Reforming Nova Scotia's Secure Care Model: Gender Bias and Calls to Action

The following paper is a critical analysis of Nova Scotia’s secure care model which is legislated under ss. 55-56 of the Children and Family Services Act. Under these provisions, children who are in the care of the Minister of Community Services or Mi’kmaw Family & Children’s Services of Nova Scotia may be confined against their will at the Wood Street Centre in Truro, Nova Scotia. This paper makes two critical arguments. The first is that the legislation concerning secure care in this province is notably overbroad, leaving children who are in crisis vulnerable to being subjected to what is akin to a carceral sentence at Wood Street. The second is that girls and adolescent women are particularly vulnerable to being confined in this facility due to lingering paternalistic attitudes toward female behavior, sexual autonomy, and mental health. Upon my review of recorded secure treatment application hearings in Nova Scotia, I found that judicial comments and legal reasoning appeared to demonstrate a bias toward female youth when compared to their male counterparts. This paper ultimately urges law makers to consider the harmful impacts of secure treatment and argues that law reform for secure care in Nova Scotia is necessary to protect and already extremely vulnerable subset of our population.