A Halifax law firm has launched a lawsuit against the federal attorney general, alleging justice officials have failed to protect women in federal prisons from sexual assault at the hands of prison staff. The Correctional Service of Canada said in an emailed statement Thursday that it had not yet been served with the lawsuit and could not comment directly on the matter. In his report, correctional investigator Ivan Zinger described sexual violence as "a pervasive but underreported problem in federal prisons." "Sexual assaults, sexual harm, sexual violence are crimes that survive on the silence of the victims, the shame, the humiliation that the victims experience and feel," Halpern said. "So unfortunately, it's one of the least reported crimes that occur are crimes of sexual violence."

Source: CBC News March 12, 2021 00:11 UTC