Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Canada.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Canada. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper
resources that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Canada U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/canada/
[accessed 7 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT Independent
Monitoring: The government permitted visits by independent nongovernmental
human rights observers, although such visits were largely curtailed starting
in March due to prison visitation restrictions put in place in response to the
coronavirus pandemic. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/canada/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 11 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? The use of solitary
confinement for extended periods of time in Canada’s prisons made headlines
in 2017, with many critics charging that the time that inmates are excluded
from the general population of prisoners was becoming excessive, and that
solitary confinement is frequently targeted at prisoners with mental health
issues. In response to these criticisms, the federal government in June
introduced legislation mandating that federal inmates may not stay in
solitary confinement for longer than 21 consecutive days—with the cap lowered
to 15 days 18 months after the legislation comes into force—unless the prison
warden specifically orders otherwise. Legal advocates for prisoners claim the
bill would have little practical effect other than to force wardens to review
solitary confinement orders slightly earlier than they do presently. Concluding
observations on the seventh periodic report of Canada Committee against
Torture, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights
OHCHR, 21 November 2018 tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/CAT_C_CAN_CO_7_33163_E.pdf [accessed 8 December
2018] CONDITIONS OF
DETENTION
-- 12. While appreciating the
measures taken by
the State party
to improve conditions
of detention in general
and reduce prison
overcrowding in some detention facilities, the Committee remains concerned about
reports of deplorable conditions in some police stations and other
detention facilities, as
well as insufficient food.
It is also
concerned at reported arbitrary practices,
in particular extended
questioning, sleep deprivation
and abusive strip and
body cavity searches. SOLITARY CONFINEMENT -- 14. The
Committee is concerned by the continued use of prolonged and indefinite solitary
confinement, in the form of disciplinary and administrative segregation. INVOLUNTARY
STERILIZATION OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN -- 50. The Committee is concerned at
reports of extensive forced or coerced sterilization of Indigenous women
and girls dating
back to the
1970s and including
recent cases in
the province of Saskatchewan between 2008 and 2012. According to the
information before the Committee, at least 55 women have contacted lawyers
representing Indigenous women who have filed a pending class action lawsuit
against doctors and
health officials at
a Saskatchewan public hospital
for undergoing tubal
ligation procedures without
proper consent. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] CANADA VIOLENCE AGAINST
INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS - A 2014 data collection effort by the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP) identified 1,181 cases of murders and disappearances of
indigenous women and girls between 1980 and 2012, double previous estimates.
The study found that indigenous women and girls are overrepresented among
homicide victims, constituting 16 percent of female homicide victims, despite
making up only 4.3 percent of Canada’s female population. A 2013 Human Rights
Watch report documented the RCMP’s failure in British Columbia to protect
indigenous women and girls from violence, as well as from abusive police
behavior, including excessive use of force and physical and sexual assault. Despite growing
public concern over the murders and disappearances, the government of Prime
Minister Stephen Harper continued to resist calls from provincial leaders,
opposition political parties, and civil society for a national inquiry into
the violence. Cops used ‘torture'
to get confession, top court rules Alyshah Hasham/Torstar
Network, Toronto, 13 December 2013 www.therecord.com/news-story/4270472-cops-used-torture-to-get-confession-top-court-rules/ [accessed 15 Dec
2013] When Maharaj denied being part of the robbery, Clark grabbed
him "and dragged him into an adjoining room — undoubtedly one without a
video camera — where he pushed Maharaj to the
ground, (and) began punching him in the ribs for an extended period of
time," wrote Blair. "At the same
time, (Belanger) attempted to grab hold of Maharaj's
leg and step on his testicles. (Clark) added an oral element to the
intimidation and assault: he said, ‘You're going to make a statement. We'll
make sure you make a statement .... Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/CAN/CO/6
(2012) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/canada2012.html [accessed 24
February 2013] 11. While noting
the State party’s statement that the Canadian Forces assessed the risk of
torture or ill-treatment before transferring a detainee into Afghan custody (CAT/C/CAN/Q/6/Add.1,
para. 155), the Committee is concerned about several reports that some
prisoners transferred by Canadian Forces in Afghanistan into the custody of
other countries have experienced torture and ill-treatment (art. 3). The State party should
adopt a policy for future military operations that clearly prohibits the
prisoner transfers to another country when there are substantial grounds for
believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture and
recognizes that diplomatic assurances and monitoring arrangements will not be
relied upon to justify transfers when such substantial risk of torture
exists. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 POLICE AND SECURITY
FORCES
- In April, RCMP officers in Prince George, British Columbia, used a Taser
against an 11-year-old boy. The RCMP announced in September that the officers
involved would not be disciplined or charged. In June, the
Toronto Police Services released an internal review of policing of the G8 and
G20 Summits in 2010, during which more than 1,000 people were arrested. The
Toronto Police Services Board’s independent civilian review of some aspects
of the policing operation was continuing at the end of 2011. The provincial
and federal governments rejected calls for a public inquiry. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=canada+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 25 December
2018] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights Reports
» 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61719.htm [accessed 22 January
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61719.htm [accessed 3 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law prohibits
such practices, and there were no reports that government officials employed
them. However, in September the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) began
investigating allegations of brutality in the arrest and imprisonment in the Natuashish community of northern Labrador of an
indigenous man with a broken arm who was left overnight in a police station
without medical attention; the investigation was pending at year's end. The Winnipeg police
and the Law Enforcement Review Agency investigated allegations of physical
abuse of a person with a criminal history who was arrested on September 23.
The police claimed that the suspect, whose injuries necessitated hospital
treatment, were the result of an accidental fall at the police station. The
investigation remained pending at year's end. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced
Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st
Century- Canada", http://gvnet.com/torture/Canada.htm, [accessed
<date>] |
