| The inmate applicant B commented to a correctional officer conducting a search that another officer, who was not present during the search, had "set him up" after contraband was found in his cell. B was then charged and convicted of a disciplinary offence contrary to section 39(g) of the Penitentiary Service Regulations which stated that every inmate is guilty of a disciplinary offence who "behaves toward any other person, by his actions, language of writing, in an indecent, disrespectful, threatening or defamatory manner." B filed for judicial review arguing that his statement did not fall within the meaning of section 39(g). |
| Muldoon J. allowed the application and quashed the conviction. Muldoon J. asserted that the charge really should never have been levied against B and that the evidence discloses that the charge is trivial and insubstantial. B's remark was far from an unequivocal threat or indecent, disrespectful or defamatory in nature, thus the independent chairperson erred in law by not according the inmate the benefit of the doubt. Moreover, the chairperson also erred in that the inmate could hardly have behaved "toward" the officer in question "by language…in a disrespectful manner" if that officer was not present when the comment was made. |
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