"Prisoners Justice Day," Sault Star. August 23, 1983. Page 4.
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I was very disappointed that there was no writeup of Prisoners Justice Day in The Sault Star, as I have a subscription to your newspaper. We, prisoners in the federal penitentiary system, have put one day a year aside to fast and refuse work in memory of the convicts who have died, some due to lack of medical care while in solitary confinement areas, some shot in riots or hostage-taking.
On Aug. 10, 1973, Eddie Nalon died in the super maximum prison at Millhaven. He served but three years of a life sentence!
On Aug. 10, 1976, the first annual Prisoners Justice Day was held, and it has grown into a nationally observed remembrance day. Not only is it observed in prisons throughout Canada, but by our relatives, friends, and supporters on the other side of the barbed wire and rifles.
Each year, friends, relatives, and prison reform organizations travel to Ottawa to parade on Parliament Hill, bringing to light the injustice of the prison system.
We have been trying to make the annual Prisoners Justice Day recognizable throughout Canada, as it was in France this year.
Prisoners Justice Day is not a protest; it is a day we set aside to remember our friends who no longer smile or laugh.
We remember laughing with them, we remember the ugly circumstances and needlessness of their deaths…
WE REMEMBER!!
Claude LeBlanc, No. 9247,
Joyceville Penitentiary
"GRIM REMINDER," Montreal Gazette. August 11, 1989. Page 3.
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Tourists unaware of memorial for dead inmates
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By CATHERINE BUCKIE of The Gazette
In a barracks-like building that less than a year ago served as a recreation room for maximum-security prisoners, 50 people clutching dried flowers gathered to remember the inmates whose lives ended before their sentences.
Outside the Laval Institute, tourists' cars filled the parking lot, and people lined up to get a glimpse of what life was like inside.
"I feel uncomfortable holding the service here, now that it has become a tourist attraction," said Marie Beemans, a counsellor with the Prisoners' Rights Committee. "But it's important that the people who pass through here see it not only as an attraction but know that people died here."
But the tourists weren't likely to know. There was only one sign proclaiming National Prisoners' Justice Day a small poster attached to the cornerstone of the main building. During the guided tour, there was no mention of the annual day of mourning prisoners' rights groups hold in prisons across Canada every Aug. 10.
Guy Petit-Clair, regional communications director for Correctional Services Canada, explained that the occasion was not mentioned "because it has nothing to do with Operation Open House. They (the ex-convicts and prisoners-rights activists who commemorated the day) do their thing and we do ours."
But ex-convicts who spent time at what they call the Old Pen - which closed last December felt that because the tourists weren't told of the prisoners' memorial, they got only half the story of the jail.
"All they tell is the administration side in there," said Michel Jacques, pointing to the Old Pen from the grave-site up the road.
Jacques, who spent 14 months of his 10-year sentence at the Laval Institute, told people gathered at the graves that the men whose numbers are carved on the tombstone "must be in paradise because they were already in hell."
In the evening, about 25 people gathered at a vigil outside the Parthenais detention centre to support two inmates who have tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus linked to AIDS. The two staged an eight-day hunger strike last month to protest what they say is discriminatory treatment.
Inmates began observing National Prisoners' Justice Day 16 years ago when an inmate at Millhaven Penitentiary near Kingston died in solitary con-finement. Across Canada yesterday, prisoners staged hunger strikes and work stoppages to protest conditions.
Photo caption: Ex-convict Michel Jacques, centre, and others prepare to put flowers on prison gravesite. Gazette, Nancy Ackerman
"Inmates call hunger strike," Kingston Whig-Standard. August 9, 1976. Page 15.
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Leaders of inmates in Millhaven Institution have called on all prisoners to join a one-day hunger strike on Tuesday "to protest the cruelty, brutality and wilful neglect which characterizes the Canadian Penitentiary Services".
"As far as we know at this stage, the Kingston area institutions are all going to go on a hunger strike," said Toronto lawyer David Cole. Mr. Cole is a member of the Prison Justice Day Committee, a support group for inmates.
