Canadian Left to Languish in U.S. Jail

After announcing the appointment of Senator Kirby as Commissioner of a Canadian Mental Health Strategy, the government is turning its back a Canadian who with a mental illness who is serving a 20-yr sentence in a Florida jail, with no access to treatment, in maximum security. CTV ran the story recently.

The commission itself would report on the problem of people rotting in prisons, who due to illness had no capacity of judgment for crimes they committed, and who ought to be treated. Instead, Stockwell Day has refused prisoner transfer on the grounds of national security since the crime involved a firearm, though there were no casualties. By confusing the issue of dangerous offenders and mental illness-related offences, we take a step backward in our understanding of both crime and mental illness. We need an explanation from the Honourable Minister for the basis of this decision, inconsistent as it is with the aims of the Commission and having zero balance of public safety and the need to protect individual Canadian citizens.

Please give your support to the petition and Ms. Diane Levesque, the young man's mother fighting for her son.

Thank you for your good work,

Arif Jinha
Candidate
NDP - Lanark Frontenac Lanark and Addington
donna.arif@rogers.com
613-257-1740