Critics condemn solitary, Protest precedes ‘T.O. 18′ verdict
Critics condemn solitary, Protest precedes ‘T.O. 18′ verdict
By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 25th September 2008, 2:37am
On the eve of the verdict for the first “Toronto 18″ terror suspect to stand trial, a civil liberties group demanded that three of his co-accused still awaiting their day in court be released from more than two years of solitary confinement.
Justice John Sproat is ex-pected to deliver his verdict in a Brampton courtroom today on charges against a young offender alleged to have involved himself in a homegrown Islamic terrorist plot that included threats to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper and attack Parliament.
The 20-year-old man, whose identity is protected under law because he was 17 at the time, has pleaded not guilty.
Yesterday on the steps of Queen’s Park, the Presumption of Innocence Project demanded the end to 845 days of solitary confinement in the Don Jail for three of the so called “Toronto 18.”
The trio are among the 10 men still awaiting trial. Seven others, including three youths, had their charges stayed.
“These people have the right to be presumed innocent and held in the same conditions as any other prisoner,” project spokesman Chantal Sundaram said yesterday.
“We’re here to ask Premier Dalton McGuinty if he thinks these appalling conditions are acceptable in Ontario-run jails,” she said.
The group brought a model of a cell to illustrate the tiny 2-by-3-metre world in which the men must spend 23 hours and 40 minutes of each day. During the remaining 20 minutes, they are allowed to shower outside their cells.
“They all suffer from vitamin D deficiency and have flaking skin due to lack of sunlight,” the group said. The men have been allowed in the exercise yard fewer than five times this year.
Muslim community leader Zafar Bangash called solitary confinement barbaric.
“We need to know what purpose is this government trying to achieve by keeping these individuals in solitary confinement, apart from simply inflicting more harm and damage on these people,” Bangash said.
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns demanded McGuinty take the men out of solitary confinement and quoted a newspaper column that branded the men’s segregation “Guantanamo on the Don” — a reference to the U.S. prison holding detainees in Cuba.
“We cannot treat people this way,” Tabuns said.
A spokesman for Community Safety and Corrections Minister Rick Bartolucci said all “inmates in (the ministry’s) care must be treated in a humane way,” but refused to comment on a specific case.