Adam Capay is a Lac Seul First Nation man who was charged with first degree murder for the 2012 death of Sherman Quisses. At the time both men were inmates at Thunder Bay Correctional Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario in Canada. Capay was later released from prison.
Capay was 19 years old at the time of the incident and Quisees was 34. Capay allegedly stabbed Quisees to death during a prison altercation. [1]
While awaiting trial, Capay served approximately four and a half years in solitary confinement. During this confinement, Capay spent time in a plexiglass cell with constant glaring lights. His lawyers later argued that these conditions constituted cruel and unusual punishment on a legal motion they brought to stay the charges. [2]
In Thunder Bay, Justice John S. Fregeau stayed the charges against Capay, ruling that the violation of Capay's rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms outweighed the government charges. The Government of Ontario did not appeal Fregeau's decision. Capay was released from prison on January 29, 2019, now 26 years old. [3]
Kingston Penitentiary is a former maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, between King Street West and Lake Ontario.
Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is a supermax prison facility in Crescent City, California. The 275-acre (111 ha) prison takes its name from a shallow bay on the Pacific coast, about 2 mi (3.2 km) to the west.
Marc Scott Emery is a Canadian cannabis rights activist, entrepreneur and politician. Often described as the "Prince of Pot", Emery has been a notable advocate of international cannabis policy reform, and has been active in multiple Canadian political parties at the provincial and federal levels. Emery has been jailed several times for his cannabis activism.
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Saad Khalid was one of 17 people detained and arrested on June 2 and June 3, 2006, in the Greater Toronto Area in the 2006 Toronto terrorism arrests.
The Angola Three are three African-American former prison inmates who were held for decades in solitary confinement while imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary. The latter two were indicted in April 1972 for the killing of a prison corrections officer; they were convicted in January 1974. Wallace and Woodfox served more than 40 years each in solitary, the "longest period of solitary confinement in American prison history".
Yasir Abbas Naqvi is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Ottawa Centre since the 2021 federal election, sitting as a Liberal. Prior to his election to the House of Commons, Naqvi was active in Ontario provincial politics, serving as the attorney general of Ontario (2016–2018), minister of community safety and correctional services (2014–2016), and minister of labour (2013–2014). He represented Ottawa Centre in the Legislative Assembly.
Victoria Elizabeth Marie"Tori"Stafford was a Canadian girl who was abducted, raped, and murdered by Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic. Her body was found three months later in a wooded area in rural Ontario. Her disappearance, and the subsequent investigation and search, were the subject of massive media coverage across Canada.
The Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWCA) is a statute of the Parliament of Canada. The Act implements Canada's obligations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In passing the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act on 24 June 2000 and having royal assent given on 29 June 2000, Canada became the first country in the world to incorporate the obligations of the Rome Statute into its domestic laws. It replaced earlier 1987 legislation targeting Nazi war criminals passed in the immediate wake of the Deschênes Commission.
Keith Hobbs is a Canadian politician, who was elected mayor of Thunder Bay in Ontario in the 2010 municipal election. Prior to his term in political office, Hobbs served as a member of the Thunder Bay Police for 34 years. Hobbs was born in London, UK and immigrated to Canada at a young age. His family settled in Thunder Bay in 1964. In 2017 Hobbs and city's police chief, J. P. Levesque, were charged with extortion and obstruction of justice by the Ontario Provincial Police.
Robert Hillary King, also known as Robert King Wilkerson, is an American known as one of the Angola Three, former prisoners who were held at Louisiana State Penitentiary in solitary confinement for decades after being convicted in 1973 of prison murders.
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The death of Sammy Yatim occurred early in the morning of July 27, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Yatim, an 18-year-old Toronto male armed with a switchblade knife, was shot at nine times, and was hit by eight of the shots fired by 30-year-old Toronto Police Service (TPS) officer James Forcillo. After being shot, while lying on the floor of the streetcar he was tasered. He later died from the injuries. The incident occurred after Yatim, brandishing a 12 cm (4.7 in) switchblade knife in a Toronto streetcar, advanced on a passenger, threatened other passengers, and exposed himself. The confrontation between Yatim and the police was recorded and footage of it was released publicly, prompting strong reactions across Canada.
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Prisoners' Justice Day is a solidarity movement that takes place annually on August 10. The movement began in Canada in 1974 in support of prisoners’ rights and to remember all the people who have died of unnatural deaths while incarcerated. The first Prisoners' Justice Day was held at the Millhaven Institution on August 10, 1975, on the first anniversary of Edward Nolan's death. In addition to a day of mourning, six prisoners took part in an eighteen-day hunger strike. In 1976, August 10 was recognized as a memorial day where prisoners would strike in opposition to the use of solitary confinement and to protest inmate conditions within the Prison System by going on a one-day hunger strike and refusing to work.
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