COVID-19 update for offenders and their families: January 21, 2022
This content is a message to federal offenders and their families from Correctional Service Canada's (CSC's) Commissioner.
We currently have 421 active cases among the inmate population, spread throughout the country. These individuals are medically isolating and we continue to monitor the situation closely.
The Omicron variant is highly transmissible so I ask that you please get your vaccine if you haven’t already done so.
Evidence shows a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine boosts your protection against both infection and hospitalization from the Omicron variant. Please ask Health Services for your vaccination or your booster if you have not already had them. It is not too late and this is still the best way to protect yourself and others against severe illness. In Canada, over 77% of cases that require hospitalization and three-quarters of deaths due to COVID-19 are among Canadians who are unvaccinated.
January 24 is International Day of Education, which celebrates the role of education for peace and development. CSC offers education programs that focus on your personal development, and improving literacy, academic, and personal skills. I encourage you to develop a passion for learning. Education can have a positive, profound impact on many areas of your life, including helping you successfully reintegrate into the community.
The pandemic continues to have an impact on everyone’s mental health. Bell Let’s Talk Day is on Wednesday, January 26. It aims to get people talking about mental health to help break down the stigma associated with it. Bell Let’s Talk suggests five ways you can do this:
- Language matters – think about the words you use when referring to people with mental health injuries;
- Educate yourself;
- Be kind, offer your support;
- Listen and ask; and
- Talk about it. Just being there for someone can help them on their road to recovery.
And do not forget to also be there for yourself: do not wait to ask for help.
January 27 is Family Literacy Day. CSC is proud to work with committed organizations, such as the Canadian Families and Corrections Network (CFCN) who work with CSC to provide inmates with letter writing kits to stay connected with loved ones. I invite you to reach out to your parole officer for more information.
I will end my message today with a longer quote to reflect on. Thank you for your ongoing cooperation.
“I am seldom considered, though I do more to influence everything about you than virtually any one thing in your life. I often control the time you get up in the morning, the time you go to sleep, what you eat and drink and the very thought that runs through your head. I can make you either happy or sad, loving, or hateful, cheerful, or remorseful, congenial, or spiteful and in doing so, control the very capacity that you have for success. No, you don't often think of me; instead, you blame the problem I create on the shortcoming of others, or your family or a million other reasons. When my impact on your life is fully considered in your every thought and action, when you are mindful of my awesome power, when you nurture and groom me for positive use in your life, I can become more contagious than the most prolific disease ever witnessed by man. My influence will spread to every person you come in contact with. Groomed and nurtured in a positive manner there will be no person or obstacle that can stand in the way of my success or fail to be impacted for the better. I am your attitude.” - Author Unknown