March 21, 2018
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The P4W Memorial Collective requests your endorsement of our campaign to create a memorial garden to honour the women who died in the Kingston Prison for Women (P4W) on a small plot of land (12’ x 12’) adjacent to the front administration building.
Our Collective is composed of women from many different walks of life, but we have especially welcomed women with lived experience in prison or with connections to prisoners through community groups like E. Fry Kingston, the Native Sisterhood and Native Brotherhood, local religious ministries, and prisoner justice activism. Our main purpose is to honour the memory of women who died inside P4W, but we also want to raise awareness that, long after the closure of P4W, women are still dying in custody and suffering inhumane treatment in prisons across Canada.
The Federal Prison for Women in Kingston is one of the most notorious prisons in Canadian history. Just four years after it opened in 1934, the Archambault Report recommended its closure due to “disgraceful” conditions. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, experiments with LSD and electroconvulsive therapy were conducted on women at P4W, leading to a 1998 lawsuit against Dr. Mark Eveson (a Queen’s graduate). In 1964, a Queen’s M.A. student, Judith Martin, successfully defended a thesis on “Pain Tolerance and Narcotic Addiction” based on research on prisoners at P4W; she co-published the results of her research with Queen’s professor, James Inglis in 1965. In 1977, the MacGuigan Report called for the closure of P4W once again, declaring the prison “unfit for bears, much less for women.” Still, the prison remained open. Between December 1988 and February 1991, seven women at the P4W committed suicide; six of these women were Indigenous. It was not until after Madam Justice Arbour’s 1996 condemnation of the disconnect between human rights, the rule of law and operational reality in P4W, that the process of transferring prisoners across the country to the six newly built institutions began in earnest. The prison finally closed in 2000.
Seven years later, Queen’s University purchased the P4W site for a reported $2.8 million. The site is currently for sale, and we are concerned that it may be developed for commercial purposes that erase or trivialize its history. In 2016, Elizabeth Fry Kingston asked Queen’s if we could create a memorial garden at P4W, but the request was not honoured. In 2018, after ten years as the site’s owner, Queen’s University is uniquely situated to recognize the history of P4W and set aside land on site for a memorial garden. Given the University’s history of research on prisoners and its commitment to critical education and community engagement, and considering that the University has not paid taxes on this property—eight acres of prime real estate acquired at less than market value—Queen’s is well placed to fulfill its educational mandate and role as a good citizen.
The current silence of P4W’s abandoned architectural carcass is a betrayal of the histories it housed. The age and emptiness of the buildings can easily mislead passers by to think that the painful facts of women's incarceration in Canada and the painful facts of colonization are things of the past. Indigenous people are the most marginalized, least secure, and the most incarcerated in Canada. The links between these facts were made clear in the Truth and Reconciliation Report. Recommendation 30 of the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action says: “We call on federal, provincial, and territorial governments to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody over the next decade, and to issue detailed annual reports that monitor and evaluate progress in doing so.” This overrepresentation is especially acute for Indigenous women. Since P4W closed, more Indigenous women have been imprisoned than any other segment of the population (increasing by 109% between 2001-2012). A memorial garden with art and educational panels acknowledging the connections between colonization, residential schools, violence against Indigenous women, and the lives and deaths of women incarcerated at P4W represents a unique opportunity for community engagement and public education. Moreover, it would contribute to Queen’s efforts to uphold its commitment to new nation-wide Principles on Indigenous Education.
Please join us in asking Queen’s University to create a memorial garden on the former site of the Prison for Women. Add your name and/or organization to the signatories below, or send a letter of support to
P4Wmemorialcollective@gmail.com by March 30, 2018, if possible (but later endorsements will also be accepted). A simple affirmation of support is more than welcome, but we would love to hear more about why you think this project is important. What have we learned since the prison closed in 2000? What do women learn doing federal time? What is learned off their backs? How do we share the responsibility of honouring their memory? As the twentieth anniversary of the prison’s closure approaches, we are planning a nation-wide gathering to reflect on these and many other questions.
In solidarity,
The P4W Memorial Collective
P4wmemorialcollective@gmail.comYessica Rivera Belsham
Founder and Executive Director, Circle of Wellness
Fran Chaisson
Formerly Incarcerated at P4W
Jacqueline Davies
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Queen’s University
Lisa Guenther
Queen’s National Scholar in Political Philosophy and Critical Prison Studies
Ann Hansen
Formerly Incarcerated at P4W
Linda Mussell
PhD Candidate in Political Studies, Queen’s University
Supporters:
1.
Jessica Traviss
2.
Stephanie Lovelace
3.
Jane Cookie Chartrand
4.
Tanya Louise Morgan-Zagrodney
5.
Margaret Little
6.
Mary Farrar
7.
Samantha King
8.
Elizabeth Cohoe
9.
Kathleen Wright
10.
Laura Murray
11.
Donna Lynn - Espit Samquan
12.
Randi Kennedy
13.
Niki Kaloudas
14.
Marie Bencze
15.
Taylor Burnie
16.
Katie-Marie McNeill
17.
Robin McDonald
18.
James McCartney
19.
Scarlet Christiaans
20.
Theresa Eagles
21.
Caleigh Matheson
22.
Jane Kirby
23.
Linda Hahn
24.
Aric McBay
25.
