Features

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) benefits from nearly 4000 volunteers, which includes 300 dedicated members of CSC's Citizen Advisory Committees (CACs). CSC is required by legislation to have a CACs at every institution and parole office across the country, who are the “eyes and ears” of their communities. This partnership provides CSC an opportunity to raise community awareness of our mandate as well as build trust and accountability with the public we serve.

This past summer, Canadians were saddened when hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children were discovered at residential schools in western Canada. By September 30, the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, hundreds more had been identified on the grounds of former residential schools in various other regions across Canada. People across the country, including inmates at Pacific Institution, wanted to highlight the importance of honouring the Survivors and recognizing the impact of the residential school system on Indigenous communities and individuals.

Shortly after Anne Marie Joyce first started at Correctional Service Canada (CSC) in 2000, she sent around an email that she later realized offended almost every person who received it. She didn’t understand what had upset them until it was pointed out that her military-style directness was not how people communicate in the public service.

On August 27, a dreamcatcher with a tiny orange beaded shirt in its center was placed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School monument. A note below the dreamcatcher said: ‘Made in honour of the residential schoolchildren who never returned home, by the Pathways Indigenous brothers at CSC Joyceville Minimum Institution.’

The Rev. Dr. Carol Finlay, a retired educator, has always had a passion for helping others and giving back to the community. In 2008, while searching for life’s purpose, she found herself reaching out to Correctional Service Canada (CSC) Collins Bay Institution in Ontario, to propose a new program: a book club for inmates. Carol got the idea from scholars she met online in London, England who had started book clubs in their local penitentiaries.

When Eva Goldthorp put an orange paper heart in her living room window in Chilliwack, British Columbia, she had no idea that hundreds of orange hearts would soon hang in windows across Canada.

From April 18-24 2021, the Correctional Service of Canada celebrated National Volunteer Week.

A group of correctional officers from Edmonton Institution (EI) established a workplace fundraising committee in response to the needs of families whose loved ones perished or were injured in the line of duty as correctional officers. Even though this cause was the drive behind their initial efforts, the EI Relief Fund has contributed to a variety of charitable organizations and causes since its inception. The EI Relief Fund fundraises through a variety of ways including receiving donations, activities such as BBQs and 50/50 draws.

On November 30, 2020, the keys to a new home were handed over to the Nekaneet First Nation. It was the first house built by residents of the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge (OOHL) for female offenders, outside Maple Creek, Saskatchewan.

The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is increasingly aware of the needs of ethnocultural offenders, thanks in large part to the pioneering work of Dr.

On May 21, 2019, the Mountain Institution Lifer’s Group donated a bench grinder and cheque to a few special volunteers for their efforts and work through Emma’s Acres/LINC. Emma’s Acres is an agricultural social enterprise managed by the Long-Term Inmates Now in the Community, better known as LINC, which was founded in 1992 by Glen and Sherry Flett in Mission, BC. 

In order to encourage Donnacona Institution students to write beyond the scholastic context, I invited them to participate in the Ma plus belle histoire writing contest for adult students in Quebec.