Spokesmen for the group read a statement explaining the inmates' "peaceful collective action" in front of the Don Jail in Toronto at 10 a.m. today. They said the Aug. 10 date "is in commemoration of the death (by suicide) of Edward Nalon on the same day in 1974, and of Robert Landers on May 21, 1976". Both men died in segregation cells at Millhaven. Landers is thought to have died of natural causes, but exact details won't be available until a coroner's inquest is held next month.
Mr. Cole's statement said: "Prisoners are particularly annoyed that the recommendations of a coroner's jury, which were made at an inquest into Nalon's death in May, 1975, were not implemented by the time Landers died." The state-ment mentioned the jury's recommendation for the re-installation of panic buttons in segregation. The emergency call buttons have been inoperative for a number of years.
Some institutions, among them the B.C. penitentiary and possibly Dorchester in New Brunswick, have indicated they would hold a work stoppage as well as a hunger strike tomorrow, according to Mr. Cole. "Millhaven inmates have not asked for a work-stoppage," he said. "Many of the inmates who were the alleged leaders of a strike at Millhaven last August were locked up 23 hours a day until June of this year."
Mr. Cole's statement added: "The deaths of Nalon and Landers are but two of many in segregation and in the general prison population. According to the government's own figures, 42 inmates have committed suicide in Canadian penitentiaries since 1970. This figure is some 13 times higher than the national average, yet the government has… resisted numerous recommendations either to render the system tolerable, or to abolish it altogether.
Millhaven director John Dowsett said he had no plans to change prison routine.
"We'll offer their meals," he said, "and if they don't eat them, that's their choice."
"DIES IN PRISON," Hamilton Spectator. October 6, 1933. Page 17.
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JOHN A. MACHRAY
Former Winnipeg barrister, who died in Stony Mountain penitentiary yesterday while serving a term for defalcation of millions of dollars of Anglican church and University of Manitoba funds.
"J. A. Machray, Winnipeg, Dead," St. Catharines Standard. October 5, 1933. Page 1 & 17.
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Former Chairman of Board, Bursar of University of Manitoba
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PASSES AWAY IN PENITENTIARY
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Serving Seven-Year Sentence for Theft University Funds
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(Canadian Press.)
WINNIPEG, Oct. 5. - John A. Machray, former chairman of the board and bursar of the University of Manitoba, died today at Stoney Mountain Penitentiary, where he was serving a seven-year sentence for theft of university funds.
John A. Machray was the main figure in one of Canada's most notorious financial scandals. It left in its wake disillusionment in educational and religious circles and a trail of shattered investments,
The rapid succession of startling events following sinister rumors late In August, 1932, which led to his imprisonment less than a month later, staggered members of the community where he was a leading citizen, known as a successful lawyer, shrewd Investment banker. philanthropist, prominent educationalist and devout church worker.
It was the esteem and confidence in which he was held that permitted Machray, as shown by investigators, to misuse for 25 years funds and securities entrusted to his care. And the Institutions with which he was most closely affiliated suffered more severely. Funds of the Church of England diocese of Rupert's Land were depleted while University of Manitoba endowments were cut in half by his firm's $2, 000,000 deficit.
Nephew and adopted son of the late Archbishop Robert Machray, John was born of humble parents at Haddington, Scotland, Feb. 17. 1865, raised and educated in ecclesiastical environment, and throughout his career he remained closely associated with the church. He was a member of practically all church committees and for 27 years served as chancellor of the diocese.
Distinguished scholar at University of Manitoba, Machray never lost his connection with the institution from which he graduated in 1884 with classical honors and the university silver medal. One of the original governors of the college, he acted for years as honorary bursar and chairman of the board, also as member of finance committee and land board.
At Cambridge he obtained his LL.D. and then returned to be called to the bar of Manitoba in 1890, Associated several years with the legal firm of Archibald & Howell, Machray joined the reorganized firm of Archibald, Machray & Sharpe, which he later headed under various names until it developed into the purely investment firm of Machray & Sharpe, a branch of Machray, Sharpe, Parker, Crawley & Richardson.
This firm, however, was distinct from the financial branch of Machray & Sharpe and other than these two did not share in the in- vestment profits. Mr. Justice R. N. Dennistoun for some years was associated with Machray but severed his connection when elevated to the Manitoba bench upon his return from the great war.
