Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s government is asking the provincial court to penalize an Anishinabe man for allegedly breaching court rules following the publication of information and video from inside a youth jail showing staff immobilizing him with a full body restraint device while he wept, hyperventilated and asked for death.
The August 2010 internal jail video captured several moments inside Regina’s Paul Dojack Youth Centre. According to the video and files obtained by CBC News, Matthew Michel, then 15, was bound for two hours in a device called the Wrap, which kept his body restrained in a forward sitting position at a near 45-degree angle with his hands cuffed behind his back.
Moe’s government is asking the Court of King’s Bench to impose a “substantial penalty” against Michel following reporting by CBC News about his treatment while in the youth correctional system, according to a recent notice of application filed in court.
Saskatchewan claims in the court filing that the “videos, pictures and documents” used in reporting by CBC News came “from the materials that Saskatchewan disclosed” as part of litigation filed by Michel against the provincial government.
“Hey, you know those rules designed to protect victims and those we are charged with supervising and protecting? Why don’t we use those to punish them and protect ourselves?”