🍁 civid v1

Status and scope

• Bill S-205, or Tona’s Law, was passed by the Senate on April 28, 2026. The supplied source lists its stage as first reading.
• It would amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, principally affecting people committed to federal penitentiaries, correctional authorities and community support organizations.

Isolation and mental health

• The bill would define a structured intervention unit to include a designated unit and any penitentiary area where people are separated from the mainstream population and receive less time outside their cells or in activities.
• Confinement in such a unit would have to end as soon as possible. It could not exceed 48 hours unless a superior court, on application by the Correctional Service, authorized an extension for a purpose described in the existing Act.
• A person sentenced, transferred or committed to a penitentiary would have to be referred for a mental health assessment as soon as practicable and no later than 30 days after arrival. A person transferred into a structured intervention unit would have to be referred within 24 hours.

Community services and release

• The Minister or an authorized person could make correctional-services agreements with Indigenous organizations or governing bodies, groups serving disadvantaged or minority populations, and other community-based support providers. Agreements could provide for payment for those services.
• With the person’s and the entity’s consent, the Commissioner could transfer a person committed to a penitentiary to an entity’s care and custody under an agreement. The Commissioner would have to take reasonable steps to identify potential partners and seek transfers.
• The Commissioner could not deny a transfer where the person and an entity with an agreement consent, unless a court of competent jurisdiction determined that the transfer was not in the interests of justice.
• If a person requested support on release from an eligible entity, the Service would have to let it propose a release and community-integration plan. The Service would also have to inform people about relevant entities and give entities that proposed plans adequate notice of parole reviews or statutory release dates.
• The Parole Board would have to give written reasons for a decision inconsistent with a proposed plan.

New Part III.1: Sentence remedies

• A person sentenced to incarceration or a period of parole ineligibility could ask the sentencing court to reduce that period where the court finds qualifying unfairness in the administration of the sentence.
• Grounds would include unlawful, unreasonable, unjust, oppressive or improperly discriminatory actions; mistakes of law or fact; and certain improper exercises of discretion.
• Applications generally would have to be made within 60 days of the latest applicable event specified in the bill. The court could allow a longer period at its discretion.