‘When you apply to this job, you expect to clean cells, you expect to clean cafeterias, washrooms, but you don't expect to clean a crime scene where there's blood’
Unions representing federal correctional workers are calling for additional staffing and mental-health support at Donnacona Institution near Quebec City after an inmate was killed last week.
The death marks the fourth homicide at the maximum-security penitentiary in a year, according to a CBC report.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is asking for more staff and greater mental-health support, and has alleged that one of its members was asked to clean up the scene of the killing after investigators left. Meanwhile, the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers has tied the violence to federal budget reductions, according to the report.
Provincial police have opened an investigation into the death.
Fourth homicide in a year
An altercation on Wednesday led to the death of 30-year-old Tarek Baydoun, according to a Correctional Service Canada news release.
The release said Baydoun had been admitted to the institution just over a year earlier and was serving a life sentence.
The killing is the fourth homicide at Donnacona since last July, CBC News reported. Two of those killings occurred only weeks apart this past March.
Provincial police have opened an investigation into Baydoun's death. No further details on the circumstances of the altercation have been released publicly.
Union alleges worker asked to clean crime scene
PSAC – which represents parole officers, maintenance staff and rehabilitation workers among others at the institution – is asking for more staff and greater mental-health support.
The union has alleged that one of its members was asked to clean up the scene of Wednesday's killing after investigators had finished and left.
Sébastien Paquette, PSAC's executive vice-president for the Quebec region, said workers asked to perform such a task are "not necessarily psychologically ready to do that."
"When you apply to this job, you expect to clean cells, you expect to clean cafeterias, washrooms, but you don't expect to clean a crime scene where there's blood," Paquette said, according to the CBC report.
Earlier this year, five correctional officers were assaulted at the medium‑security Springhill Institution in Nova Scotia.
Unions point to budget cuts
Mike Bolduc, the Quebec regional president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said Wednesday's killing was a direct consequence of poor management. He said a federal budget reduction of $130 million over three years, announced earlier this year, does not help.
"Don't cut into our operations when we need them," Bolduc said, according to the CBC report. "We are the eyes and the ears of a correctional facility; there's no one better placed than a correctional officer to know what's going on on the floor."
Paquette said he would also like to see more staff on the grounds and programs tailored to each prison to help personnel cope with difficult situations on the job. "We expect the government to reinvest and hire more personnel. That's the key to success: prevention," he said.
In a statement to CBC News, Correctional Service of Canada said it "takes all incidents involving the safety and security of staff and inmates very seriously."
In 2020, correctional managers Alanna Jenkins and Sean McLeod were both killed during the April 18–19, 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting, according to a previous CBC report. They were e victims of the gunman in the community, not killed inside a facility by an inmate.
