Quebec prisons keep cell doors closed in protest after guard was assaulted

Prison guards in Quebec refused to open cell doors in protest Tuesday morning after a prisoner assaulted and severely injured a guard at a facility northeast of Montreal on Sunday.

Correctional services workers across the province put their prisons under lockdown as a show of support for their colleague, who was injured in an assault at the Sorel-Tracy Detention Centre on Sunday.

"There is clearly a groundswell of support across the province for Sorel and for our injured colleague," Mathieu Lavoie, president of the SAPSCQ, the union that represents prison guards in Quebec, told Radio-Canada.

"The priority has to be security [of prison staff] before there are activities [for inmates]."

A spokesperson for the union did not respond to a CBC News request for comment and it was not clear how long the inmates remained in their cells on Tuesday while guards protested. Inmates are normally let out of their cells during the day to take part in activities or recreation.

Lavoie said the protest was also intended to raise awareness of what he said were increasingly dangerous conditions inside the province's prisons.

The facilities are crowded, the union has said, and lack a sufficient number of guards. The use of drones to smuggle contraband into correctional facilities is also pervasive, it says.

François Bonnardel, the minister of public safety, said at a press conference that he would await the results of a police and administrative investigation into the assault before commenting on the situation. 

He said staffing levels in Quebec's prisons were lowest during the pandemic, but that things had since improved and the province had filled many of the vacant spots. 

"My thoughts are with the prison guard and his family," he said. 

Bonnardel was scheduled to visit the detention centre Tuesday afternoon to "offer his support" to the staff there, he said. 

The assault on Sunday allegedly involved an inmate with a history of mental health issues who attacked a guard. The guard was seriously injured and is in hospital in critical, but stable, condition. Police detained a suspect but prosecutors have not yet laid charges against him.