JUSTICE FOR SACHA BOND

We are appealing to Canadians and Americans of good conscience to support our campaign to bring Sacha Bond back home to Canada. In particular we urge mental health advocates, those who advocate for the mentally ill who encounter the justice system and advocates for the rights of prisoners to support this campaign and help end the silence. Martin Luther King once said: "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."

In 2004, 19 year old Canadian Citizen Sacha Bond was visiting his mother, Diane Levesque who was living temporarily in Florida. He had been diagnosed with bipolar at age 18, after a tumultuous adolescence marked by several hospitalizations and suicide attempts. On January 31st, 2004, Sacha, a minor, was over served alcohol at a Florida bar to the point of blackout. Witnesses reported that he had an altercation with bar staff and used a gun which did not discharge any bullets nor harm anyone. He was arrested, tried and convicted of 2nd degree attempted murder, and sentenced to twenty years without parole. This was despite expert testimony from a forensic psychiatrist that Sacha Bond was mentally ill at the time of the incident, and that he would pose no threat if he received supervised psychiatric and alcohol treatment.

A request for transfer to Canadian prison was made after sentencing. Correctional Services Canada recommended he be transferred and agreed that mental health support was critical to his rehabilitation, that he posed no threat to the security of Canada and that the safety of Canadians would be best ensured by transfer. The recommendation was ignored by the Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day, and the request denied on the basis that Sacha is a ‘threat to the security of Canada and its citizens’. No evidence for this was provided other than the crime itself. This was a discretionary judgement required no process with the end result of exiling Sacha from Canada.

Sacha is not being adequately treated for bipolar in the Florida prison. His own statements to this effect are supported by the statement on the homepage of the Florida Psychiatric Society, a 213 page report from Human Rights Watch and the statement in CSC’s recommendation that they cannot ascertain that he is receiving treatment. Sacha is away from the support of family and friends in Canada.

The International Transfer of Offenders Act indicates that both public safety and humane treatment are achieved through transfer. If a prisoner is not transferred, they are merely deported at the end of their sentence, and Canadian authorities have no legal recourse to supervision. We recall that the same government launched a Commission for a National Strategy for Mental Health. This Commission will inevitably face issues of mental health and the justice system. Actions of bad faith such as these affect the legitimacy of such work.

We are seeking the support of agencies with an advocacy mandate in our public pressure to Stockwell Day to accept the second request for transfer, which is now in his hands.

You could support our efforts by a) working with us to raise this issue as an advocacy, b) writing letters to Stockwell Day, Prime Minister Harper, your local MP, opposition party leaders and opposition disability, health and/or public safety critics. c) allowing us to list your organization on our website as supporting our position. d) have your members sign the petition.

Please let us know what you can do to help.

Contact: arrive@justice4sachabond.org