Though appointed a king's counsel in 1912, Machray in his practice was building for himself a more prominent reputation as a keen investment counsellor than a legal authority, particularly concerning real estate, from which his firm was reputed to have generously profited during the pre-war boom in Winnipeg.
But the boom passed and the firm was left loaded with depreciated properties. From then on assets of the company began slipping quickly in value but Machray, proud of the reputation he had established as an investment authority, continued to pay interest on non-profitable investments on behalf of his clients. Reports prepared for a commission which investigated the shortages estimated such payments at a minimum of $1,000,000.
It was the attempt to continue these payments that led to revelation of the shortages. For the previous seven years auditors had bought to inspect the company's books and securities but Machray. Pleading illness and business difficulties, asked to be allowed time.
Respite after respite failed to produce the securities $500,000 worth of which auditors believed missing. When an ultimatum by Robert Drummond, the Manitoba Comptroller-general, was unheeded, government officials were called into hurried conferences. Curt. formal announcements from the government followed rumors of the shortages, On August 24 Machray, confined to his bed at home, was arrested and charged with the theft of $47.531.
Indignantly the old lawyer protested the arrest, denied money had been stolen, assured government representatives shortages would be replaced by loans from friends and business associates. Pale and weak, in penitentiary, Machray told commissioners investigating the losses that collapse of his firm was a surprise to him for he believed the company's assets intact.
Meanwhile auditors were working day and night to ascertain ex- tent of the shortages. The firm was liquidated and Machray and his partner, F. J. Sharpe, tossed into personal bankruptcy. The legal firm of which he also was senior partner was reorganized without him while custodians were appointed to salvage the monetary debris.
Unable to appear in court when first arrested, the invalided prisoner was granted a series of remands to Sept. 22, when he was sentenced by an old associate, Magistrate R. M. Noble, to seven years in penitentiary, after pleading guilty to theft of $500,000 from the college and $60,000 from Heber Archibald, a former law partner. Church officials declined to press charges against him.
It was a dramatic scene in the small provincial court which he entered on the arms of his physician and a daughter. He pleaded. guilty from a chair at the end of counsel table and for seconds seemed stunned when sentence was pronounced. However, he waived his right to appeal and was taken immediately to Stony Mountain.
But the case was far from complete. The commission under Mr. Justice W. F. A. Turgeon was only beginning to work, Premier John Bracken. two of his ministers, university governors and government officials and numerous other persons were called as witnesses. All testified Machray's reputation had deceived them. This was the reason, some said, accounts went unaudited "for several years."
The company books were shown to be in a terrible state. Important entries in many cases had never been made and accounts had gone untotalled for nearly 16 years. University authorities also charged transfer and sale of bonds had been made without proper authority and that records of these transactions were not accurate.
Auditors and counsel for the commission showed where Machray had benefited from the missing monies, despite his pleas of innocence. Records showed personal mortgages, taxes, gifts and liquor charged against the company. Even a stained-glass window dedicated in St. James Cathedral to the memory of his uncle was partially paid for from company money.
Despite millions of dollars in trusts funds estimated to have passed through his hands. Machray was a modest living man and did not seek luxuries. His time-worn motor car was a familiar sight in front of the Machray home where he lived with his wife, Emily 8. Drewry, daughter of E. I. Drewry, whom he married in 1904, and three daughters.
Business, Church and college matters practically monopolized his life but whenever time was available in earlier years the St. Charles Country of Manitoba clubs usually found him exercising on the golf course or squash courts. During the past three years, however, he had been in delicate, health and much of the time he was confined to bed.
Mike Bihun was shot and killed by a prison guard on April 15, 1932, at Manitoba Penitentiary. It is the 90th anniversary of his death. Two other prisoners, Thomas Jones and William Gorda, were shot and seriously wounded, though they would survive and later be put on trial. They seriously injured the Chief Keeper Thomas Clayton and a Guard, Alfred Fisher. It was one of the most violent incidents in the, at that point, 60 year history of the Manitoba Penitentiary, better known as Stony Mountain.
Although mentioned in the final report of the 1938 Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System of Canada, this event is largely forgotten, and much of the documentation that would be necessary to make sense of it is functionally "lost" in uncatalogued materials or restricted document sets at Library and Archives Canada. Yet this was the first, small rumblings of a tumultuous decade of convict revolt in 1930s Canada, so it merits much closer attention.
