The former sole Muslim chaplain to be employed full-time in a federal prison is speaking out about the privatization of chaplaincy services by Canada’s correctional agency and the negative effects it can have on inmates.
Imam Yasin Dwyer was the representative chosen in 2004 on behalf of the Centretown-based Islam Care Centre and contracted by the Canadian government to provide full-time religious and spiritual mentorship to the growing number of Muslim offenders behind bars.
Dwyer, the Winnipeg-born imam who converted to Islam in his early 20s, was on the only full-time Muslim chaplain at the time of his resignation in Sept. 2014.
The resignation came after an announcement in 2012 by then-public safety minister Vic Toews, who said that the Conservative government was cutting about 50 part-time chaplains, many of whom represented non-Christian faiths.
A $2-million privatization contract was also handed to a company called Kairos Pneuma Chaplaincy Inc.
Concerns about the radicalization of Muslim inmates have been prevalent in the media recently due to the deadly attacks that took place in Ottawa, Quebec and most recently in Paris. Dwyer says the perpetrators in the Paris attacks had been in prison and are believed to have become radicalized while serving time.
Dwyer says chaplains are the first line of defence against feelings and ideas that lead to violence.
“Prison in general is a very polarizing environment,” says Dwyer, who now serves as an imam in Hamilton. “There are a lot of vulnerable individuals and it’s a very violent environment, so all these things (make) for radical or extremist ideologies inside religion or outside of religion.
“The issue is not necessarily one of radicalization but it’s how we conceptualize violence. One question I ask myself is why are people violent? Not only religiously, but in general.
“(I could) deal with offenders who are angry, who are bitter, and to impress upon them the fact that vigilantism as an expression of grievance is not consistent with Islam or consistent with common human decency.”
The Islam Care Centre is a non-profit, charitable organization. It provides the Ottawa Muslim community with resources to meet religious and social needs while establishing a better relationship with the larger Canadian society, its website says.
According to Dwyer, because he was working directly for a community religious organization, the community was actively involved in the spiritual rehabilitation of inmates and offenders. With the privatized model, those relationships and that connection with the community has been severed as sole chaplains are contracted out exclusively by Kairos.
“ We need a formula program that deals with counter-radicalization – this kind of program does not exist . . . We need a program that speaks to the issue in an authoritative way run by trained chaplains who can offer a much more holistic narrative of what Islam is and the understanding of what Islam is not.”
Dr. Wagdy Loza, psychiatry professor at Queen’s University and former chief psychologist at Kingston Penitentiary, says there are a few key factors that can lead to radicalization within prisons.
“You have a group of people who are confined in a small place, majority of them are frustrated for being there . . . They are young, they don’t have enough knowledge about religion and what religion entails. They are easily influenced,” Loza says.
The other causes include isolation, resentment, vulnerability, lack of understanding of fundamental religious beliefs or values and the need for protection or to gain status amongst other prisoners.
The targets for radicalization may also share similar socioeconomic, psychological factors as other offenders such as unemployment and a need for a sense of self-importance, Loza says.
Chaplains can be a voice of reason for these offenders and make them understand that their ideologies will not be condoned and they’re not going to work.
He says that non-Muslim chaplains won’t be effective because the offenders are not likely to listen to a Christian counsellor.
After the privatization of chaplaincy, the two part-time chaplains the ICC had previously sent to prisons were cut. The ICC now serves the community through volunteer chaplains, one of whom is Fouad Khan.
Khan volunteers about once a week and facilitates a group of minimum security offenders.
“We don’t even know what crimes they commit because we’re just volunteers — our relationship is brief,” Khan says.
“One of our goals is for them not to come back to jail . . . we talk about influence of friends, we talk about forgiveness, we talk about the purpose of life,” Khan says.
“It’s basically talking about (how) there’s still a chance for you to change. We tell them we believe they can change.”