GUARDS LAUNCH $130-MILLION SUIT

The warden of Kingston Penitentiary and senior staff secretly fed money,
sensitive information and contraband to inmate informers in a bid to entrap
prison staff, guards allege in a $130-million class-action lawsuit.

The suit, filed quietly last week in a Kingston court, attacks as a failure
a top-secret, three-year investigation into smuggling and corruption at the
maximum-security federal prison.

The suit claims that the probe relied on illegal entrapment tactics and
intimidation that bred violence, endangered staff and did nothing to reduce
the drug and alcohol problem at the prison.

'FLAWED INVESTIGATION'

"The Defendants, either personally or through their agents in the Ontario
Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Kingston
Police Department, used oppressive, coercive tactics in the course of their
flawed investigation," the suit claims.

The investigation, Project OCORRECT, led to the firing of eight guards and
disciplinary action against seven others but no criminal charges were laid.

The suit claims that alcohol and drugs were not seized, but were allowed to
flow freely into the hands of convicts.

UNION PRESIDENT

Four correctional officers at Kingston Pen, including union president James
Smith, filed the suit Thursday against the Attorney General of Canada, the
top Corrections bureaucrat in Ontario, Brendan Reynolds, KP warden Monty
Bourke and five other prison managers.

Smith, along with guards Germain Gaignard, Trevor Lee and Jack Coimbra,
claim damages for "the intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach
of duty of good faith, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of duty of care"
and a violation of the Charter of Rights.

Calls to Reynolds and Bourke were referred to Corrections spokeswoman
Theresa Westfall.

"That investigation was necessary to stop the unprofessional behaviour of a
few employees and because it's before the courts at this time, we can't
elaborate any further," Westfall said.

She was asked if the probe is complete.

"It's our understanding that the Crown hasn't made a decision whether
there'll be any criminal charges or not, but we're expecting that decision
to be made soon," Westfall said.

The guards who filed the lawsuit will have to apply to a judge to certify
it as a class action.

200 PEOPLE

"If it is certified, it will cover all of the correctional officers who
worked at Kingston Penitentiary between May 1 1998 and March 31 of this
year," Angus MacLeod, the lawyer acting for the guards said, in an
interview Tuesday. "We could be talking as many as 200 people."

The guards allege, in a stunning, 19-page statement of claim, that prison
bosses and police used convicts to entrap staff. This, the claim suggests,
was the basis of the three-year probe.

"To assist in their investigation, the Defendants recruited inmate
informers at KP who had a history of lying, drug trafficking and violent
criminal activity, before and during incarceration," the claim states.

"All of the inmate informers were rewarded by the Defendants for their
behaviour by receiving immunity from prosecution for their activities
and/or by being moved to lower security institutions, and/or by receiving
other services and rewards," according to the claim.

Bourke, the warden of KP, has told The Whig-Standard previously that the
internal probe began in March 1998 when he asked the Mounties to help root
out corruption among staff.

Bourke and the RCMP have refused to provide any detail about how the
investigation was conducted.

The lawsuit alleges that predatory inmates were provided with "substantial
funds, banking facilities, significant information relating to security in
the institution and relating to Correctional Officers at KP; and other
contraband" by the organizers of Project OCORRECT.

The convicts used these resources to threaten and coerce Kingston Pen staff
and their families to comply with requests to provide illegal contraband,
the suit claims.

"The Defendants have had full opportunity to intercept all contraband
before it came into the hands of inmates at KP but failed, refused or
neglected to do so," the claim states.

"The Defendants, under the guise of Project OCORRECT, allowed the inmates
to obtain drugs and alcohol and to ingest the drugs and alcohol within KP."

The document also suggests that a suicide note played a key role in the
internal probe. In December 2000, Kingston Pen guards Dave and Gail Perkins
were found dead in their home. A lengthy suicide note was left behind,
containing "unsubstantiated allegations against other members of the KP
staff," according to the lawsuit.

The claim alleges that the Perkinses were known to prison managers as drug
users and traffickers who brought contraband into the prison.

"The Defendants had taken no steps to prevent this contraband from reaching
inmates, including the inmate informers," the lawsuit states. "The
unsubstantiated allegations contained in the Perkins' suicide note were
accepted totally by the Defendants to further Project OCORRECT, despite
significant evidence that refuted the allegations."

MacLeod said the flow of contraband that was facilitated by the secret
operation made the prison a more dangerous place.

"What we're saying is that, in effect, intentionally, management induced a
level of violence at KP that never would have been there otherwise," he said.

The lawsuit also claims that during the course of Project OCORRECT, "a file
of very sensitive documents" containing personal information about guards
and prison security was collected.

"Either intentionally or due to negligence or carelessness, it fell into
the hands of the inmates at KP," the statement alleges. "The disclosure of
personal information and information relating to security and the conduct
of the investigation has put the Correctional Officers at significant
personal risk and will continue to do so."

The suit claims that nothing was done to protect the guards as a result of
the security leak.

MacLeod said the four guards he represents are paying for the legal action,
not the guards' union.

THE CASE IN BRIEF

What: Class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 30 by four guards at Kingston
Penitentiary

Pricetag: Claims damages of $130 million on behalf of up to 200 KP guards

Why: Guards claim damages as a result of a secret, three-year probe that
they allege violated regulations and criminal law and endangered staff

Defendants: Attorney General of Canada; Brendan Reynolds, deputy
commissioner of Correctional Services in Ontario; Monty Bourke, warden of
Kingston Pen; Michael Ryan, deputy warden; Bruce Somers, head of security;
Rick Rogers and Bill Isaacs, preventive security officers; Sherri Crisp,
acting preventive security officer and acting officer in charge of security

Next: Defendants are likely to file statements of defence, which outline
broad responses to the allegations contained in the lawsuit