First, I want to start with how the event was described by the newspapers, the coroner's inquest, and the Ministry of Justice, the majority of the available sources at this time. Then, we'll discuss the investigation and its many loose ends and unanswered questions. Finally, what happened after Bihun was buried, and what is the place of this event in broader penal history?
1.
For almost a month before April 15, 1932, Jones and Gorda had been confined in the penal cells - that is, solitary confinement - for repeated violations of prison rules. Speaking to the press after the event, the Warden, Col. William Meighen, brother of former prime minister Arthur Meighen, claimed "that the pair have been two of his most troublesome prisoners, and are as desperate men as ever have been confined in the prison."
Jones had previously served two terms at the Fort William Industrial Farm, in what is now Thunder Bay, and had been sent to Stony Mountain for 2 years for escaping from that provincial prison. Gorda had been sentenced at Minnedosa in mid-1930 for three years for housebreaking and theft - it was his first time in prison. Bihun, ironically, was a model prisoner, despite having the worse reputation outside of prison. He had been sentenced on Dec. 22, 1930, to 10 years in the penitentiary with 10 lashes for his part in the daylight raid on the Bank of Montreal, Logan Avenue, Winnipeg. He was only 20.
Gorda and Jones, right before the attack, had been brought from their cells to be given a bath along with two other prisoners. Their path took them through a central courtyard, where 80 prisoners were at work cutting stone, breaking rocks, and building a new wall. Due to these cramped and insecure conditions, a larger than normal escort of four officers, including the Chief Keeper, were escorting the four inmates from the bath back to the penal cells.
Suddenly, Gorda and Jones broke away from their escorts, grabbed sledge hammers and stone breaking tools, and attacked Clayton and Fisher, cutting and bruising their heads and shoulders with repeated, "savage," blows. They chased the Mason Instructor, and then ran toward the penal cells. In desperation, one of the guards in the yard yelled 'Shoot, Shoot!' to the tower officers. Three of the guards stationed on the walls opened fire - first into the air as a warning, and then at Gorda and Jones, aiming at their legs and arms to avoid a fatal shot. Despite hitting both men, neither inmate surrendered or stopped, and had to be forcibly restrained by Deputy Warden John Abbott and a team of guards.
A group of inmates was watching the assault from the entrance to the nearby 'stone shed,' despite being ordered to take cover. Bihun, one of this group, was struck by a ricochet bullet that killed him instantly.
The wounded officers were helped by a group of inmates to their homes outside the wall, and Gorda and Jones were rushed to the prison hospital.
The whole affair had taken less than ten minutes.
A coroner's inquest was called by Dr. A. N. McLeod, which sat from 9 pm until nearly 3 a.m. on the 16th. McLeod fully exonerated the three guards who fired their rifles, and indeed they were praised for their "restraint." The specifics of the event, however, remained very confused. Clayton, Fisher, Gorda, and Jones were not interviewed by the inquest, or in the later investigation.
The Winnipeg 'Tribune' claimed this was the "first serious trouble that has ever occurred within the prison" whereas the Minister of Justice gave a statement that "there had been no riot and that what had happened, under the circumstances, was by no means unprecedented."
2.
The Minister of Justice was correct - this kind of assault and violence against guards at the Manitoba Penitentiary was not unprecedented. In 1912 and 1919 prisoners had assaulted and killed guards, in the latter case even being found by a jury to have acted with provocation because of abusive treatment from officers of the institution.
Some of the basics of the above account, drawn from official statements, the coroner's inquest, and press reports, are reasonably accurate - the assault on the prison officers was carried out by only Jones and Gorda, and the bullet that killed Bihun was definitely a ricochet. Minister of Justice Hugh Guthrie nonetheless wanted to be certain of what had taken place, and sent Inspector of Penitentiaries E. R. Jackson to investigate, as Jackson had experience as warden at the British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Kingston penitentiaries. His brief included determining if the death of Bihun was caused by staff incompetence or vindictiveness.
Jackson’s investigation noted that Jones had actually been caught, only twenty minutes before the assault, trying to hide a 12-inch piece of pipe on his person, that the construction and piles of stone around the yard made security exceptionally difficult to enforce, and concluded that Gorda and Jones were attempting to free other inmates from the solitary confinement cells. They were also seeking out another officer, Keeper Ellison, to assault or kill him in revenge for real or imagined slights. The other inmates being escorted along with Gorda and Jones did nothing to help or hinder their outbreak.
