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AUPE News & Updates
For immediate release: June 24, 2004
Supreme Court ruling on inmates’ weapons a danger to Corrections
staff: AUPE
EDMONTON — The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a prisoner
in the federal Edmonton Institution was justified in carrying a handmade
knife — a decision of grave concern to AUPE and other unions that
represent front-line Correctional workers including Correctional Officers.
In a 6-1 decision on June 23, the country’s top court overturned
a ruling of the Alberta Court of Appeal in the case of an Edmonton Institution
inmate who used a homemade weapon to fatally stab another inmate in
January 2000.
Correctional Officers fear inmates will use the decision to justify
carrying dangerous weapons, AUPE President Dan MacLennan said after
the ruling was announced.
MacLennan, who is on leave from his job as a provincial Correctional
Officer, said that despite the fact the Supreme Court decision is specific
to only the one case, he is very concerned that it will be read by inmates
and others in both provincial and federal institutions “as justification
for increased violence.”
“It’s bad news for staff,” MacLennan said.
The inmate was found not guilty of second-degree murder by an Alberta
Court of Queen’s Bench judge because he was deemed to be acting
in self-defence. Moreover, the inmate was acquitted of carrying a dangerous
weapon because the lower court ruled he needed the knife to defend himself.
That decision was overturned by the Alberta Court of Appeal, which ruled
that the judge’s reasoning was a “recipe for anarchy”
in correctional institutions.
The Supreme Court has now overturned the Appeal Court’s ruling,
saying that the inmate was living in an armed camp and was subject to
credible threats of assault.
Rulings of the Supreme Court of Canada cannot be appealed. Legislation,
however, can be passed to counter the effect of a court ruling.
“AUPE will be meeting with front-line Correctional workers to
discuss this issue and possible responses,” MacLennan said.
Click here to read the full decision of the Supreme Court of Canada.
http://www.canlii.org/ca/cas/scc/2004/2004scc44.html
Click here to read the Edmonton Journal’s coverage of the ruling.
Journala
Journalb
Click here to read the Edmonton Sun’s coverage of the ruling.
Sun
For more information, contact:
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-232-8392 (cellular
phone)
Wayne Trimble, Union Representative, AUPE, 780-672-8877 or 780679-5734
(cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943
(cellular phone)
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