Top court says federal prisoners can challenge security transfer denials before judge
Jessica Orkin and Adriel Weaver enjoyed a significant win in the Supreme Court of Canada on Friday.
In Dorsey v. Canada, the Supreme Court held that federal prisoners can challenge a refusal to transfer them to a lower security prison.
Applications were brought in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice after two inmates serving their sentences in in medium-security federal institutions were denied transfers to minimum security prisons, notwithstanding the recommendations of their case management teams. They argued that the refusal to transfer them was an unlawful restriction on their liberty and sought to have the court review their detention under the legal concept of habeas corpus. The Court dismissed the applications, holding that habeas corpus could not was not available to review the decisions. The Court of Appeal dismissed the inmates’ appeals.
A majority of the Supreme Court of Canada disagreed:
“Broad and effective access to habeas corpus is paramount for those who suffer an unlawful and continued deprivation of their residual liberty and seek to challenge the legality of their confinement,” the judgement said.
The CBC spoke to Jessica Orkin about the decision:
“The scrutiny that comes from a hearing with a judge, we hope, will change the quality of that justification and force administrators to think more carefully and to explain more carefully the basis of their decisions,” said Jessica Orkin, counsel for Dorsey and Salah, and partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP.
Read our summary of the decision here.