A band of prisoners responsible for enormous carnage — murders, rapes, vicious home invasions, kidnappings, beatings, bank robberies and the stabbing of a prison guard — is suing the Queen over their “awkward” and “uncomfortable” detention in prison.They complain that barber services are not provided, library resources are inadequate, access to sunlight is insufficient and they suffer from sleep deprivation.
The inmates seek money for negligence and breaches of their Charter rights causing “extreme stress and nervous shock.”
The federal government’s bid to have the suit thrown out was denied.
“The court can clearly grasp that the plaintiffs are unhappy to the point of frustration, distraction and despair, with the circumstances of their imprisonment,” wrote Federal Court of Canada Justice Roger T. Hughes.
“Whether this is a normal and expected consequence of that imprisonment or whether their circumstances have gone beyond those prescribed by the laws of Canada, is not sufficiently clear from the pleadings.”
The inmates are representing themselves. Acknowledging the suit was not adequate, Judge Hughes gave them six months to amend it.
He recommended they get a lawyer.
Given the inmates’ violent pedigree, it was perhaps an unfortunate analogy used by Judge Hughes in noting the problem of self-taught lawyering: “While many people can wield a knife, not all are surgeons.”
The five inmates, who say other inmates wish to join the lawsuit, are incarcerated at the Saskatchewan Federal Penitentiary, near Prince Albert, Sask.
They include Harvey Andres, 64, a motorcycle gang member, serial rapist, killer twice over and a repeat prison escapist.
Arrested for trying to blow up an RCMP officer in the 1970s, he fled before his trial and was not captured until 1976 after he raped a Kelowna woman and crushed her skull with a rock. He was convicted of first-degree murder.
In 1981, he escaped prison and was caught 40 days later in Calgary after a gunfight that wounded an RCMP officer.
In 1982, he escaped again during a blinding snowstorm and went on a crime spree, raping a teenaged woman, locking her in her bedroom closet and setting her house ablaze. He was recaptured after a shoot-out with Saskatoon police. Shot several times, he fought off police officers struggling to restrain him.
Christopher Brazeau, 31, is named as the lead plaintiff. He is serving a 12-year sentence for a string of Winnipeg home invasions in 2003.
Brazeau and an accomplice, wearing ski masks, first attacked a woman as she walked out of her home. She was hit with a metal bar, choked and bound. She tried to crawl under a parked car but was dragged back and beaten. She required facial and dental surgeries.
Then they forced their way into an elderly man’s apartment. He was bound and his apartment searched. When they found his wallet, they demanded he tell them his PIN number.
Next, Brazeau and his accomplice arrived at the home of their former boss. When the man opened the door of his house he was hit in the head and the pair rushed in. For seven hours, the man and his wife, who was seven months’ pregnant, were terrorized — bound with duct tape while their home was ransacked in the mistaken belief a safe with valuables was inside.
When a visitor arrived at the home, he too was beaten and bound. All three had their bank cards stolen and were forced to reveal their PIN numbers. The victims were then forced to carry their own valuables from the house for the robbers.
Last month, although Brazeau was eligible for statutory release, the Parole Board of Canada ordered his detention, noting he had been involved in intimidation of inmates and threatening guards.
“You have demonstrated behaviour of a brutal nature when committing your offences,” the board said, noting his “callous disregard for the rights and well-being of others.”
Bradley Rogers, 23, is also suing. He is serving five years for assault with a weapon and possession of weapons in an attack he committed while already in prison for earlier crimes. He and a friend stabbed a fellow inmate 12 times in the exercise yard.
In 2009, Rogers asked a guard to pass toilet paper to him through his cell’s food slot. When the guard complied, Rogers stabbed him twice in the stomach with a metal shank; another time he threw feces at a guard, according to prison records.
Earlier this week, the parole board ordered Rogers to remain in prison despite parole eligibility because he seemed likely to commit a violent crime if released.
Another plaintiff is Ernest Meigs, 37, who is serving 14½ years for break and enter, kidnapping, sex assault with a weapon, pointing a firearm and other crimes.
Meigs broke into a basement apartment with a loaded shotgun and pounced on a woman. He shoved a sock in her mouth and tied her with duct tape before raping her. He then warned her to stay quiet while he was upstairs.
Upstairs, Meigs went after his target: his former girlfriend. Bursting in, he pointed his gun at the woman’s sister and mother and knocked them about. He kicked down a locked bedroom door to grab his former girlfriend.
Stealing their vehicle, he left with the woman, telling her family she would die if they called police. Driving into the bush, he held the woman hostage for 28 hours, sexually assaulting her three times before running off.
The final plaintiff is Troy Burton, 24, who already had a lengthy criminal record before being sentenced to 7½ years for robbery, uttering death threats, possession of stolen property and other crimes.
Just four days after his release on day parole in 2008, he went on a crime binge, including bank robberies and assault. When he was arrested, police found a loaded shotgun in the vehicle he was found in.
While the case waits to return to court, the judge suggested the inmates and prison officials have a look at their grievances.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Adrian Humphreys
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