Manitoba’s premier wants to make sure people no one is sent to jail if they don’t comply with taking their medication, so they don’t infect others.
His comments come after a CBC report, over the detention of a 36-year-old woman from Gods Lake First Nation who despite having no criminal record, was ordered to spend a month in a Manitoba jail.
While the woman has no criminal record, it was determined she wasn’t consistently taking her tuberculosis medication, under the Public Health Act in Manitoba.
“I reached out to the two most senior people in the government, and I said get me an order ensuring that nobody is ever jailed for having tuberculous ever again,” said Premier Wab Kinew.
Medical officers can have someone apprehended who is not complying with a communicable disease order, and the incident has the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC), demanding an apology and a review of the Public Health Act.
“Those should be looked and yes an apology should be made to her immediately by the medical and from the RCMP themselves,” said Betsy Kennedy, the Acting Grand Chief of the AMC.
Leif Jensen, a legal aid lawyer at the University of Manitoba’s Community Law Centre added, “Yes, here rights were violated.”
Jensen is representing Geraldine Mason, who filed an application for her release on Nov. 18. Arguing that incarceration was excessive and inappropriate for addressing public health concerns. He says the province must address the systemic failures that led to her detention.
“She was taken from her family and put in a cell for a month, this is someone who is not being accused of a crime, never committed a crime, never been to jail before,” said Jensen.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew apologized at a press conference Monday and said the province will no longer incarcerate people for tuberculosis treatment, calling the practice unacceptable.
“There’s a public health order that will say that public health officials are not going to seek incarceration as a way to treat people who have tuberculosis,” said Premier Kinew.
Mason has since returned to Gods Lake First Nation and is complying with a condition requiring daily video check-ins with a healthcare worker to confirm she is taking her medication.
