The applicant, a federal inmate, sought a writ of habeas corpus challenging her security reclassification from medium to maximum and her involuntary transfer from Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI) in Ontario to Nova Institution for Women (Nova) in Nova Scotia.
While the security reclassification issue became moot as she was reclassified to medium, the core of the application concerned whether the inter-provincial transfer constituted a deprivation of residual liberty and if the transfer decision was reasonable and procedurally fair.
The court found that a lateral transfer between maximum security institutions, even inter-provincial, does not constitute a deprivation of residual liberty, as it does not impose a more restrictive physical constraint or loss of more than mere privileges.
The court also found the transfer decision to be reasonable, based on evidence of the applicant's continued attempts to introduce contraband, and procedurally fair, as the "gist" of confidential information was provided as permitted by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
The application was dismissed with costs awarded to the respondent.
