The Leclerc women’s prison in Laval is targeted by a class action request. A former detainee denounces “cruel and unusual treatment” and “civil faults having caused serious harm” within this provincial detention center.
“Several hundred women are still subjected each year to institutional contempt,” argues the law firm Trudel Johnston & Lespérance, which is bringing the case before the Superior Court. The collective action insists on two points: “abusive” strip searches and the lack of access to basic health care.
Former inmate Louise Henry is acting as a figurehead in this class action. She has written a book in the past, Deliver us from the Leclerc prison!where she recounts strip searches, handcuffs, insects, rodents, cold, lack of air conditioning, drinking water problems, lack of psychological care, overrepresentation of natives, etc.
Over the phone, she explains how humiliating searches are commonplace. “Whenever you absolutely have to go out, to go to the courthouse or for a medical appointment, you are searched when you leave the prison and when you return. Twice for one outing. Sometimes these searches emanate from the “mood” of the guards, according to her. A hint of traffic and “the whole floor can go through the strip search”.
This practice is not normal in other prisons, she points out. Louise Henry, who was also detained in another prison, a federal prison, and claims to have undergone only one “half-naked” search there in 7 months. “And at the federal level, it’s a lot of heavy cases! »
The Leclerc prison was once a federal prison for men, but was condemned by the government for being outdated. The plaintiff relies on this fact to reprove this detention center. “In the beginning, why did you take the men out, condemn the prison, but to put the women there? »
The class action targets all women who have been detained at the Leclerc Detention Facility since September 6, 2019. Lawyer Clara Poissant-Lespérance, who represents the detainees in this case, estimates that “a few thousand” women are thus included in the request. They can contact his office to allow them to listen and share their story.
This demand for collective action demands financial compensation from the government for the inmates and ex-inmates of the Leclerc prison. “It does not mean closing the prison, it means respecting fundamental rights”, insists Me Poissant-Lespérance.
This class action should be heard by a judge later this year.