Brittany Amey
26.
Karin More
27.
Sheridan Carr
28.
Marsha Rampersaud
29.
Cynthia Levine-Rasky
30.
Jess Wiersema
31.
Chancelor Maracle
32.
Patricia Maung
33.
Corrie Fletcher
34.
Sarah Smith
35.
Adam James Sutton
36.
Chloë Taylor
37.
Shoshana Pollack
38.
Kim Pate
39.
Gillian Balfour
40.
Alexandra Simpson
41.
Stephanie Baker
42.
Jessica Hutchison
43.
Tanya Friesen
44.
Diane Conrad
45.
Lisa Kerr
46.
Rita Wong
47.
Kirsten
48.
julie thompson
49.
Rachel Fayter
50.
Kelly Hannah-Moffat
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Kelly Struthers Montford
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Allison Sivak
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Jenn Clamen
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Jennifer Kilty
55.
Harry Critchley
56.
Kassandra Churcher
57.
Heidi Graf
58.
Kate Crozier
59.
Amy Klassen
60.
Shobana Rajan
61.
Brett Story, PhD
62.
Elin Sigurdson
63.
DJ Larkin
64.
Kate Curry
65.
Shailagh Keaney
66.
Molly Swain
67.
Phyllis Iverson
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Alexis Shotwell
69.
Nicole Myers
70.
Justin Piché, PhD
71.
Aislinn Gallivan
72.
Jeff Shantz
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Claire Abraham
74.
Amanda Wilson
75.
Nancy Poon PhD
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Debra Parkes
77.
Melanie Carrington
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Julia Crabbe
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Jeannette Tossounian
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Kathy Kendall
81.
Leanne Kilby
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Brenda Moore
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Kayley Marsh
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Giselle Dias
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Fran
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Jocelyn Hamilton
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Elaine Stef
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Jonathan Rudin
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Kym Maclaren
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Darlene Lawson
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Lee Shropshire
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Reiko Tagami
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Nancy Pollak
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Megan Ellis QC
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Jennifer Peirce
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Wendy Frost
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Nancy Pollak
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Nancy Pollak
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Pamela Harrison
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Simone Weil Davis
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N Chambers
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Bonny Spencer
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Bonny Spencer
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L Croft
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Emily Kidd White
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Elsie Nisonen
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Julie Gregory
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Bonny Spencer
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Jill Beamish
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Bonny Spencer
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Adelina Iftene
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Diane Serre
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Efrat Arbel
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Linda Murray
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Terra Poirier
116.
Judy Iverson
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Heather Hoiness
118.
Joyclin Coates
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Patti Pettigrew
120.
Ryan Walsh
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Nancy Van Styvendale
122.
Jennifer Metcalfe
123.
Jessica McEachern
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Dara Culhane
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Melissa Molyneux
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Reanna Teske
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Billee Laskin
128.
Simon Borys
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Kimi Hawkes
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Vicki Chartrand
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Andrea Krüsi
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Julie Darke
133.
Jane Ellison
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Sheila Wildeman
135.
Rosalea Thompson
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Elizabeth MacKenzie
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Joni Miller
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Allison Campbell
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Goo Johnston
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Katannya Jantzen
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Deanna Partridge-David
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Tara tait
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Grace MacCormick
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Gladys Harvey
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Shawnee Gregory
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Margo Rivera
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Melissa Rickey
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Lacey Leibel
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Beline Benyes
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W von Statt
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Nessa Palmer
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Meenakshi Mannoe
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Meenakshi Mannoe
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Venge Dixon
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Joy A Thompson
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Ashley Smit
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Chris Rahim
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Jody Bailey
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Kenna Fair
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brooke lydbrooke
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Julius Fisher
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Joelene Clarke
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Susan Haines
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Ashley LeClair
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Kismet A.L. Lowrie
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Devra Buhler
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Michelle Frey
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Karla Willekes
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Emma Kivisild
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shauna paull
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Birgitte Saltorp
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Ashley Pankiw
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Penny J Thompson
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Lily Shinde
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Regina Henry
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Amy Gottlieb
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Janet Lumb
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Michelle Chimenti
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Penny Pattison
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Brian J Melady
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Fran Sugar
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Pamela Cross
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Emily Hill
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Nancy Stirling
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Toni Pickard
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Erin Bellavance
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Kathy Ferreira
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Paul Quick
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Nancy Brar
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Allan Antliff
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Su Donovaro
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Julia Paulson
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Donna-lee Iffla
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Vicki Ryckman
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Margaret Little
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Leona Wiens
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Randi Kennedy
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Diana Davis Duerkop
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Marg Yeo
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Celeste Martin
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Brigid Hayes
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Jacqui Robichaud
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Michele Dore
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Kathryn Londry
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L Jordy Carr
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Jo Truscott
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Christine corbeil
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Nancy Van Styvendale
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Chloe Taylor
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Laura Macfehin
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Eli Meyerhoff
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Julie Guenther
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Axelle Karera
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Rebecca Anweiler
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Madeleine Nerenberg
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Noah Brender
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Ayten Gundogdu
218.
Stacey Colliver
219.
Naeimeh Shakoori
220.
Amber Rayner
221.
Karen Connon
222. Brett Truscott-Arthur
223. Douglas Morren
224. Kim Moore
