June 11, 2010

UPHOLDING

Justice McEwan’s judgment in the Bacon case is a must read for all of those who are concerned about the direction in which the federal conservative government is taking Canadian corrections. In A Flawed Compass Graham Stuart and I criticized the federal government’s Roadmap and Transformation Agenda for its disregard of international human rights standards, judgments of Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the research evidence and literature, and the history of abuse when human rights take a back seat to administrative convenience and the discretion of correctional administrators. Justice McEwan’s judgment stands in stark relief to the Roadmap and is a compelling example of the appropriate pathway to an analysis of the conditions of confinement in which human rights lies at the center not the periphery of justice and effective corrections.

Michael Jackson