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In a recent letter to Justin Trudeau, actress Pamela Anderson (of Baywatch fame) recommended that Canadian prisons serve all prisoners vegan diets. Many of us currently behind bars feel that before any other changes are made to the food system, provincial and federal prisons must accommodate and respect the medical and religious diets of prisoners, as they’re failing to meet their obligations to us.

I’ve been incarcerated at Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre for more than two years awaiting trial. During my time here, I’ve been exposed to the Ontario jail “cook-chill” food system, and seen both my own diet, and the medical and religious diets of fellow prisoners, go unmet. It’s our right to have our medical and religious dietary needs respected and to access a healthy, balanced diet.

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In a cook-chill system, food is cooked off-site, flash-frozen, and stored before being delivered to institutions, where it’s warmed on site. The food quality is terrible, the portions aren’t equal across the board, and the result looks like a poor quality TV dinner. To give an example, my least favourite meal here is turkey enchiladas. The sauce hurts a lot of people’s stomachs, the “turkey” looks like ground-up cat food, and the rice is nasty.