Prison fries for serving bacon
A Muslim inmate has won $2,000 and a partial human rights victory over a Correctional Service of Canada policy not to replace bacon with a halal diet for Islam-worshipping cons.
Duane David, who is serving time in Kingston's Joyceville Institution for an unknown crime, had complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that his rights were being violated as the prison failed to offer a halal replacement for bacon served to inmates with breakfast every Wednesday.
The court heard Muslims are forbidden from eating pork for religious reasons.
A Federal Court of Canada hearing was told the breakfast included three pieces of bacon, two eggs, three slices of toast, jam, ketchup, milk, coffee, juice and cereal.
'REQUEST WAS REFUSED'
"Muslim inmates who follow a halal diet (usually) receive all of these items, except the bacon," Madame Justice Eleanor Dawson was told. "Mr. David had requested a substitute for the three pieces of bacon, but the request was refused by the institution."
Court heard that an internal grievance filed by David for a bacon replacement was denied at all levels and then a complaint was filed to the commission, whose investigator ruled the matter had been properly dealt with.
David appealed the investigator's decision to the federal court, who this month ordered the attorney general to pay David $2,000 for damages and that the commissions' decision be set aside as a new hearing is launched into the matter.
During the grievance hearing, Joyceville's chief of food services said his department didn't have the budget to offer a bacon replacement and another official called for the banning of the food from all Ontario jails.