Bovair v. Canada
(Regional Transfer Board)


(1986), 2 F.T.R. 185, [1986] F.C.J. No.148 (F.C.T.D.) [Reversed at FCA (1988), 88 N.R. 204]

    B sought judicial review, at the Trial Division of the Federal Court, of the CSC's decision to involuntarily transfer him from medium to maximum security. On being transferred B was notified in writing that the transfer was based on confidential security information indicating that he had pressured other inmates and that he was therefore considered an aggressor. Counsel for B relied on several cases where the question in issue was segregation in a SHU and where it was held that solitary confinement constitutes "a prison within a prison" to assert that B in this case was entitled to the reasons for his transfer. The Trial Division noted that in all cases of segregation, whether administrative or disciplinary, the law, based on the general duty to be fair as well as on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, required generally that the prisoner be appraised of the reason or reasons for the decision to so confine him and he must be afforded a reasonable opportunity of replying. The Trial Division, however, was not at all convinced that the same principle applied to a transfer and in the end dismissed the application. B appealed the decision. On appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the decision of the Trial Division without reasons.
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