What that decision does not take into consideration is the jury's finding that, in all the circumstances, Mr. MacDonald's reaction to the risk presented by Mr. Allen, which I might say was a risk clearly identified by Mr. Dick, the preventive security officer, before Mr. Allen's arrival, was proportionate.

That, in my judgement, is not evidence of a propensity to resort to violence to solve all problems, so as to constitute Mr. MacDonald a dangerous offender, and a risk to any other persons in the general population, or indeed any officer of the Correction Service in the institution. The matter of the Allen/MacDonald hostilities was a specifically identifiable, predictable problem. No such evidence is available with respect to the balance of the population. I find that the decision to send Mr. MacDonald to a Special Handling Unit is patently unreasonable under those circumstances ( MacDonald v. Warden of Kent Institution, Vancouver Registry, cc951235)

Hughie MacDonald was finally returned to the general population at Kent on August 23, 1996. In the concluding paragraph of his reasons for judgement, Mr. Justice Wilson had stated, "I would like to add that I would certainly encourage the Service to endeavour with all deliberate speed to get Mr. MacDonald to the Regional Health Centre." However, it would take than more than judicial encouragement to get Hugh MacDonald to the Regional Health Centre. He remained at Kent for almost two years after Mr. Justice Wilson's judgement. And in July 1998, even when the Correctional Service finally agreed to transfer him, it was not to the RHC but to Matsqui Institution. In August 1999, almost three years to the day of the court's exhortation to CSC to get Mr. MacDonald to RHC "with all deliberate speed," I spoke with him at Matsqui. He had just been told he was not sufficiently motivated to benefit from the Violent Offender Program and therefore would remain at Matsqui. In July 2001, over three years after his acquittal, I again interviewed Mr. MacDonald. He was still warehoused at Matsqui, having served twenty-two years of his life sentence. He was not transferred to the RHC until October 2001. The Correctional Service's interpretation of "all deliberate speed," while inviting comparison with civil rights violations in the American Deep South, hardly stands as a model of respect for the Rule of Law.

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