How the Criminal Justice System Fails the Mentally Ill
On December 4th, 2016, Soleiman Faqiri was taken into temporary custody at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario. A judge had ordered his transfer to a mental health facility, the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health. However, on December 15th, he was found dead in his cell.
“It was horrible,” his brother, Yusuf Faqiri, told me. “They violently beat him to death. Soleiman needed a bed and a doctor, and instead he got fists and cuffs.”
I got the chance to speak to Yusuf ahead of his scheduled talk at Osgoode on November 13th. We spoke on the phone about Soleiman and how his life was tragically and unjustly cut short, the justice system, his JusticeForSoli campaign, and the lack of accountability for how mentally ill people are treated in custody.
What happened to Soleiman?
Soleiman Faqiri had not simply been found dead in his cell. “The Ontario coroner did an investigation into Soleiman’s death. Soleiman, at the time of his death – both his hands and legs were tied. He was pepper-sprayed twice. He was in segregation the entire time in those eleven days. He had fifty bruises on his body. A significant number of these bruises were blunt impact trauma. Every single bruise on him was inflicted by the guards, none were self-inflicted,” Yusuf said.
“This was a vicious attack on a mentally ill man who lost his life in the very institution meant to protect him. Instead of helping Soleiman, they sent Soleiman to us in a body bag.”
Yusuf also told me how the police investigation came to the conclusion that there were no grounds for charges. “No grounds for charges,” he repeats to me. “My brother didn’t just roll over and die. He was viciously beaten to death. And [the guards] took a violent assault on him, but the police decided not to press charges.”
“It took my family eleven years to keep Soleiman alive,” Yusuf told me at one point. “Yet it took the justice system eleven days for them to kill him. Eleven years versus eleven days.”
An eyewitness has since come forward, and the Ontario coroner has called for a new investigation into Soleiman’s death, this time led by the Ontario Provincial Police.
The life of Soleiman Faqiri
Yusuf revealed that the hardest part isn’t talking about Soleiman’s death, it’s talking about Soleiman’s life. He describes his brother as a talented and caring man, who spoke several languages, earned good grades in high school, and played on the rugby and football teams. After graduating, Soleiman went to the University of Waterloo, where he studied engineering.
It wasn’t until the spring of 2005 that things changed. “He was doing his first year and his second semester when he got into a car accident in the spring of 2005. And it was shortly after this car accident when Soleiman was diagnosed with this illness, schizophrenia,” Yusuf revealed.
“But what’s incredible and inspiring about his story is that Soleiman never allowed the illness to define him. Rather, he transcended this. And it was due to the difficulty in the illness that he had that my family became close with one another.”
“He had a very special relationship with every single family member. You know – starting with my mom and my father. And my brothers, and my sister. And his nephews – his two nephews and two nieces loved him incredibly. He was my mom’s best friend. And he, personally for me, taught me how to – you know, taught me how to get closer to my own faith. And Soleiman taught my younger brother how to drive.”
“Just, many incredible gifts.”
JusticeForSoli: A movement is born
Soleiman’s death affected Yusuf’s perception of the criminal justice system. “I believe in the justice system, I think there can be good out of it. But what I do also – have also come to terms with is that people with mental illness in the criminal justice system – and generally in society – their lives are viewed as cheap. (…) It’s as if their mental illness was criminalized, as if them having this illness was their own fault.”
“They deserve better, Canadians deserve better, Ontarians deserve better. We as a society deserve better.”
Yusuf saw two problems with Soleiman’s alleged treatment at the hands of the Canadian criminal justice system. “It says a few things – it says that one, we have a lot of work to do. (…) The other thing that I think is important is – people with mental illness, when this happens, where’s the accountability and transparency?”
It’s that lack of accountability and transparency that inspired Yusuf and his family to start the JusticeForSoli movement. “The movement came out of a conversation with my mother, just a couple of days after Soleiman’s death,” Yusuf said. “We made a decision, as a family, that we want to speak out. We needed to speak out. And not just for Soleiman, but for the many other individuals who are voiceless.”
“We are trying to be the voice for the voiceless.”
The JusticeForSoli campaign has grown beyond the Faqiri family. “On our website, there’s a research paper that the research team submitted last year… We have social media – a social media presence on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter,” Yusuf told me. “We have – we just recently launched our law school tour, where we gave talks at Windsor, Manitoba, and now we’re off to Osgoode. We’re going to continue to Toronto next year – early next year. Talks are prepared for Saskatchewan…Calgary.”
“The mandate of the movement is two things. (…) One, we want criminal charges on the guards who killed Soleiman to be pressed, because Soleiman deserves accountability and transparency and we as a society deserve that. And secondly… which is a longer term mandate, to achieve accountability and transparency for Soleiman’s death will allow another family not to go through what my family is going through.”
Yusuf has spoken across Canada, drawing attention to his brother’s death and the stories of all the other people who had mentally ill family members die in custody. Although it is difficult, Yusuf feels that he has to keep talking about Soleiman and pushing for change. “The pain that I feel every day, I do not wish it on anybody. And I don’t want someone else to have their loved one to be given to them in a body bag.”
The last question I asked him was what law students could do to help the movement. “Every single person who’s reading this will know someone close to them that’s suffering from mental illness. The first thing to do is, when they know someone suffering from mental illness, just listen. Listen and don’t react. Show compassion,” Yusuf said.
“In terms of how they can help our movement, we’re still looking for volunteers. (…) We’re also raising funds. We’re trying to raise $50,000 to help with legal costs. The other way people can help us is to join our social media. (…) And also, if some of the folks can sign our petition.”
“This is a long fight and an arduous fight, but it’s a fight that I feel is noble and we try to do it in the most decent way.”
Yusuf is scheduled to speak at Osgoode at a JusticeForSoli event on November 13th. You can also follow the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Justice For Soli, @Justice4Soli, and @JusticeForSoli respectively. Their website is justiceforsoli.com.