After one of his correctional officers was viciously sucker-punched by an inmate, Maplehurst superintendent Winston Wong allegedly met with other staff at the provincial jail to discuss how they would respond.
Wong allegedly conveyed a clear message: Nobody touches my officers.
Two days later, after the inmate who threw the punch had already been transferred to another jail, correctional officers in full riot gear marched onto the unit where the assault occurred and carried out a violent strip-search of nearly 200 inmates.
The operation spanned two days, during which inmates were left without clothing, bedding and toilet paper, while industrial fans blew cold air onto the unit.
As Wong walked past a row of prisoners sitting cross-legged in their underwear, their hands zip-tied and heads bowed, he allegedly said: “Welcome to Wong-tanamo Bay.”
This description of how senior officials at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex allegedly planned and “took great joy in” the collective punishment of inmates is included in court documents filed by one of the affected inmates, who sought to have his charges stayed on the grounds that the jail violated his Charter rights.
The allegations, which have not been proven, include that Wong not only planned the operation to “exact revenge” on inmates, but also that he and other jail staff engaged in a conspiracy to “cover up” what they did by falsifying records and destroying evidence.
The pc28Star obtained security camera footage from inside Maplehurst Correctional Complex. Over two days in December 2023, correctional officers carried out a coordinated collective punishment of nearly 200 inmates in what has been described by a judge as a “gross display of power” that violated inmates’ rights.
Video shows guards ‘breaking the law’
The incidents that took place at Maplehurst on Dec. 22 and 23, 2023, continue to reverberate through the province’s justice system as dozens of inmates seek to have their charges stayed or sentences reduced due to Charter violations. At least five affected inmates have already received sentence reductions as a direct result of the incident.
On Monday, the Star published exclusive video footage showing part of what occurred at the jail. A judge said the video shows the jail’s staff “breaking the law by abusing the very prisoners they have a duty of care to protect.”
At one point in the video Wong can be seen fist-bumping and back-patting heavily armoured correctional officers.
Speaking to the Star on the doorstep of his pc28home, Wong denied that he ever used the phrase “Wong-tanamo Bay,” but he defended his actions generally.
Former Maplehurst Superintendent Winston Wong.
Ministry of the Solicitor General“You’ve seen the video, right?” he said. “One of my colleagues got hurt, and it was important for me to make sure that I protect those that work under me.”
The 51-year-old said he and the Ministry of the Solicitor General, which runs provincial jails, “mutually parted ways” and he no longer works at Maplehurst. He declined to answer other questions and did not respond to additional questions provided to him in writing.
“At the end of the day I just want to move on from it,” he said.
Maplehurst is Ontario’s deadliest jail
A ministry spokesperson would not comment on Wong’s employment status or Wong’s characterization of how he says his employment ended.
The spokesperson declined to answer any questions for this story, citing an internal investigation and “matters currently before the court.”
Solicitor General Michael Kerzner, who has never publicly addressed the incident, has not responded to repeated interview requests.
Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kerznerhas never publicly addressed the crackdown at Maplehurst Correctional Complex.
Tijana Martin The Canadian PressMaplehurst, located in Milton, is the province’s most overcrowded and deadliest jail. It is frequently criticized by judges, defence lawyers and inmates for its conditions, which include routine lockdowns and widespread triple-bunking.
The allegation that senior officials at Maplehurst referred to the operation internally as “Wong-tanamo Bay,” after the notorious U.S. military prison, is among the explosive allegations in the court documents filed by former Maplehurst inmate Claude Simon. The documents do not make clear the source of the information on which the allegations are based. The Crown’s disclosure to defence included a report from an internal ministry investigation, which has not been made public.
The ministry denied the Star’s freedom-of-information request for a copy of the report last year. (The Star is appealing that decision to the Information and Privacy Commissioner.)
Former Maplehurst Correctional Complex inmate, Rene Pearle, shares his perspective as jail guards in full riot gear carried out a violent, mass strip search of 192 inmates over the course of 48 hours.
After six days of evidence, Simon’s application for a stay of his charges was abandoned in February when he reached a plea agreement with the Crown and received a reduced sentence for two robberies. As part of the sentencing, the Crown conceded that Simon’s Charter right not to be subjected to an unreasonable search was violated and that the activation of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team (ICIT) authorized by Wong was “unreasonable, disproportionate … and contrary to ministry policy.”
Simon’s factum, filed in support of his stay application, alleges that Wong concealed the extent of the operation from superiors and instructed staff to record that ICIT officers were only used against nine “non-compliant” inmates, when in fact they had been used against all 192 inmates on the unit.
Jail officials conspired to cover up incident, court filing alleges
Simon’s factum further alleges that jail staff did not create a single occurrence report about the incident until the spring of 2024, after inmates started making applications in court and the jail started receiving subpoenas for information. It also alleges that the ministry did not launch its own investigation into what happened until the Star reported on the incident last summer.
The Star obtained redacted versions of all incident reports from Maplehurst from Dec. 20 to 24, 2023 via a freedom-of-information request. Neither the assault of the guard, nor the two-day ICIT operation are mentioned in the 192 disclosed pages. Twenty-one additional pages were withheld entirely, on several grounds related to jail security.
A correctional officer aims a weapon at an inmate’s back.
Ministry of the Solicitor GeneralSimon’s factum also accuses jail staff of intentionally not taking video of the operation. Ministry policy dictates that ICIT deployments should have an officer dedicated to taking video, including from inside the cells, the factum says. It’s supposed to provide additional audio and video evidence of the operation beyond what is captured by security cameras.
In this case, however, there is no video footage of what happened inside the cells, where several inmates have alleged in court and interviews with the Star that they were assaulted and pepper-sprayed.
A video camera was apparently set up during the operation, the factum alleges, but the footage was unavailable due to “issues” with the memory card and battery. Other video footage was lost because the 59-day retention period passed before any investigation began, according to the factum. Inmate statements about what happened were also allegedly destroyed by jail staff.
Simon alleges that all of this was done intentionally “to avoid the truth about this deployment coming to light.”
The Star is unaware of any court filings that may contain the government’s response to these allegations. The Ministry of the Solicitor General did not respond to the Star’s specific questions about the allegations.
Simon’s lawyer, Jesse Dostal, said in an email that what happened in this incident cannot simply be attributed to Wong or a few bad actors.
“You can’t have 192 men left for over a day without clothing in a highly regulated institution unless the many officers who interact with them on a daily basis — for food, for clothing, for medication, for routine checks — are knowingly working in concert to break the rules.”
Dostal said it is disappointing that Kerzner and other government officials have not publicly denounced Maplehurst’s actions.
“The steps necessary to respond to and move forward from this type of co-ordinated misconduct would need to start with explaining to the public how the unthinkable happened in the first place.”
