Ontario prison officials investigate alleged guard attack on inmates

Ontario correctional officials are investigating a reported attack on dozens of inmates at a provincial prison last December by specially trained officers in riot gear, the Ministry of Justice confirmed to CBC News.

A video of the incident at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, west of Toronto, was scheduled to be shown in court for the first time on Wednesday, but the hearing was postponed at the last minute.

A judge who viewed the video in camera said the inmates were “herded” with zip ties on their hands. One of the men caught in the alleged assault reported being strip-searched and spending 20 hours in the “freezing cold” facility wearing only his boxer shorts.

On December 22, “officers broke down my cell door with a loud bang,” inmate Jason Mercuri said in an affidavit seen by CBC. “I had no idea what was happening and fell to the floor in fear for my life.”

The incident followed an alleged attack by an inmate on a correctional officer two days earlier.

The Toronto Star, which first reported on the incident, quoted other inmates as saying they were beaten and pepper-sprayed.

Ontario Ministry investigates

A spokesman for Ontario Attorney General Michael Kerzner said the Department of Corrections' Oversight and Investigations Division was conducting a “comprehensive internal investigation.”

“Ontario expects all public safety employees to act with the highest level of professionalism, and the vast majority do,” Solicitor General Press Secretary Hunter Kell said in an email.

A spokesman for Ontario Attorney General Michael Kerzner (right) said the reported attack in Maplehurst last December is under investigation. Premier Doug Ford (left) said he was unaware of the incident. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press)

He declined to say whether prison staff were suspended following the December incident.

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday he was unaware of the incident.

In Hamilton, Ontario, Judge Anthony F. Leitch said at a sentencing hearing in June that he had reviewed affidavits “from those … at Maplehurst which suggested that this was a step taken to maintain order in the institution and that it was a necessary step under all the circumstances.”

“Serious violation of their Charter rights”

The incident was allegedly carried out by officers of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team (ICIT) wearing riot gear and carrying riot shields. In a 2019 press release, the provincial government described the ICITs as “responsible for controlling violent or potentially violent inmates, as well as removing and escorting them within the facility or transferring them to another facility.”

Across Ontario, lawyers representing some of the affected inmates are now trying to get their clients' sentences reduced or charges dropped. Many of the inmates at Maplehurst are awaiting trial, which means they are presumed innocent in the eyes of the legal system.

“It is a serious violation of their Charter rights,” said Alison Craig, a criminal defense lawyer who represents three clients involved in the alleged incident in Maplehurst.

Criminal defence lawyer Alison Craig says she has at least three clients who were involved in the alleged assault in December 2023. (Craig Chivers/CBC)

She and another lawyer who viewed surveillance camera video of the incident both said they had signed an agreement with prosecutors prohibiting them from showing the clip to journalists.

The video was “extremely disturbing to watch,” Craig said.

John Kaldas, another attorney whose client claims he was attacked during the incident, said in Milton Superior Court on Wednesday that it amounted to “extrajudicial corporal punishment,” adding that cold air was pumped into the prison's common area during the incident.

Judge Clayton J. Conlan said at the brief hearing in Milton that he was familiar with the alleged incident because it had been raised in several criminal cases. Conlan said there was no doubt “that there was an incident involving guards in riot gear and prisoners on the ground.”

Kaldas told CBC he intends to show the video in court.

The incident was triggered by an alleged attack on prison guards

Mercuri denied involvement in the alleged attack by an inmate on a correctional officer.

“I did not know this inmate and did not assist him in his attack,” Mercuri, who pleaded guilty to weapons and drug charges, wrote in his affidavit. “It felt like the guards were punishing us for something we had not done.”

His lawyer Alexandra Valeri declined to comment.

Opened in 1974, the Maplehurst Correctional Complex is located in Milton, Ontario, west of Toronto. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)

In handing down his sentence, Judge Leitch said he had viewed a video of the incident in Maplehurst.

“There is no doubt that Mr Mercuri and the others were herded into a hallway. Their hands were bound with cable ties and they were turned against the wall,” the judge said.

Leitch said he could not be sure how long the situation lasted, “whether it was 20 hours, how [Mercuri] suggested, or a little less.”

Howard Sapers, a federal corrections investigator from 2004 to 2016, noted that Maplehurst has been criticized in the past for overcrowding and poor management.

Provincial data shows Maplehurst was the most overcrowded prison in Ontario last year. The prison averaged 1,188 inmates but had an official capacity of 887. That means it would be at 134 per cent capacity in 2023.

“You have a circumstance in which [inmates] are very, very nervous … and there are correctional officers who feel like no one understands the danger they are in,” Sapers said.

However, he said: “There is absolutely no place for this kind of violence and threatening behaviour by staff in a prison.”