The New, Special Prison At Kingston

Sections of the press have rightly drawn a parallel between the special prison under construction in Kingston and the concentration camp to which the Bush administration has disappeared alleged “enemy combatants” in Guantanamo, Cuba, labeling the planned Canadian facility “North Guantanamo” or “Guantanamo Lite.” Four individuals will soon be transferred to the new prison: Mohamed Harkat, detained since December 2002; Hassan Almrei, detained since October 2001; Mahmoud Jaballah, detained since August 2001; and Mohammad Majhoud, detained since June 2000. Majhoud staged a 79-day hunger strike in 2005 to obtain basic medical care and the right to receive monthly visits from his two children, aged six and eight. In the new prison, Majhoud and the other detainees will likely face even harsher conditions. Although it is being built inside the walls of the Kingston penitentiary, the new facility will remain completely separate from it. At all times, prisoners held there will be segregated from the regular inmates of the Kingston penitentiary and, most probably, from each other. The authorities are refusing even to reveal the size of the cells in which the security-certificate detainees will be held. www.wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/cana-a10.shtml [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on April 12, 2006]

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