Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies
Minutes of the Meetingof the Board of Directors
February 21, 2010 - Teleconference
1.Identification of Board Members
Lucie Joncas, President
Cathie Penny, Treasurer & Board Member- Atlantic Region
Sue Dunlop, Secretary and Board Member – Ontario Region
Diana Majury, Board Member – Ontario Region
Leanne Kilby, Staff Representative– Ontario Region
Ruth Gagnon, Staff Representative & Regional Advocate – Quebec Region
Jo-Anne Wemmers, Board Member – Quebec Region
Louise Richards, Staff Representative – Pacific Region
Mollie Both, Board Member – Pacific Region
Caroleen Wright, Staff Representative, & Regional Advocate– Prairie Region
Nancy Poon, Board Member- Prairie Region
Bernice Perkins – Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge Representative
Denise Durette, Board Representative & Regional Advocate – Atlantic Region
Carley Parish, Board Member – Atlantic Region
b)Regrets
Jennifer Harrington, Vice President & Board Member– Pacific Region
Chickadee Richard, Board Member– Prairie Region
c)Staff
Kim Pate, Executive Director
2.Approval of Agenda Appendix I
Motion:That the agenda for the Meeting be accepted as circulated.
Moved byNancy Poon; seconded by Leanne Kilby; carried unanimously.
3.Approval of MinutesAppendix II
Motion:That the October 17-18, 2009 minutes of the meeting of the CAEFS’ Board be accepted as tabled.
Moved byLeanne Kilby; seconded by Cathie Penny; carried unanimously.
4.Business Arising from the Minutes from the October 2009 Meeting
There was no business arising from the minutes for this meeting.
5.Treasurer’s ReportAppendix III
Cathie Penny presented the financial statements and confirmed that all payments are upto date.
Motion: That the Treasurer’s Report, including thefinancial statements, confirmation and approval of all financial decisions and payments made on behalf of CAEFS,be accepted as presented.
Moved by Sue Dunlop; seconded by Carley Parish; carried unanimously.
6.President’s Report
Lucie Joncas discussed the impact of prorogation on the number of crime bills that consequently died on the order papers. Tomorrow, the legislation comes into force limiting judicial discretion regarding the crediting of remand time at the time of sentencing. Lucie will prepare a summary of the strategies lawyers may still utilize to advocate for the exercise of judicial discretion.
Lucie also attended a conference with the chiefs of police and other criminal justice players. She will circulate the results of the meeting to CAEFS as soon as it is available.
7.Executive Director’s ReportAppendix IV
Kim Pate reviewed the highlights from her written report.
8.Regional ReportsAppendix V
a)Pacific
Mollie Both and Louise Richards reviewed their written report. There are two new members on the RA team in the Pacific region, Aimee Thompson and Kathi Heim. There are some concerns regarding the apparent lack of communication between the Elder and the Sisterhood. Although a number of women show up for the meetings of the Human Rights in Action Collective, few have apparently been showing up for other events. The issue of unlawful strip searching has also been an issue at FVI.
Related to the issue of strip searches, Kim advised that CSC is planning to pilot the use of body scanners in the prisons, so she asked the RAs to check if any of the prisons for women are slated tobe pilot sites.
b)Prairies and Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge
Caroleen Wright and Bernice Perkins, the new OOHL representative, reviewed their written reports.
Of particular note are the security approaches that prevail at the Regional Psychiatric Centre for women who are perceived as high needs and having significant mental health issues. Two women remain segregated in ‘IPC’ (intensive psychiatric care).
The Prairie Region has written to the Manitoba government regarding concerns that federal women not be required to relinquish their federal rights if they are housed in the provincial jail being constructed there.
For women at the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge, there are significant challenges to maintaining the differential focus on the needs of Aboriginal women, particularly with respect to Aboriginal-specific programming, community and familial support (and visiting) options.
c)Ontario
Leanne Kilby reviewed her written report.
Arising out of Leanne’s report, Kim advised the Regional Advocates to ensure that if they have CSC identification tags, they identify the RAs as ‘volunteers’, not as ‘contractors’ or CSC employees.
d)Quebec
Jo-Anne Wemmers reviewed Ruth Gagnon’s written report. EFS Quebec continues to do very creative work with the artistic communities and their efforts are resulting in innovative projects, a number of which will be profiled at a conference in mid-March.
e)Atlantic
Denise Durette reviewed the work in the Atlantic region. Darlene MacEachern will send in the regional report as soon as possible.
One of CAEFS volunteers, an articling student, is working on the drafting of documents for a judicial review of CSC’s decisions in response to the group third level grievances of the inadequacy of the $4.25 per woman per day that the women at Nova are allocated to feed themselves. Lucie volunteered to launchthe judicial review.
9.Committee Reports Appendix VI
a)Social Action
Jo-Anne Wemmers and Louise Richards, co-chairs of the Social Action Committee, circulated the revised work plan after the October meeting. They have received no feedback to date. Please encourage the members in your region to respond at your earliest convenience.
b)Diversity
Sue Dunlop reported that she received eight responses to the survey she developed. During the April 10th conference call, the committee will review the work plan and results of the survey, as well as the agenda for the June 4thAGM workshop.
c) Membership, AGM & Bursary
Mollie Both had to leave the call early, so Cathie Penny reviewed the work of the Committee.
Membership–There are no applications for membership to date.
Bursary–Applications for the bursary are coming in.
Resolutions – EFS Saskatchewan has submitted a resolution. It will be circulated with the minutes.
AGM – Plans for the annual meeting are well underway. The schedule for the AGM is as follows:
CAEFS Annual General Meeting
June 2-6, 2010 – Sydney, N.S. - Hosted byEFS Cape Breton
June 2, 2010 – Meeting of the Regional Advocates
June 3, 2010 – Meetings of the Executive Directors (a.m.) and Housing Committee (p.m.)
June 4, 2010 – Workshop Day and Meeting of the Outgoing Board of Directors (evening)
June 5, 2010 – Annual General Meeting
June 6, 2010 – Meeting of the CAEFS Incoming Board of Directors
d)Regionalization
Cathie reviewed the work of the Committee, particular with respect to Regional Advocacy. In each of the regions, the overall evaluation is that the team approaches are working well.The teams are working on improving follow-up and documentation and ways of further improving our support and advocacy with and for the women will be discussed at the AGM.
e)Housing
The Housing Committee is very excited to be moving ahead on the Housing/Community Release Forum. It will be held May 3 and 4, 2010 in Room 200, West Block, on Parliament Hill. The regions have each contributed $1,500 to assist in ensuring the Regional Advocates and members of the Housing Committee are able to attend the meetings. In addition, the Board agreed that, although there will be a sliding scale, depending upon means, those who can afford to pay, will be requested to pay a registration fee of $150 to attend the two day event.
Elizabeth Fry members are asked to arrive Sunday, May 2nd, so that they can participate in the Justice Walk being organized by E FS Ottawa, to launch E Fry Week. We will have sessions on the Monday morning, followed by site visits to the E Fry halfway house and services at the Bronson Centre, Aboriginal women’s housing initiatives and the John Howard attendance centre Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning will commence early, with a breakfast for Parliamentarians and Senators, followed by additional sessions. We will end by midday on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010. We look forward to as many E Fry participants joining us as is possible. Flyers will be distributed within the next couple of weeks.
Motion: That the Committee reports be accepted as presented.
Moved by Cathie penny; seconded by Jo-Anne Wemmers; carried unanimously.
10.Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjournedafter 2hours and 20 minutes after it commenced.
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