / No Ottawa Prison Expansion readiness team to resist Premier Ford's push to build jails, while making brutal cuts to care and services that actually enhance community well-being and safety. Roles range in commitment from sharing our announcements with your contacts for those who cannot devote significant time to high-level planning for those who wish to be more involved.

Email your name, email address and/or phone number to cpep.action@gmail.com to be added to our #NOPE readiness team. Upon receiving your email, we will be get in touch with you within a week with next steps.

To learn more about the #NOPE campaign click on the links below:

Top Ten Reasons to Stop Jail Expansion in Ottawa 
and Demand Community-based Alternatives

Infographics Series - Alternatives to Building Cages 
to Improve Community Well-being and Safety

Memes - #got99solutions and a bigger jail ain't one

Infographics Series - The History of Jail Expansion in Ottawa
Part I and Part II

Also check-out our op-eds explaining why building a new and bigger jail in Ottawa is a missed opportunity to enhance community well-being and safety in Eastern Ontario:

"Here's how to really address problems at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 10 April 2016)

"Divest from jails, reinvest in community supports" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 6 February 2017)

"The new Ottawa jail will just become another hellhole" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 7 May 2017)

"Why a new Ottawa jail won't necessarily make things better" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 10 July 2017)

"'There is no neutral ground':
Carceral expansion and organizations that serve the criminalized in Canada" 

(JHSC Blog, 21 September 2017)

"Here's why we should stop planning for a new jail" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 9 November 2017)

"Ottawa jail project needs more transparency" 

(Ottawa Sun, 7 December 2017)

"There are many alternatives to a bigger jail" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 5 May 2018)

"Premier's support for new Ottawa jail costly, ineffective" 

(Ottawa Citizen, 19 September 2018)

"Ontario's kids need more education today, not more cages tomorrow" 

(Rabble, 4 April 2019)


#got99solutions - bigger jails ain't one
With #our1billion #BuildCommunitiesNotCages
#NOPE / No Ontario Prison Expansion
#YESS / Yes to Education and Social Services

Care and Compassion in the Community, Not Cages: A Demonstration Demanding Justice for Justin St. Amour

MEDIA ADVISORY

WHEN?
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
12:30pm – 1:00pm

WHERE?
Canadian Tribute to Human Rights
(corner of Elgin and Lisgar)

WHO?
Laureen St. Amour (Justin’s mother)
Paul Champ (Lawyer, Champ & Associates)
JP (Member, CPEP / Criminalization and Punishment Education Project)

WHY?

The inquest into the preventable December 2016 death of Justin St. Amour began on Monday, April 8, 2019. During the inquest, it has come to light that several opportunities were missed to provide Justin with adequate care and compassion in the community during the course of his life. Living with mental health issues and often homeless, Justin ended-up at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. Placed on and then taken off suicide watch, Justin tore his bed sheets and assembled a noose in his cell, and told a guard checking-in on him that he would take his own life if he did not speak to his supervisor. Despite this, his urgent call was not taken seriously and Justin hung himself with staff failing to intervene in time. Justin was taken to hospital, where he died eight days later. The incarceration and death of Justin St. Amour, like so many others who have been sent to and died in Ontario’s provincial jails, was preventable.

WHAT?

Those gathered at the April 17, 2019 demonstration will be demanding justice for Justin St. Amour and his family in the form of provincial government action to ensure that appropriate care and compassion for people living with mental health issues exists in the community so that they do not end-up in jails like the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre or dead.

Media Contact
Justin Piché, PhD (Associate Professor, Criminology, University of Ottawa)
613-793-1093 / justin.piche@uottawa.ca

Social Media
Facebook
Twitter

Caging isn't caring: Responding to the overdose crisis behind and beyond bars - A community conversation

MEDIA ADVISORY

WHEN?
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
6:00pm – 8:00pm

WHERE?
25One Community
251 Bank Street (2nd floor) / Ottawa

WHO?
Criminalization and Punishment Education Project
Drug Users Advocacy League
Overdose Prevention Ottawa

WHY?

