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When Professor Sheila Wildeman introduced Senator Kim Pate (LLB ’84) to an almost full house in Weldon’s Room 105 on Jan. 13, she described her as “right out front among our most beloved, brave, brilliant alumni" and someone "who has made a habit of making trouble public.” In a nod to Pate’s decades-long advocacy work for women and girls in Canada’s prisons, Wildeman added, “Kim has walked with women and girls who have been criminalized and imprisoned for over 25 years. She has been a friend to many women when they’ve been most alone.”

A 2003 recipient of the law school’s Weldon Award for Unselfish Public Service, Pate was in Halifax to teach Issues in Criminalization and Imprisonment, both to practitioners at the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society and to law students at the Schulich School of Law.

As she took the podium, Pate thanked Wildeman for the gracious introduction but stated that “none of us achieves anything alone – it’s never the work of one person. I encourage you to build partnerships with those who have common interests and causes and also with those who don’t, those across class, race, and cultural lines and personal and global divides.”

“At first I thought there wasn’t much difference between men and women in the prison system. I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Before beginning her lecture, “No Justice for Women in Canada’s Prisons,” which was open to the public, Pate touched briefly on her time at law school, quipping, “I certainly wasn’t a stellar student, so maybe that will give some of you who also aren’t stellar students hope.” It was her experience at Dalhousie Legal Aid Service that introduced her to prison-advocacy work. “At first I thought there wasn’t much difference between men and women in the prison system,” she said. “I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Video: "No Justice for Women in Canada's Prisons"

When a man goes to prison, there’s almost always someone left at home to care for his children – for women that isn’t always the case, and their children may be placed in care. Another difference is that, first and foremost, imprisoned men want to talk about their cases with advocacy visitors, while women want to hear about their children, families, and what’s happening outside the prison. Also, women often accept a guilty plea in order to shorten their sentences so they can get home to their children faster. “That’s a big incentive for pleading guilty,” said Pate.

An outpouring of emotion and pain

When Pate first visited Ontario’s Kingston Prison for Women, her son, Michael, was an infant (he’s now 26). She took him with her on prison visits, and because two-thirds of the incarcerated women were mothers who had restricted access to their own children, “he would get all of the love, attention, and care the women weren’t able to give their children,” she said. Michael would come to call the women “the Mommies,” and it was in prison that he learned to bake, karaoke, and play video games.

"So few people were visiting the women to hear those stories, so there was an outpouring of emotion.”

During her first few visits, Pate would leave the prison with a headache, a result of the emotional impact of hearing the women’s stories of pain, grief, and trauma. “So few people were visiting the women to hear those stories, so there was an outpouring of emotion,” she said. “Part of the headache was trying to do something about every single thing.”

Many women are jailed for violent offences such as killing an abusive partner in self-defense, and they may have a history of physical or sexual abuse. Too often, their children are the only witnesses to the incident. “Most women won’t agree to go to trial because they don’t want to put their children through it,” said Pate. “Many women make decisions on their cases based on what’s best for their children and grandchildren.”

Advocating for advocacy

Pate pointed out that across the country, as more pressures are put on social care, “we’re relying on prisons to do a job that they weren’t intended to do,” such as incarcerate people with mental illnesses – today, Indigenous women with mental illnesses are the fastest-growing population in prisons. She urged those attending the lecture to do what they can to challenge the government to improve the prison system.

“I want to see renewed, invigorated, and strong social services, health care, and education, for the best quality of life for everyone,” said Pate. “We should be demanding all of this. But how do we get there? Through incremental, meaningful change through things like challenges to solitary confinement and the length of holding people in custody.”

“As long as one person is being tortured in prison, then the liberty of every single one of us is at risk.”

Pate is calling for the end of solitary confinement and a move toward “decarceration,” to get whole groups of people out of prisons, such as those with mental illnesses, and whole prisons closed.

“What’s done in prisons is done on behalf of all of us, as citizens and taxpayers,” said Pate. “As long as one person is being tortured in prison, then the liberty of every single one of us is at risk. We have one of the most progressive legislative systems in the world. I think there’s great hope and opportunity for huge change to happen in this country. I invite each of you to be part of the accountability to urge people in power to make positive change.”