MANDY HISCOCKS FILES COMPLAINT TO THE ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS TRIBUNAL

Today's Waterloo Region Record advises us that "G20 activist claims jail violates human rights code". If I were two or three decades younger and as naive as I was at that time I would be either appalled or laughing out loud at that headline. For me it would have been similar to a headline stating something obviously ridiculous such as convicted pedophile and mass murderer claims discrimination in his incarceration.

Ah but having seen all our wonderful government bureaucracies and departments and ministries in action over a period of decades; I can only say God help us all for they are truly awful. Ms. Hiscocks claims that the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services are unfair and discriminatory in their designations as to which inmates are assigned to maximum security. I suppose that logic would dictate that things like a history of violence or a history of escapes would be a fairly good classification method. Of course what to do if for example you've got lots of room in the maximum security wing and not so much in the medium security wings. I would think that this is where a certain amount of subjectivity could go a long way towards solving the problem. Lets see now: how about dark skinned women with poor communication skills plus as a bonus if they aren't Canadian citizens being designated as maximum security.

There see, the problem is solved. Now if only the Ontario Correctional Services had me on the payroll I would have saved them the annoying problem of Ms. Hiscocks complaint. Afterall she is white and has good communication skills as indicated by her Blog and her job at OPIRG (Ontario Public Interest Research Group). Putting her in maximum security was just stupid. Not having a process and a rationale for these decisions is just stupid. Refusing to share it with inmates is of course part and parcel of the dehumanization process and therefore helpful in justifying locking up non violent citizens for organizing, counselling and political resistance activities.

I have a further thought. I truly hope that our fair minded and honest prison authorities don't get the bright idea of treating Ms. Hiscocks in a similar way as they did Ashley Smith. Ms. Smith kept getting her sentence increased due to in house charges. It would be an incredible coincidence if a model prisoner transferred from maximum to medium security for good behaviour suddenly was "naughty" a few days after her complaint to the Human Rights Commission became known to the authorities. It would almost give the impression of a lack of accountability and transparency by a bunch of extremely petty and vindictive bureaucrats.