B.C. Solitary Confinement Settlement — Up to $91,000 CAD

Government · Canada · Claims Open

Current Status

Claims are open. The claims period opened January 10, 2026 and closes January 11, 2027; the notice says claim forms must be submitted before January 11, 2027 and does not give a time of day or time zone. The Supreme Court of British Columbia approved the settlement on October 22, 2025. The administrator says payments will go out only after all claims are processed and that no payments are expected before 2027.

What Changed Recently?

The claims process launched on January 10, 2026, after the court approved a settlement in North v. British Columbia, a class action filed in November 2018 and certified on December 22, 2020. The case concerns the use of separate confinement and segregation, meaning placement apart from the general population under sections 17, 18, 24 or 27(1)(d) of the Correction Act Regulation, in provincial correctional centres.

The lawsuit alleges that British Columbia improperly subjected inmates to separate confinement and segregation, and that this amounted to breaches of fiduciary duty, systemic negligence and breaches of inmates’ rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. British Columbia denies these claims. The court approved the settlement without deciding them.

A final opt-out window for people placed in separate confinement or segregation between July 19 and October 22, 2025 closed on February 24, 2026. Everyone else in the class could no longer opt out by then.

Who Qualifies?

The class covers people who, between April 18, 2005 and October 22, 2025, were involuntarily placed in separate confinement or segregation in a B.C. correctional centre and fall into one of two groups:

• Prolonged Class: the placement lasted 15 or more consecutive days.
• SMI Class: the placement lasted at least 22 consecutive hours, and B.C. Corrections knew or ought to have known the person had a Mental Illness, as shown by records under the criteria in the claims process.

Mental Illness has a defined meaning: a diagnosed condition from a list of DSM disorders that includes schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, major depressive disorders, bipolar I and II, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder and neurocognitive disorders such as dementia.

The administrator lists ten covered centres: Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, Ford Mountain, Fraser Regional, Kamloops Regional, Nanaimo, North Fraser Pretrial, Okanagan, Prince George Regional, Surrey Pretrial Services and Vancouver Island Regional. People who opted out earlier, people who already settled similar claims with British Columbia and signed a release, and placements made because of COVID-19 protocols are not eligible.

Timing also matters. If a person’s only placements ended before November 26, 2016, or happened between December 23, 2020 and July 30, 2022, those placements can be considered only through the Statute-Barred Claims Process. That process requires showing the claimant was a person under a disability for long enough that the claim is not time-barred.

How Much Can Class Members Receive?

The settlement is worth up to $60 million CAD. Court-approved legal fees, disbursements, the honorarium, administration expenses and taxes come out of it first. The administrator describes two funds: a $30 million CAD Common Experience Fund and a Serious Harms Fund of $25 million to $30 million CAD.

Common Experience Payments go to every eligible claimant and are paid first:

• Up to $3,000 CAD for Prolonged Class members.
• Up to $6,000 CAD for SMI Class members.