“While this sector has long been our top source of complaints, the nature and severity of what we are hearing — and witnessing firsthand during our visits — demand urgent attention,” the ombudsman said in releasing his 10th annual report on June 25, which coincided with his office’s 50th anniversary.
Dubé launched an investigation earlier this month into the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s response to the two-day incident at Maplehurst. As part of the probe, he recently visited Maplehurst with staff, who also visited 11 other facilities in 2024-2025.
“When we fail to uphold the basic dignity of people in custody,” he says in the annual report, “we do more than inflict harm — we erode public trust, degrade working conditions for staff, and weaken the very foundations of our justice system.”
Dubé said conditions in provincial jails are only getting worse, leading to a 55 per cent increase in complaints about correctional facilities in the past year alone — a total of 6,870 cases.
Brian Gray, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, which oversees correctional facilities, said the ministry expects all correctional staff to uphold their standards of conduct as outlined in the Ontario correctional service code.
“We will review the ombudsman’s report as we build on the record investments we’ve made to hire more staff and increase mental health and addiction care for those that are in need within the corrections system,” he said in an email to Law360 Canada.
In April, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) also sounded an alarm about prison overcrowding, inadequate medical care and systemic neglect in Ontario jails in the wake of the Maplehurst incident.
Meanwhile, Toronto law firm Koskie Minsky LLP has launched a class action lawsuit against the Ontario government alleging that chronic lockdowns caused by staffing shortages have led to significant physical and psychological harm to prisoners.
In his annual report, Dubé noted that cases involving youth justice centres also more than doubled in 2024-2025 to a record of 423 from 202 the previous year. Staff from the ombudsman’s office have visited individually with hundreds of young detainees in recent months to hear their concerns.
According to the annual report, the ombudsman’s office dealt with 30,675 complaints and inquiries in fiscal 2024-2025, a 30-year high.
“I can confidently report that in this milestone year, we have helped more Ontarians with more issues than in any other time in our history,” Dubé said in a June 25 news release.
Ontario established the role of ombudsman in 1975 to ensure the protection of citizens against arbitrary judgment or practices.
The annual report highlights significant trends, individual case results and other key developments in the past year, including:
- Cases received by the Children and Youth Unit, established in 2019 to specialize in cases involving children’s services and child-centred work, reached a record 2,129.
- The ombudsman launched a new investigation into child protection agencies’ practice of placing young children and teens — many with complex special needs — in unlicensed settings (e.g., hotels, motels and offices). Ombudsman staff also helped individual families who have given up custody of their children with special needs to agencies in order to get residential care for them — a persistent issue first investigated by the office in 2005.
- A report on cases of adults with developmental disabilities who are inappropriately housed in hospitals will be released later this year.
- The ombudsman’s office handled a record 3,908 cases involving municipalities during the fiscal year. In many of these, it also published 35 reports and letters regarding complaints about 66 closed municipal meetings.
- Dubé established the Ombudsman’s Award for Good Governance “to reflect tangible actions by public sector bodies that have resulted in exemplary administration.” The first award went to the Ontario Provincial Police in February for improvements in its delivery of French-language services.
- The office is co-developing an Indigenous services plan with Indigenous partners.
- The ombudsman made five submissions to government in the past year, proposing or commenting on changes to legislation. Several of his proposals were accepted.
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