Sick of the System

Why the COVID-19 recovery must be revolutionary

• Publisher: Between the Lines
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781771135290
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica sociale

Families left grieving; small businesses shuttered; communities in lockdown; precarious workers set adrift; health care workers stressed beyond endurance. The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world to its core. But the cracks already ran deep.

Featuring essays on poverty, health care, incarceration, basic income, policing, Indigenous communities, and more, this anthology delivers a stinging rebuke of the pre-pandemic status quo and a stark exposé of the buried weaknesses in our social and political systems. As policy makers scramble to bail out corporations and preserve an unsustainable labour market, an even greater global catastrophe – in the form of ecological collapse, economic recession, and runaway inequality – looms large on the horizon.

What can we do? From professors to poets, the authors of Sick of the System speak in one voice: We can turn our backs on "normal." We can demand divestment, redistribution, and mutual aid. We can seize new forms of solidarity with both hands. As the world holds its breath, revolutionary ideas have an unprecedented chance to gain ground. There should be no going back.

No One Is Disposable

Depopulating Carceral Sites during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Robyn Maynard and Justin Piché

At a March 2020 press conference, Abdoul (pseudonym) – a Senegalese migrant detained at the Laval Immigration Holding Centre – described how detainees became aware from TV and newspaper reports of the arrival of COVID-19, the subsequent shutdown of Canadian cities, and preventative life-saving measures including physical distancing. They soon began to panic. They were not able to maintain distance in a migrant prison where they slept close together in a windowless room. New detainees continued to be processed, and they all came into close contact with guards, who were not wearing masks. Facing these conditions, they legitimately feared COVID-19 exposure. This led Abdoul and others to undertake an eight-day hunger strike demanding their release.1

Concerns about COVID-19 transmission were also shared by people awaiting trial or serving sentences of two years or less in provincial/territorial jails and prisons, where double- and triple-bunking in cells designed for one is common and health care is well below community standards.2 People serving longer sentences in federal penitentiaries also spoke out, including Jonathan Henry, who initially had his phone privileges suspended for forty-five days after talking to reporters about conditions at Edmonton Institution.3 He noted that, despite having asthma and high blood pressure, he was not given access to preventative supplies like hand sanitizer and toilet paper. He also emphasized that physical distancing cannot be practised in the penitentiary’s tight quarters and frequent contact was occurring with staff Correctional Service Canada ordered to return to work following their vacations.4

These experiences lay bare the social disregard and disposability of incarcerated populations left to die during this global health crisis. The pandemic is unfolding behind these walls, although the impact of conditions of confinement on prisoner hygiene and health has long been a recurring theme in reports and studies. From the First Annual Report of the Directors of Penitentiaries of the Dominion of Canada for the Year 1868 to the Office of the Correctional Investigator Annual Report, 2018–2019, there are no shortages of examples of how imprisonment undermines the health of prisoners or of recommendations made to prevent the deterioration of their health. When the health of incarcerated people deteriorates, there are significant public health ramifications. Other prisoners and staff are at risk of transmission of communicable diseases.5 Also, the vast majority of prisoners eventually exit these sites, and staff members return home after their shifts, thereby exposing their loved ones and communities.6

Recognizing these risks, modest efforts have been made to reduce the number of people exposed to imprisonment during the pandemic.7 In many provinces and territories, defence and Crown attorneys have participated in bail reviews, working together to divert and release people from pre-trial detention through consent agreements. Court decisions to release people on bail where such agreements could not be reached have cited public health concerns. From mid-March to mid-April 2020, the majority of provincial and territorial governments did free some prisoners: people serving intermittent weekend sentences, individuals with medical issues that put them at heightened risk should they contract COVID-19, as well as those nearing parole eligibility or completion of their sentences.

Provincial/territorial jails typically warehouse 25,000 prisoners on any given day.8 As a result of these efforts, the provinces and territories forcibly confined approximately 3,500 fewer people by mid-April.9 This decrease resulted from significant pressure from prisoners and their loved ones, professional associations and unions, community groups, public health officials, and other advocates that earned considerable media coverage.

With roughly 9,000 migrants admitted to federal immigration holding centres and provincial jails a year, an average of 343 of them are locked up on a typical day.10 These numbers have also steadily decreased since the pandemic began, with migrants being released through accelerated individual hearings based on the vulnerability clause. A petition released by thirty-four migrants held in Laval, Quebec, on March 19, 2020, as well as an eight-day hunger strike later that month, led to coast-to-coast public support from medical, legal, and human rights advocates including Black Lives Matter–Toronto, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and people held at Burnside prison, Nova Scotia, who had been part of the 2018 #BlackAugust prison strikes. This action, along with the public support it galvanized, help...