A downtown Toronto court judge heard Wednesday as part of an agreed statement of facts that a teenage girl in custody had been strip-searched six times at two different facilities while in custody. The searches were reportedly part of routine procedures for the facilities every time she arrived or returned from a family visit or court appearance, in violation of provincial policy.
The court heard of the accounts which had occurred at both the Sundance facility run by the St. Lawrence Youth Association in Kingston, Ontario and the Woodview facility run by the Craigwood Children, Youth and Family Services facility in London, Ontario. Sundance’s written policy required girls to be stripped completely naked during searches, a policy that had been in place for 18 years and ended only in January 2023. The Woodview facility reportedly did not have any written policy on the same. The Ontario Court of Justice in R. v. M.(S.) and R. v. A.(Z.) had recognized that in conducting strip searches of youth, their juvenile status must be taken into consideration.
The routine strip searches were in violation of the provincial policy Ontario Regulation 155/18, which states that strip searches are only allowed as a last resort and must be carried out with regard to the individual circumstances of the youth. Additionally, section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
The Supreme Court of Canada has also previously found in the landmark decision of R v Golden that strip searches are ‘inherently humiliating and degrading’. Additionally, the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has also proposed amendments to prevent similar violations in the future. Further, a report from March 2019 by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director found strip searches by police officers to be inconsistent across the province, with about 22,000 occurring every year.
The teen girl in question was one of eight girls accused in the swarming attack of Toronto homeless man Kenneth Lee in December 2022, and was in custody after having pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the attack. The girl was reportedly 13 years old when she was first taken into custody. She is now seeking a reduced sentence stating she had been suffering with body image issues since she was a child which were exacerbated by the searches, and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
