By Kris Sims
OTTAWA – A Thunder Bay Prison guard says his memory of Ontario Minister Yasir Naqvi meeting and speaking with inmate Adam Capay is crystal clear.
Naqvi, then serving as the Ontario Corrections Minister, was visiting the northern Ontario facility after a prison riot had occurred.
The guard said the Minister responsible met Capay, spoke with him briefly and was directly told he had spent four years in segregation.
“It was a brief conversation, it was more Adam, I believe, asked him who he (Naqvi) was. He said who he was and then I explained to the Minister at the time that Adam had been spending a lot of time in seg (segregation) due to an allegation that had occurred at one of his other facilities,” Michael Lundy, President of OPSEU Local 737 at the Thunder Bay Jail told CTV Question Period Host Evan Solomon on Wednesday.
Lundy said he remembers the encounter very clearly because January 13th, 2016 was his birthday. “At that point I did tell him (Naqvi) that he (Capay) had been in segregation for four years.”
Capay, 23, was initially incarcerated on minor offenses and has now spent four years in segregation at the Thunder Bay prison.
The United Nations has declared solitary confinement should not exceed 15 days.
Until recently the lights were kept on in Capay’s cell constantly and Capay had no access to television or other people.
Capay is currently awaiting trial on the death of another inmate.
Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Renu Mandhane sounded the alarm over Capay’s case after she was alerted to it and has demanded answers from the Kathleen Wynne government.
Naqvi says he has no memory of meeting Capay.
“I don’t have any recollection of that, Mike Lundy and I were not the only ones on that tour, there were quite a few people who were together,” Naqvi told Solomon on News Talk Radio 580 CFRA on November 17th. “I have no recollection of any specific conversations about specific inmates or how long they had been in custody.”
“It’s unfortunate that he has no recollection of it because it did occur,” Lundy told Solomon Wednesday. He said there were only a handful of people with the Minister at the time and they had moved on while Capay spoke with Naqvi. “Where we had stopped to talk (with Capay) the tour had moved a few cells down and the Minister and I were following at the back of it.”
Lundy says he has reached out to the Minister, now the Attorney General, in hopes they can have a meeting.