The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is opposing the “Correction Act”, a bill before the provincial legislature. The bill regulates provincial correctional centres but will also apply to the Vancouver jail, formerly operated by the Vancouver Police Department.

For the last year, the BCCLA has expressed concern to Solicitor General Rich Coleman about the Vancouver jail’s routine strip search policy. All individuals, including those charged with minor offences and who pose little or no risk, are strip searched at the Vancouver facility. The BCCLA has urged the Solicitor General to alter the policy to accord with the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Golden which requires individual risk assessments to justify strip searches.

The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General has announced that this bill remedies the problem with routine strip searches at Vancouver jail. According to BCCLA President John Russell, the bill does no such thing. “Golden requires “reasonable and probable grounds” to justify strip searching a short-term detainee. This bill would allow for strip searches to be conducted “on admission” and does not require grounds for that search.”

In addition to failing to meet the standard set by the Supreme Court of Canada, the bill also lacks transparency and accountability because it delegates critical aspects of the issue to regulations made by the Executive.

“Of course there are security concerns within a jail, but the vast majority of short-term detainees are not a security risk and should not be unnecessarily subjected to a practice that the courts acknowledge is degrading and humiliating,” stated Russell.

A blanket strip search policy at Vancouver jail has been justified in the past on the grounds that short-term detainees are not segregated from prison inmates awaiting court appearances. “The solution to this problem is to redesign the facility, not to deny Charter rights,” says Russell.