A judge ordered Ottawa on Wednesday to pay nearly $600,000 in damages to a Quebec man who was allegedly tortured in a Mexican prison after his extradition for various crimes. Simulation of drowning, asphyxiation with a plastic bag, hot sauce injected into the nose: Régent Boily says he experienced one of the “worst moments that a human being can live”.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
“Mr. Judge, how helpless are you in such a situation… You can’t defend yourself there, you can’t tell them to stop attacking you, you know?” Then it’s humiliating, it’s humiliating to know that we do with you what we want, ”said Mr. Boily at the trial, describing the various abuses he said he had suffered.
The simulation of drowning in a barrel of dirty water had particularly traumatized him, according to his account. “It’s one of the worst times a human being can go through. There, I was certain that I was to die drowned, ”he had related.
Drug dealing and bloody escape
Born in 1944 in Vieux-Hull, Outaouais, Régent Boily settled in Mexico in 1993 after the accidental death of his wife in Canada. Remarried to a Mexican citizen, he began to associate with drug traffickers. In 1998, he was arrested by Mexican police with a shipment of 500 kg of marijuana.
He says he was tortured for the first time during this first arrest, when the agents injected him with “chili sauce” and sparkling water into his nostrils. Sentenced to 14 years in prison, he found himself incarcerated in Cieneguillas prison, in the state of Zacatecas.
In 1999, Mr. Boily escaped during an appointment at an ophthalmology clinic. Armed men intercepted the guards escorting him and allowed the Quebecer to flee. One of the prison guards was shot dead. Mr. Boily then crossed two borders illegally to return to live in the Outaouais.
In 2003, Mexico requested his extradition to return to serve the rest of his sentence and have a new trial for escape and manslaughter.
Canadian diplomats have expressed concern that he will face reprisals because Mexican authorities plan to take him back to the prison where his escape left a guard dead. But their fears didn’t change that. The extradition took place in 2007 and Mr. Boily ended up in the establishment where the staff had every reason in the world to resent him. He was sentenced to a further 16 years in prison.
The Quebecer said he was tortured at least twice upon his return behind bars in Mexico.
Twelve years to judge the case
As early as 2010, he launched a lawsuit against the Canadian government before the Federal Court of Canada. He blamed the government for exposing him to this mistreatment. The slowness of the judicial system allowed the case to drag on for 12 years before being decided.
Meanwhile, in June 2017, Boily was repatriated to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence. He has been on parole since December of the same year.
On Wednesday, Judge Sébastien Grammond agreed with the former prisoner and awarded him $589,000 in damages.
“Torture is a universally condemned practice. It constitutes a radical form of annihilation of human dignity,” wrote the magistrate in his decision.
The internal notes entered into evidence clearly show that the officials knew that returning Mr. Boily to the prison from which he had escaped exposed him to a serious risk of reprisals.
Excerpt from the decision of judge Sébastien Grammond
There were serious grounds for extradition, but Canada could have taken steps to ensure that its national was not tortured, by requiring his incarceration in another prison or by monitoring more closely his situation behind bars .
“No one questions the validity of the convictions pronounced against Mr. Boily and the sentences imposed on him. Mr. Boily violated several fundamental norms of Mexican society. The life of an innocent guard was the price of his escape […] The legitimate punishment he deserved, however, did not include torture,” the judge concluded.
His lawyers relieved
Mr. Boily did not want to comment on the judgment on Wednesday. The team of lawyers representing him, made up of Mr.are Audrey Boctor, Olga Redko, Vanessa Ntaganda, Michel Swanston and Christian Deslauriers, said she was “relieved”.
“We hope that Canada will finally assume its responsibility towards Mr. Boily for these events and will not drag out this process for any longer,” they wrote in a message to The Press.
The lawyers also underline the extent to which the Federal Court insists on the importance for the State to take seriously the risks of torture in foreign prisons. “This is a strong affirmation of the cardinal human rights principles that are guaranteed by our legal order,” they point out.