Ontario Jail Staffing Lockdowns Settlement — Up to $68,000 CAD

Government · Canada · Claims Open

Current Status

Claims are open. The deadline to submit a claim is December 1, 2026; the official notice gives a date but no time of day or time zone. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the settlement on October 22, 2025, and the administrator’s notice says the approval became final on November 24, 2025. No payment date had been announced as of October 3, 2026.

What Changed Recently?

The claim period opened after the court approved a settlement resolving two certified class actions over staffing-related lockdowns at Ontario correctional institutions: one brought on behalf of inmates and one on behalf of people held under the federal Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. A staffing-related lockdown is a lockdown in which people held at an institution are confined to their cells because of a shortage of staff.

The lawsuits allege that Ontario and Canada subjected inmates and immigration detainees to chronic staffing-related lockdowns, and that this was negligent and breached sections 7 and 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The defendants deny those allegations, and the court did not decide who was right. The settlement does not mean the defendants did anything wrong.

On October 8, 2025, class counsel amended the Exceptional Circumstances Protocol so that any money left in that fund, including uncashed payments, goes to a further distribution for certain limitation-affected class members rather than to charity. The administrator says the change does not reduce any individual award.

Who Qualifies?

The settlement covers two classes:

• Inmates: current and former inmates of Ontario correctional institutions between May 30, 2009 and November 27, 2017, whether remanded, serving a sentence or imprisoned for a parole violation, including people who are still incarcerated.
• Immigration detainees: people detained under Division 6 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act at Ontario correctional institutions during the same period, for that detention only.

Time at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, the Ontario Correctional Institute and the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre is excluded. The notice lists 30 covered institutions, among them Maplehurst, the Toronto South and Toronto East detention centres, the Central East and Central North correctional centres, the Vanier Centre for Women and the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, plus jails that have since closed such as the old Toronto Jail and the Windsor and Chatham jails.

Being a class member is not enough on its own. Compensation is available only to people who experienced 16 or more staffing-related lockdowns, counted the way the Settlement Agreement counts them. Most of the money is for lockdowns between August 15, 2014 and November 27, 2017 for inmates, or between August 11, 2014 and November 27, 2017 for immigration detainees. Earlier lockdowns back to May 30, 2009 qualify only through the statute-barred route or the Exceptional Circumstances Fund, both described below. People who validly opted out of either lawsuit are not eligible.

How Much Can Class Members Receive?

The defendants are paying $59 million CAD in total. That sum also covers class counsel fees, which the court set at $17.7 million CAD plus HST and disbursements, along with the Class Proceedings Fund levy, administration costs and honoraria. The rest pays claims under four award types:

• Basic Recovery Award, $2,000 to $28,000 CAD: every eligible claimant, scaled by the number of staffing-related lockdowns on a grid the administrator applies.
• Differential Impact Award, $3,000 to $15,000 CAD: claimants with at least one mental health alert or suicide alert in their Ontario offender (OTIS) record dated no later than their last qualifying lockdown, also scaled by lockdown count.