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The eight girls, while in youth detention facilities run by government contractors, were made to strip completely naked on several occasions, against ministry policy. Those searches were routine, meaning there was no suspicion of weapons or drugs being concealed but instead carried out every time the girls returned from court and after family visits.

Justice Philip Campbell found in his written reasons that not only was making the girls strip completely naked a violation of their charter rights but that the law authorizing routine strip searches was also unreasonable. 

“A front line youth justice worker, faced with an issue involving a youth in detention, should be able to determine from these reasons the requirements for a constitutionally compliant strip search going forward,” Campbell wrote.

“Articulating to a manager information that gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that a detained youth possesses contraband, or that a strip search is otherwise necessary, and securing the manager’s approval, is likely to be sufficient.”

He also noted how other institutions — adult detention facilities and the police — were held to a higher standard and levelled criticism at the provincial government for how the searches had been conducted on young people.

“It is striking how little thought has apparently been given to the routine, reflexive nature of these searches and the triggers for them.”

More to come