OCDC Hunger Strike Details, Updates, Rally, and Email-Zap Tool

July 22, 2020 admin Event

Rally at OCDC to support the hunger strikers

On July 22nd, over 70 people incarcerated at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) began a hunger strike demanding immediate changes to jail conditions. This action follows a 31-hour hunger strike initiated on June 3rd during which OCDC prisoners demanded healthier food, hygiene products, and increased access to reading materials and television. The strike ended on June 4th following “successful” negotiations between strikers and the jail administration, who committed to meeting the striker’s demands. More than a month and a half later, OCDC has failed to follow through on meeting their obligations under the agreement they made with the hunger strikes.

In response, people incarcerated at OCDC have reinstated their hunger strike on both the men’s and womxn’s sides of the jail, and issued a new set of demands. This morning at 10:00am, the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) livestreamed statements from people incarcerated at the Ottawa jail on Facebook and Twitter. In these statements, confined persons outline longstanding issues leading up to this strike including issues with the food system, inadequate cultural supports, poor medical services, and systemic discrimination based on gender, race, mental and physical ability, and other determinants of identity. They also share their collective demands for change and additional demands highlighting issues impacting incarcerated women, Indigenous, Black, and other people of colour behind bars, and those made vulnerable by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General (MSG) in the context of a global pandemic. Their demands can be read here and will be published on our website following today’s event.

Use our Email-Zap Tool to tell Solicitor General Sylvia Jones and Acting Superintendent Wood that they must meet the demands of the hunger strikers: Click Here.

A full list of demands can be found here:

Download a press release here:
OCDC Hunger Strike_July 2020_to media

info-graphics and hashtags for sharing on social media can be found here:
#OCDCHungerStrike #BlackPrisonersLivesMatter #RespectIndigenousPrisoners

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