Jackson observed from his evidence that “everything was excitement” in the yard and shops, making it difficult to gauge if other inmates had been involved. No guards had written down the names of the dozens of inmates who stayed in the yard, though both Jackson and Meighen thought they behaved "remarkably well, given the circumstances" and no further inquiry was made in this direction. There was also no interrogation of the other prisoners in the penal cells.
According to Jackson’s investigation, the night of April 15, after dinner was served, the inmates showed some restlessness and there was “considerable talking” and “some yelling” in the cell blocks, and consequently the prisoners were kept in their cells over the weekend. Six of the inmates who assisted the wounded officers and provided first aid to the injured were singled out for praise and had substantial periods taken off their sentences or were rewarded with early parole.
Both Gorda and Jones had long “defaulter sheets” (lists of prison offences) including reports for insolence, causing a disturbance, refusing to work, inciting others to refuse to work, gambling, idling their time, refusing to obey orders, and “violet resistance” to the Deputy Warden and Chief Keeper. Notably, the year before this event, on April 30, 1931, Gorda had assaulted Chief Keeper Clayton with a club. Gorda apparently had it out for this officer (or thought Clayton had it out for him - Gorda’s first punishment in prison was losing a week’s good time for failing to earn his conduct and industry marks, and this report was made by Clayton). Each inmate had spent roughly 120 days off and on in solitary confinement since they arrived at Manitoba Penitentiary. Meighen wrote months later that "neither man was a Choir Boy" - this seemed the only explanation the warden needed for Gorda and Jones' actions on April 15.
Jackson’s investigation, despite being over a hundred pages in length, was rather cursory in some ways and a number of threads were not picked up. Crown Attorney J. F. McNeill, who was initially asked by Guthrie to prosecute Gorda and Jones for assault, wrote to the Minister of Justice on August 3, 1932, troubled by how many unanswered questions remained after the event: “Other inmates during the course of this trouble were apparently out of control, or at least the Guards in charge of them ran away from them and they pretty much did as they pleased until the Deputy Warden restored order in the yard. In the reports on the file, there is no information as to names or number of convicts concerned or what really did happen. As a matter of fact, I do not think that the reports of the event on this file are sufficient to base an opinion as what should be done with the various officers or to prosecute the prisoners. A reading of the reports leaves me with the impression that the warden has been lax in his administration and that the guards were not particularly well-trained nor did they show very much courage in dealing with this serious situation.”
McNeill also concluded that “it was entirely unnecessary to do any shooting at all in the present case.” He noted that the men on the towers and wall who fired were all new appointments, and had simply followed the orders of their panicked superiors in the yard. McNeill thought that if Deputy Warden Abbott had been able to restore order without using guns, they should never had been used to begin with, given the considerable danger to staff and prisoners. Bihun's death, he felt, was entirely preventable.
McNeill, unlike Jackson, was also extremely cynical about the conduct and training of the guards and some of the “exacting” methods they used. Although Manitoba Penitentiary had a reputation among the other Canadian federal prisons of being relatively well-disciplined and well run, reports in this period indicate that the officers were often bored and so often made overly fussy or exaggerated reports to give themselves something to do, were isolated from the broader community (there still is no community bigger than a village within kilometres of the prison, and Winnipeg was hours away in 1932) and turned to heavy drinking to pass the time far more than at other federal prisons.
3.
Most ominously, McNeill was troubled to ponder that “if two inmates of the Manitoba Penitentiary can cause all the disorder that these two gentlemen did in the short time that they were at large in the prison yard, then a serious situation would develop if more then two took it into their heads to defy the guards.”
Indeed, and this never made its way into the newspapers, there were several other attempts in August and September 1932 by other small groups of inmates to provoke fights with guards or cause disturbances in the workshops. This got to the point that on September 30, 1932, Warden Meighen requested from headquarters in Ottawa the purchase of, and unlimited approval to deploy, tear gas to control inmates in the penal cells and main cell blocks should they attempt to rebel again. He noted in an earlier report that Gorda and Jones had been caught passing notes to other inmates in the prison, and that news of the trials of Gorda and Jones had to be prevented from entering the prison, as it might inflame an already tense situation.
