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Cons' inverted Maple Leaf T-shirts condemned
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OTTAWA - An outraged Public Safety Minister Vic Toews called it "offensive and unacceptable" that a group of federal inmates was allowed to order and wear T-shirts with an upside-down Maple Leaf as part of a Prisoner Justice Day protest.
"It dishonours those who have upheld Canadian laws in the line of duty and fought in support of Canadian values at home and abroad," said Toews in response to a QMI Agency report. "The government strongly condemns this officially-sanctioned misuse of our national symbol and will direct the Correctional Service of Canada to ensure this episode is not repeated."
More than 200 T-shirts were ordered at one penitentiary alone - and inmates marking the event across the country also went on a one-day food and work "strike."
CSC told QMI the shirt design at Ontario's Joyceville Institution - which featured the upside down Maple Leaf with two hands grasping bars - was not meant to desecrate a Canadian symbol, and that the inverted image was designed to represent the distress felt by inmates who died in custody.
But Toews said the design is an insult to victims and those who serve in uniform wearing the Maple Leaf.
"The flying of an upside-down flag is an international symbol for distress. But any distress felt by inmates at Joyceville Institution pales in comparison to the real trauma felt by law-abiding Canadians who have been victimized by those incarcerated there," he said. "That senior officials of the Joyceville Institution would approve this disrespectful misuse of the Maple Leaf - our national symbol - is both offensive and unacceptable."
Each federal prison's T-shirt is designed by an inmate artist and approved by the warden in consultation with the management team.
Prisoner Justice Day originated in 1976 on the anniversary of the death of an inmate in segregation at Millhaven Institution in Ontario. The nation-wide event now commemorates all inmates who died of unnatural causes behind bars.
Every Aug. 10, inmates stage one-day "peaceful protests" by refusing to work or eat. Inmates do not face disciplinary action for participating, but are not paid if they refuse to work.
Inmates paid for the T-shirts, which cost about $13 each.
kathleen.harris@sunmedia.ca
