Former inmate suing for discrimination

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The federal Human Rights Commission has agreed to investigate a claim made by Anita Hunt that the federal government discriminated against her as a prisoner both because she is a woman and a Native.

Hunt was sent from Edmonton to Kingston, Ont. last June to finish her sentence. She left behind two children, one four and one 11 years old, a mother who was near death from cancer and all her friends.

"Everybody and anybody that had been part of my life was in Edmonton," Hunt said.

Other federally sentenced white women in the province - those serving longer than two years - were being allowed to stay in Edmonton in provincial institutions, Hunt said. Prison officials told her she couldn't stay because she was a high-profile, politically active prisoner with a past record.

Although she's been told her behavior is considered negative because of drug use, she has never had a drug-related charge in jail. She's also been told she's dangerous, although she's never hit another inmate and has never beaten anyone up.

"She's politically very outspoken and they don't like that," said Kingston, Ont. lawyer Jenny Reid. "They like people they can push around."

Reid filed an application in federal court to quash Hunt's transfer back to Kingston. In a recent federal court decision, Justice Max M. Teitelbaum refused to rule on the application, insisting it was moot because Hunt is now out on parole.

Reid is appealing the decision.

"This is a very serious issue. It affects all women who are federally incarcerated," Reid said.

"The only reason she was transferred was because she's a woman and there's no other prisons for women except Kingston."

Even though Kingston is slated for closure in the fall of 1994, that's not soon enough to help women in the system now, Reid said.

"We've had so many suicides here. It's not acceptable." Between 1989 and 1992 seven Kingston prisoners, six of them Native, killed themselves. All were from out-of-province.

Reid examined all the government reports on Kingston since 1936 and all reached the same conclusions: Close the prison and have more programs and services for women prisoners.

"But nothing has been done."

Hunt is also suing the federal government for $1.3 million in damages for unfair and inhumane treatment.

"I've lost a lot of money, I've lost a lot of everything," she said.

When she got out on parole in February, her mother, whose cancer is in remission, wanted her daughter back immediately and her children wanted an instant mom. Hunt found it so hard to cope with their demands and with trying to rebuild her life that she wanted to go back to Kingston.

Gradually she slipped back into her roles of daughter and mother, started volunteering for a number of Native organizations and found a full-time job at the housing registrar for the Metis Women's Council of Edmonton.

She's also serving on the site selection committee for the new women's prison to be built in Alberta.