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• Notorious inmates to challenge prison smoking ban 

MONTREAL — Nineteen inmates serving lengthy federal sentences — a who’s who of notorious Quebec killers and gangsters — will argue in court this coming week that a complete smoking ban introduced in federal prisons last year tramples their rights.

Prohibiting smoking violates prisoners’ right to “life, liberty and security of the person” and constitutes “cruel and unusual treatment,” the prisoners argue in a Federal Court action seeking to overturn the ban.

The Correctional Service of Canada decided to outlaw all smoking after discovering that a partial ban, which allowed smoking only outdoors, was being flouted. It is estimated that about three-quarters of federal inmates were smokers before the ban.

“The decision to implement a total smoking ban by (Correctional Service of Canada) management was made to protect the health and safety of staff and offenders,” agency spokeswoman Marilyne Guevremont said, declining further comment because the case is before the courts.

The plaintiffs, who had been smoking an average of two packs a day, include Gerald Matticks, the drug-trafficking leader of Montreal’s West End Gang, Benoit Guimond, a biker who shot a teenager outside a Montreal nightclub, and Daniel Patry, who murdered the puppeteer behind a popular Quebec children’s show. Many of them are serving life sentences for murder, but take away their cigarettes and they become trembling, nervous wrecks, court documents suggest.

“The prisoners have experienced various physical and psychological symptoms related to nicotine deprivation, notably: an increase in stress, in anxiety, in their aggressiveness, in their nervousness,” the action says.

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