On this month’s show we take some in depth looks at prison justice issues in Canada.

Nous entendons Lucie Lemonde, professeure en droit carcéral basée à Montréal et porte-parole de la Coalition d'action et de surveillance sur l'incarcération des femmes au Québec, qui retrace l’histoire du droit carcéral et de la lutte des prisonniers au Canada, ainsi que la situation des femmes, le travail et l’isolement dans le système carcéral actuel.

We then play an interview with Toronto based criminal, immigration lawyer and prison justice organizer Asaf Rashid in which we discuss the right of prisoners to unionize.

*Correction: In his interview, Asaf Rashid states that Canadian law has never recognized the right of inmates to unionize. While this is true in the context of federal inmate workers, a group of inmates at the Guelph Correctional Centre became unionized alongside non-inmate labour at a meat cutting shop In 1977. There have been no examples since then.

Music by Leyla McCalla, Pete Seeger, and Neneh Cherry.

Photo © Marie-Eve Shaffer/Métro: Prison Leclerc in Laval, QC.