VANCOUVER — More than a year after a Mexican woman hanged herself in a B.C. immigration detention centre, advocacy groups say the Canada Border Services Agency still lacks crucial oversight to prevent such deaths.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says the agency hasn't yet established an independent body to oversee CBSA actions, one of the key recommendations from a coroner's inquest into the death of Lucia Vega Jimenez (HE'-MEN'-ez)
The woman died in hospital in December 2013, days after she was founding hanging by security guards inside a shower stall in the holding facility below Vancouver International Airport.
The inquest last fall also recommended the CBSA create an above-ground holding centre within a 30-minute drive of the airport, but the BCCLA and other advocacy groups say no action has been taken on the recommendation.
The Canadian Council for Refugees is also critical of the agency's requirements for common washrooms in holding facilities — which it says will threaten the privacy and safety of gay, lesbian and transgender detainees.
CBSA officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
