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The woman was in custody after failing to show up at the jail to serve a 12-day intermittent sentence in November. She had also stolen a bottle of Grey Goose vodka from the LCBO on Nov. 4 and $227.76 worth of items from a Walmart on Jan. 11. She was in court on Jan. 27 to plead guilty to being unlawfully at large and two counts of theft.

Court was told that no one seems to know what happened to the fetal remains following the miscarriage, although the information that the inmate and her lawyer have is that it may have been flushed down a toilet.

According to lawyer Erica Tanny, the woman was also subjected to “paternalistic and religious platitudes” from the head of the medical department during her stay in the jail. The inmate filed a sworn affidavit in court outlining her treatment in the jail that was not disputed by the Crown.

“Throughout the 17 days which(the inmate) stayed at OCDC, she suffered medically. She endured conditions that were appalling, that were cruel, and shocking to the public conscience,” said Tanny.

Tanny said it was “an extraordinarily traumatic and draconian way of miscarrying a child.”

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, who oversees the detention centre, said it has launched an investigation into the inmate’s treatment while at the jail. The ministry said it couldn’t comment on the specific case because of provisions of the Personal Health Information Protection Act.

“We are taking these allegations very seriously,” wrote Lauren Souch, a spokesperson for corrections minister and Ottawa-Orleans MPP Marie-France Lalonde, in an e-mailed statement. “The health and safety of our inmates is of utmost importance to the ministry, and we will be launching a full investigation into these allegations in order to ensure that ministry policies were properly followed.”