Very few Canadians incarcerated in the United States are repatriated to a Canadian prison each year, and Ottawa still has long delays in processing their files.
Posted at 12:00 p.m
A Canadian convicted in the United States has the right, after a specified time, to apply to be transferred to a prison facility in the country to complete his sentence by benefiting from rehabilitation programs and the Corrections Act publication.
A year ago, a lawyer specializing in the matter, Me Jacques Normandeau, lamented that referrals were being carried out in shambles and that the processing times for files regularly exceeded two years – and even approached three years – when he believed they should last no longer than twelve months.
Even though Marco Mendicino replaced his colleague Bill Blair as Minister of Public Safety in October 2021, the situation of Canadian prisoners who want to return to the country does not appear to have changed.
According to the department, requests are currently active to transfer 134 Canadians detained in the United States to Canada, including 25 for repatriation to prisons or detention centers in Quebec.
For the entirety of 2021, three inmates have been transferred from the United States to Canadian prisons, all in Quebec.
In 2022, through November 20, there were six.
These numbers for 2021 and 2022 are lower than those of previous years.
Number of remittances from the United States to Canada
2016-2017 : 61
2017-2018 : 19
2018-2019 : 7
2019-2020 : 12
2020-2021 : 12
Source: Canadian Department of Public Safety
A scary place
A Quebecer, a client of Me Normandeau and currently being held in a minimum security facility in the state of Pennsylvania, has agreed to tell us about his situation on condition of anonymity.
He was sentenced to two years in prison in November 2021 for fraud.
As of January 2022, he simultaneously applied for a transfer.
Six months later, the Americans accepted his request, but he’s still awaiting news from Canada.
He fears serving his entire sentence far from his family in the United States.
“I’m in a facility 800 kilometers from my home. The property is surrounded by fences and barbed wire. I would really like to see my kids but they are young and it’s a scary place. I fear there will be consequences. I haven’t seen her in ten months,” he wrote to La Presse.
If I made the request, he is not to be privileged. I don’t ask any more than the other inmates, Canadian or not. I only ask that as a Canadian citizen I have the opportunity to serve my sentence close to my children and be rehabilitated according to Canadian norms and standards.
A Quebecer incarcerated in a minimum security facility in the state of Pennsylvania
A simple file
Once the U.S. Correctional Services accept the application, the Canadian Department of International Transfers Correctional Services must create a case.
This includes US court documents, a sentence length and parole eligibility calculation, a parole report, and a community assessment of the inmate. When the file is ready, the Canadian Minister for Public Safety approves the application.
All of these steps should be completed within nine to twelve months, according to Me Normandeau, much less in a case like that of our prisoner, who was sentenced to two years for an economic crime.
“You can’t have a better referral file in the country than this,” says Me Normandeau.
“His fall would take five minutes. There wasn’t even an extradition request. He offered to travel to the United States himself and pay a fine. He even had conditions to return to Canada pending further trials. He hadn’t expected a two-year prison sentence,” adds the lawyer.
Me Normandeau reiterates that it is mostly the calculation of the remaining sentence and the Minister’s signature that prolongs the delays.
He believes that someone other than the minister should be able to sign the transfer to reduce delays.
“In big cases, like a cocaine importer who got ten years and more, we should let the minister decide. But in the case of less serious crimes and less severe punishments, we should leave that to an officer in Correctional Service Canada. I have never seen a transfer request from a prisoner sentenced to two or three years rejected,” explains Me Jacques Normandeau.
La Presse on November 21 asked the Ministry of Public Security and Minister Mendicino why the number of transfers has been so low over the past two years.
On November 23, a ministry spokeswoman gave us a statement at the end of the day, which never came despite numerous reminders.
Our detainee learned on November 30 that he would not be on the list of transfers scheduled for December 2. At best, it will have to wait for the next window, which is scheduled for spring.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514.285-7000, extension 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the La Presse mailing address.