Matsqui prisoner strike continues

Prison situation stalemated

Inmates at Matsqui Institution are still on strike and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Some inmates have already been transferred to other facilities as tensions mount. JOHN VAN PUTTEN (Abbotsford News)

By Rochelle Baker – Abbotsford News
Published: June 12, 2009

Inmates and Matsqui Institution officials are deadlocked again after prisoners who initiated court proceedings citing inhumane conditions during a work strike have been shipped off to other jails or put into solitary confinement.

“As I understand it, there’s an impasse now,” said Abbotsford lawyer John Conroy, who represents the prisoners.

He called the move by officials “outrageous.”

Conroy said inmates want their representatives back, and the strike will continue until that occurs.

The representatives approved by Matsqui officials, including Stephane Turcotte and Jean Paul Aube, are some of the same prisoners transferred out, said Conroy.

“[The spokesmen] negotiate in good faith on behalf of the prisoners, try to keep the peace, and what does the administration do? They grab the leaders trying to keep the peace and ship them out.”

Prisoners have waged a non-violent strike, he said.

“But one of the problems you always have to worry about in a prison context is that some may lose it and a riot will break out.”

Turcotte and Aube have been put into solitary confinement at Mission and Mountain institutions.

A number of tier reps were also shipped to Kent, a maximum security facility near Agassiz.

“We don’t know all the details. There are others in the hole at Matsqui as well,” said Conroy.

The inmates at the medium security prison went on strike March 30, refusing to go to work or participate in programs, to protest a restructuring of their workday and time in the yard.

A lock down initiated May 11 saw prisoners kept in their cells for 23 hours a day.

Prison officials said the restrictions were put in place because of threats to inmates inclined to break the strike.

Inmates were given limited access to bathroom facilities, and had to buzz guards to be let out of their cells, said Conroy.

After long waits, inmates said they were forced to find a plastic bag or waste basket to relieve themselves in their cells.

Matsqui, an older institution, has no toilets or sinks in the cells.

Conroy said the stench on the lower tier of the institution was vile, and that the situation was both cruel and unhealthy.

Conroy and Vancouver lawyer Donna Turko had plans to take the prison to Supreme Court at the beginning of this week.

However, the court date was adjourned Friday after the administrators agreed to allow inmates more freedom of movement during the day to access toilets, as well as more yard time.

Prisoners will also have some access to facilities at night, with guards accompanying two inmates at a time to the washroom.

However, at the same time Matsqui was grabbing inmate spokesmen, said Conroy. It bodes ill for the situation at the institution, he said.

“Who’s going to want to stand up, and be a representative in the future, if this is going to happen?”