This is a listing of reported incidents in past and present youth detention centers in Ontario, Canada, including abuse allegations, suicides and deaths, strip searches, segregation practices, lawsuits, Riots and more.
Class action lawsuits
Segregation
The Ontario Youth Segregation Class Action lawsuit includes everyone who, while under the age of 18, were placed in segregation for more than six hours between April 1, 2004, and December 17, 2018, at these Ontario youth detention facilities:
The settlement was approved on October 14, 2021. $15 million was paid out, with compensation ranging from $1,000 to $40,000 per qualifying segregation placement, depending on duration. the claims period closed on August 26, 2022.
Strip searching
There is a proposed class action that alleges that Ontario routinely conducted unlawful and degrading strip searches of youth in juvenile detention. The claim covers all minors strip searched while detained in Ontario youth justice facilities from January 1, 2000 onward. The lawsuit argues that these searches were often conducted without lawful grounds, in violation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and provincial policy. The action was launched in 2021 and remains ongoing.
Sexual abuse
- A survivor's testimony published by Toronto Life reads "At first, he pressured me to give him handjobs, then he was forcing me to perform oral sex on him. Then he raped me, night after night. This went on for three months. It was a new level of trauma I couldn't processâÂÂan adult, someone who was supposed to protect me, was exploiting me in the worst way possible."
- On September 29, 2020, a 24-year-old woman working at the Syl Apps Youth Centre was arrested. She was charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation, and breach of trust. She was released on a promise to appear in court on November 3, 2020.
- Over the course of a year, a staff member at the William E. Hay Juvenile Detention Centre in Ottawa has pleaded guilty to having used a hidden camera in the shower and strip search area of the building where staff are not allowed to have phones. He is also accused of sexually assaulting 13 of the 14 victims, and he is charged with sexually touching 11 victims with part of his body or an object, directly or indirectly. And is charged with inviting four victims to touch themselves sexually with part of their body or an object, directly or indirectly. There are also four counts of making child pornography and five counts of possessing child pornography. Investigators with the sexual assault and child abuse unit believe there could be other victims.
Strip searches
Strip searches in Ontario's youth detention centres have been criticized, with incidents covering patterns of frequent, intrusive procedures that frequently go beyond the law and result in serious harm.
- A girl who was 13 at the time who was involved in the killing of Ken Lee was repeatedly made to strip naked during searches while in custody. she was strip searched six times at two different youth detention center's. she said in court that "It was humiliating" and "highly traumatic" she also said "My experiences where I was made to undress at the demand of adult strangers, have worked to complicate further how I view myself" and "I am constantly thinking about how people view my body and wondering if I am being judged as a result of these experiences. It has negatively impacted my mental health and my relationship with my body."
- Four of the eight girls in the Killing of Ken Lee were strip searched multiple times. they tried to have the charges against them put on stay arguing the strip searches that happened violated their rights.
- A teen claims to have been strip searched completely naked at the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre in Brampton four times between September 23 and September 25, 2024, in less than 48 hours in Ontario custody. He called it "horrifying".
Suicides and murders
Suicides
- Ashley Smith (Januaryâ¯29,â¯1988â¯âÂÂâ¯Octoberâ¯19,â¯2007) was first sent to a New Brunswick Youth Centre at age 15 after being sentenced for a minor offence. During her almost three years in the facility, she was involved in hundreds of behavioral incidents and frequent self harm attempts. After turning 18 and being transferred into an adult custody system in Ontario in Octoberâ¯2006, Smith's selfâÂÂharm got worse as she was moved repeatedly between institutions. She died by self strangulation while under observation in a segregation cell. Her death made The provincial ombudsman call for the closure or major reform of youth detention centres and practices to better protect youth. Four guards and supervisors were originally charged with criminal negligence in relation to her death but those charges were dropped. It is alleged that a guard smuggled drugs to her for sex.
- 17-year-old Gleb Alfyorov committed suicide in Syl Apps Youth Centre While awaiting a mental health assessment in May 2008. He hanged himself with his black shoelace from a ceiling grate in his cell. Fifty-six minutes passed before a guard checked and found him hanging. It was five days after his 17th birthday. Due to a series of errors, the court-ordered assessment never occurred during Gleb's month-long stay. Gleb was also strip-searched at least once.
- In September 1996, a sixteen-year-old named James Lonnee was beaten to death by another minor at the now closed Wellington Detention Centre in Guelph. Other inmates at the time say they heard Lonnee screaming for help for hours. He was the first young offender to die in an Ontario juvenile detention centre.
- On July 3 2001, fourteen-year-old Paola Rosales, after being charged with assault, hanged herself at a youth detention centre in Milton, Ontario.
- An unnamed fourteen-year-old girl committed suicide at the MacMillan Youth centre.
Riots
Bluewater Youth Centre
On February 29, 1996, there was a riot and a fire at the Bluewater Youth Centre which occurred during a strike of the prison guards. It has been alleged that the guards incited the riot to support their cause. Because of the riot the Ministry transferred on or around 40 of young offenders to different provincial institutions, one if them was the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre which is a strictly adult facility. many youths sent to Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre claimed that they had been mistreated by staff and claiming they were humiliated, verbally and physically intimidated, struck and kicked, with some sustaining injuries. The riot caused $175,000 in damages.
Escapes and break-ins
Roy McMurtry Youth Centre
- On March 28, 2023, two people broke into the Roy McMurtry Youth Centre by breaking a window hoping to extract an inmate but they did not succeed.
- A 17-year-old male who was facing multiple charges for robbery with a firearm has escaped weather or not he has been caught is unknown.
- On June 24, 2012, two males escaped.
Brookside Youth Centre
- In August 2012 a youth escaped from Brookside Youth Centre.
- On April 3 2005 four youth escaped for a little over an hour but were all caught.
Other
- From December 2019 to December 2024, there have been 1,106 "serious occurrence reports" against the William E. Hay Youth Centre: 39 reports are of abuse or mistreatment and 267 reports are of physical restraint.
- Between 2022 and 2023, the Ontario OmbudsmanâÂÂs office reported 187 complaints and inquiries about youth justice facilities.
See also
References