Why? Gorda’s family had retained a lawyer, Pieter Hagel - who was an ex-convict himself, sentenced to three years in 1914 for aiding an escape from a county jail in British Columbia! Hagel's defence strategy was to embarrass and criticize the penitentiary system, and thus find some mitigating factors to explain Gorda and Jones' actions. During the preliminary hearings, Hagel asked Warden Meighen why Clayton had been transferred to Manitoba Penitentiary, and was successful in getting into evidence a past incident at Kingston Penitentiary, years before, when Clayton allegedly pushed an inmate down a flight of stairs.
The trial proper began in November 1932, and Hagel tried to call a number of unrelated witnesses, including the notorious bandit ‘Slim’ Williams, to speak about general prison conditions. Warden Meighen was deeply concerned that Judge Madden, presiding, had been reading penal reform literature and inflammatory newspaper accounts of prison conditions, as public opinion had been “stirred up by unbalanced and bad reporting about recent events at Kingston and St, Vincent de Paul.” (Meighen to Sup’t of Penitentiaries Ormond, November 9, 1932)
The combination of simmering anger and unrest, strict discipline, poorly trained and aggressive guards, and overcrowding that was evident at Manitoba Penitentiary in mid-1932 was also present at the penitentiaries in Kingston and Laval, where prisoners revolted in a series of politically-oriented and well-organized strikes and riots in October and November.
Rumours of these events came to Manitoba Penitentiary in mid-November, and a sympathy strike was called as the whole prison fell into “excitement” again. Jones was even let out of solitary, on the condition he try to calm the situation. This didn’t work - either because he was playing the authorities or the unrest he had helped kick off was already out of his influence. Only the arrival of a company of soldiers ended the unrest.
Reading the primary documents - the reports of the officers and so forth - there is one striking parallel between the situation at Manitoba Penitentiary in 1932 and other federal penitentiaries: no one in charge seemed even remotely aware of the level of inmate anger and dissatisfaction, to the point that the officers of each prison were very much sleepwalking into disaster. Gorda and Jones didn't particularly have a constructive agenda, and were preoccupied with revenge. But their actions clearly resonated with many of their fellow prisoners, and not unusually, this assault precipitated further acts of resistance.
Image descriptions:
Bottom, the map produced during E. R. Jackson's investigation to map the movements of Gorda and Jones.
Top, from the Winnipeg Tribune, April 16, 1932. Page 1.
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UNRULY PRISONERS CAUSE DEATH AT PENITENTIARY
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Above is the grim fortress that Is the Dominion penitentiary at Stony Mountain, where one man was killed and four injured Friday afternoon, when Thomas Jones and William Gorda, two desperate prisoners armed with sledge hammers, struck down Thomas Clayton, chief keeper, and Alfred Fisher, guard. Both prisoners were shot and wounded by guards stationed on the prison wall. At left, below, is Mike Behun, bank robber, serving a ten-year term, who took no part in the attack, but was struck in the chest and killed by a deflected bullet. Lower centre shows guards on duty on the with Colonel William Meighen, prison warden, at lower right.
"Prisoner Found Dead In Jail Cell," Kingston Whig-Standard. July 8, 1942. Page 3.
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Kenneth Babcock of Odessa, who was an inmate in the county jail, was found dead in his cell this morning by Turnkey John McKeown.
Sentenced on June 16 by Magistrate J. B. Garvin for three months for vagrancy, Babcock. who was 27 years of age, was subject to epileptic fits.
The jail physician, Dr. P. 1. Huyck, and Coroner Dr. C. W. Bennett, were called and at noon today it was undecided whether an inquest would be held.
“Objector Is Dead,” Toronto Globe. February 27, 1918. Page 01.
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After Few Days in Penitentiary David Wells Went Insane.
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(Canadian Press Despatch).
Winnipeg, Feb. 26. - David Wells, conscientious objector, recently sentenced to the penitentiary for two years for defaulting under the Military Service Act, is dead. After a few days in the penitentiary Wells became a raving maniac, and was removed to the County Asylum at Selkirk, where he died a week ago.
