“Will the Solicitor General please stand up?” — NDP calls for accountability

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Shadow Solicitor General Jennie Stevens (St. Catharines), and Shadow Attorney General Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre) are continuing to call for accountability from Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, as Ontario’s jails remain in an untenable state.

Reporting by Global News revealed that the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay has been operating at reduced operational capacity for two and a half weeks, following a “breach related to its security systems,” with no further details provided.

“This continued lack of communication is unacceptable,” said Stevens. “Where is the Solicitor General? This has been going on since the beginning of June, yet we still have no details as to the nature of the breach, what’s being impacted, or how it’s affecting both workers and inmates. The absence of any transparency is staggering, even by Solicitor General Kerzner’s standards.

“We already have dangerous offenders going back on the streets sooner because the Solicitor General can’t do his job, and now this. While the system falls apart around him, Michael Kerzner is running from both the media and accountability. The people of Ontario are owed an explanation as to how we got here, and what the plan is to fix it.”

“This facility was running at 142 per cent overcrowding in October,” said Wong-Tam. “Even higher than the already unsustainable provincial average. To now hear that the operational capacity has been reduced — for reasons that the Solicitor General won’t disclose — is deeply concerning.

“We’re talking about the same Solicitor General who accidentally released 157 inmates back into our communities and took months to recapture them with some still on the loose. He didn’t want to take accountability then and is still refusing to do so now. Solicitor General Kerzner needs to stop hiding, or Doug Ford needs to find someone who can do the job properly.”