Manitoba premier orders practice of jailing people with TB to end after CBC investigation

Manitoba premier Wab Kinew says the province will stop incarcerating people who have tuberculosis following a CBC investigation that revealed a Manitoba woman spent a month in jail after she was detained to treat the infectious disease.

“I read the story this morning. I reached out to the two most senior people in the government and I said, ‘Get me an order ensuring that nobody is ever jailed for having tuberculosis again,'” Kinew said Monday following the publication of CBC’s report.

Geraldine Mason, 36, was arrested under the Public Health Act on Oct. 27 and initially ordered to spend three months behind bars, at the Winnipeg Remand Centre or Women’s Correctional Centre. 

Mason, who is from God’s Lake First Nation, spent a month in jail and was only allowed out of her cell for four hours a day. While incarcerated, she was also subjected to four strip searches.

She wasn’t charged with anything, has no criminal record and described her time in jail as a terrifying experience surrounded by people accused of violent offences. She never thought she’d be released. 

“I was scared,” she told CBC last week. “I didn’t know who to call. I didn’t know what to do.”

Under provincial legislation, a medical officer of health is allowed to apply to a court to apprehend anyone they believe is a threat to public health. 

In this case, a medical officer said Mason wasn’t consistently taking the medication needed to cure her tuberculosis, an infectious disease that can be fatal if not treated, according to the apprehension order obtained by CBC News. 

Kinew described Mason’s incarceration as “terrible” and said he was going to get Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial health officer, to sign a public health order Monday, ending this practice.

The health order will say that public officials cannot seek incarceration as a way to treat people with tuberculosis, Kinew said. 

“That’s just not the right way to do it. And I think anyone reading that story would probably feel the same way,” he said, adding he will apologize to Mason. 

“I did basically say, ‘We’re not doing this again. Give me the paperwork to back it up.'”

A spokesperson for the province said Roussin signed and distributed a new directive to medical officers on Monday regarding apprehension orders related to tuberculosis, but didn’t go into greater detail.

Doesn’t change what happened: Lawyer

Mason did not have a lawyer when she was incarcerated and there was no public hearing. The detention was approved by a Judicial Justice of the Peace.

Leif Jensen, a Legal Aid lawyer, took on her case after she was detained and filed an application for her release on Nov. 18.

Jensen said he was happy the premier took the situation seriously, but said it doesn’t change what happened to Mason.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that Geraldine spent a month in jail and that she had all the loss that came from a month in jail,” he said.

WATCH | Ordered to jail for missing tuberculosis medication:

Manitoba woman jailed under Public Health Act to treat tuberculosis

Geraldine Mason, 36, from God’s Lake First Nation, spent a month in jail so Public Health officials could make sure she was taking her tuberculosis medication.

Mason was supposed to be released at the end of January — meaning she would have spent Christmas behind bars — but after CBC requested to interview her, she was released.

One of the conditions of her release is that she Facetimes with a health-care worker every day at 1:30 p.m. to make sure she is taking her medication. 

Jensen said he is still waiting for the details about what the health order will look like. 

After a delayed flight because of weather, Mason made her way home to God’s Lake Monday and said she is grateful no one else will have to experience what she went through.