Surrey inmate’s complaint over kosher diet request heads to human rights tribunal

SURREY (NEWS 1130) — An inmate’s complaint about being denied a kosher diet at the Surrey Pretrial centre will be heard by a member of the BC Human Rights Tribunal.

Hayden Patterson — who claims she’s identified as Jewish since she was 15– asked for meals prepared according to animal slaughter rules approved by a rabbi in August of 2016. Staff at the prison are trying to have her complaint dismissed because she waited almost two years to ask for a kosher diet. They say they don’t believe she is being ‘sincere’ because her birth mother is not Jewish, her adoptive parents are Christian, and she’s consistently rejected vegetarian or no-pork meals.

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Surrey Pretrail says “her actions to that point support a stronger connection to Christianity, and she could not point to a single connection to the Jewish community prior to her incarceration,” tribunal member Devyn Cousineau writes in the decision on Surrey Pretrial’s application to dismiss the complaint.

The institution has a policy to approve kosher diets, beginning with an interview by the chaplain about the inmate’s Jewish faith, and questions about following a kosher diet in the years before entering the facility. The chaplain then has to verify the inmate was practicing the Jewish faith by contacting a rabbi or synagogue leader, and the request will be approved if the information is confirmed.

According to the filing, Patterson arrived at the facility in September 2014 and said she had celiac disease and required a gluten-free, wheat-free diet, apparently calling it a “life-or-death matter.” This was verified by a doctor in 2014 and her request was approved. The prison says she complained about problems with her food at that time, including one instance where she didn’t receive a gluten-free option with her meal, which, in the view of the prison, undermines the sincerity of her request for kosher food.

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But Patterson says she was worried that fighting for a kosher diet at the same time as a gluten-free diet would detract from her fight for the gluten-free food.

Calling this a ‘gatekeeping’ decision, tribunal member Cousineau has ruled Patterson’s complaint warrants a hearing, where they will decide whether to approve the Surrey Pretrial centre’s application to have it dismissed.