[Wamvan] Fwd: [dnc-board] First case in Canada re the rights of mothers & babies to remain together while incarcerated.

[Tami Starlight]

VANCOUVER -- A B.C. woman who was pregnant when she began serving a jail
sentence, and later had her baby taken away after being born, is suing the
provincial government.

Patricia Block’s legal action claims that the Minister of Public Safety and
Solicitor General violated her and her baby’s constitutional rights because
it cancelled its mother-baby program in 2008.

It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Canada concerning the
rights of mothers and babies to remain together while incarcerated.

The mother-baby program allowed mothers to keep their babies while
incarcerated at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, a provincial
corrections facility.

The program was similar to the federal mother-child program, which is
offered at Fraser Valley Institution, a federal prison facility for women.

After the provincial mother-baby program was cancelled in April 2008, Block
pleaded guilty to possessing drugs for trafficking.

At the time, she was 4½ months' pregnant and requested a two-year federal
sentence so she could keep her baby in the federal mother-child program.

But she received a short sentence and was not accepted in the federal
program, so her daughter, born March 17, 2009, was removed from Block's
care.

After her release in July 2009, the baby was returned to the mother by the
Ministry of Children and Family Development.

The defendants -- the solicitor general of B.C., the attorney general and
Lisa Anderson, the warden of Alouette -- recently filed an application to
have the case dismissed, arguing that Block lacked standing to advance her
claims.

In a ruling this week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross dismissed the
defendants' application and allowed Block public interest standing.

That means the case now has to be decided on its merits.

Ross noted in her judgment, released Friday, that 12 women had babies while
incarcerated in the provincial corrections system between February 2008 and
Dec. 16 of last year.

As of last Nov. 1, 93 women were in provincial corrections facilities, with
47 of those identified as first nations women.

The judgment states that after Block was released from jail, she married
her baby's father, took a culinary program, found a job and regained
custody of another daughter, while her oldest daughter now is attending
university.

Government will be taking the time necessary to review the before deciding
our next steps.

The full judgment is online:  <http://bit.ly/A6fSeF>http://bit.ly/A6fSeF

*nhall at vancouversun.com*
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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