While harm reduction advocates and medical professionals call upon the provincial government to reverse its recent decision to cut the number of overdose prevention sites in Ontario as people continue to die daily from preventable opioid overdoses, this crisis also persists in jails and prisons with far too little appropriate action. 

In the midst of this public health emergency, organizations that advocate for the rights of people who use drugs and people who have been criminalized in Ottawa are organizing a community conversation on what needs to change in order to avoid further overdose deaths in Ontario’s jails and prisons. This event is taking place in conjunction with the National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis, organized by the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs. Those participating in the National Day of Action are demanding concrete action from all levels of government to address the overdose crisis, which has been causing devastation in the lives of Canadians on both sides of the walls for years.

WHAT?

During this event, statements will be read from individuals who are currently incarcerated in Ontario regarding the impact the overdose crisis has had on their lives behind bars and the recommendations they have to prevent future deaths in provincial sites of confinement. Speakers will then discuss the context of the overdose crisis in Ontario, the necessity of harm reduction both behind bars as well in the community, and the particular harms associated with substance use in the unsafe conditions produced in provincial jails and prisons. Refreshments and a light meal will be provided. This event aims to bring attention to issues facing people who use drugs behind and beyond bars, and to the broader themes of incarceration, substance use, and the need for increased access to harm reduction service delivery in Ontario.

Media Contact
Justin Piché, PhD (Associate Professor, Criminology, University of Ottawa)
613-793-1093 / justin.piche@uottawa.ca

Social Media
Facebook
Twitter

Recent Media
Leblanc, Sean, Sarah Speight, Justin Piché and Souheil Benslimane (2019) "Ontario must reduce overdose risks behind and beyond bars", Ottawa Citizen - April 8.

Justice For Soli National Speaking Tour on Mental Health and Incarceration in Canada makes stop in Ottawa as coroner’s inquest into the death of Justin St. Amour who was jailed at OCDC begins

MEDIA ADVISORY

WHEN?
Monday, April 8, 2019
4:00pm – 6:00pm

WHERE?
MacOdrum Library
Discovery Centre / Room 482
Carleton University

WHO?
Justice for Soli with OPIRG Carleton and the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project

WHAT?

On December 4, 2016, Soleiman Faqiri was temporarily housed at the Central East Correctional Centre (CECC) in Lindsay, Ontario while awaiting a bed at the Ontario Shores Centres for Mental Health. Soleiman had been previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and was identified as having urgent mental-health needs by his family and correctional staff. Soleiman was killed under government care on December 15, 2016 following an altercation with guards at CECC.

In October 2017, the Kawartha Lakes Police Services (KLPS) announced that no charges would be filed against any Lindsay CECC officers. Several media reports have questioned whether the police service was far enough removed from the case to conduct its probe impartially.

On January 20, 2019, CBC’s The Fifth Estate released their investigation and findings in the documentary “Jail Death: What Happened to Soleiman Faqiri?” This investigation uncovered new evidence, including an eye witness whom provides a first-person account of the brutal assault on Soleiman by CECC guards. The Ontario Provincial Police has reopened the criminal investigation into Soleiman’s death.

During this event, where The Fifth Estate documentary will be screened, Yusuf Faqiri will speak and advocate for justice, accountability, and reform on behalf of his brother Soleiman and his family. This event is taking place in Ottawa on the same day that the inquest begins here into the death of another former prisoner, Justin St. Amour. Like Soleiman, Justin had been living with mental health issues and, instead of receiving appropriate care and compassion in the community, ended-up in an Ontario jail. In Justin’s case, he died in hospital 8 days after he hung himself with a bedsheet in his cell at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre after his repeated requests for intervention were ignored.

The speaking tour aims to bring attention to Soleiman’s case and to the broader themes of mental health, imprisonment in Ontario, and the need for reform.

Media Contact
Yusuf Faqiri
647- 620-7749
faqiri.yusuf@gmail.com

Social Media
Facebook
Twitter 
Instagram

Most Recent Media Coverage
The Fifth Estate
The Toronto Star