The Toronto West Detention Centre was a maximum security remand facility located in Rexdale, a community located in the north-west corner of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The facility was known as the Metropolitan Toronto West Detention Centre until Rexdale, as part of the City of Etobicoke, became part of the newly amalgamated City of Toronto in 1998.
With a designed capacity for 631 prisoners,Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services – Detention Centres the Toronto West Detention Centre housed adult males who had been remanded into custody while awaiting trial or sentencing, were serving short sentences, or were awaiting transfer to federal or provincial correctional facilities.Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services – Facilities Over the years the Toronto West Detention Centre had at times also housed female and juvenile offenders. From October 1997 through January 1999 the facility underwent extensive retrofitting of its security systems using up-to-date technology.Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services – Modernizing the System The facility has also housed foreign nationals being detained on security certificates.
In January 2014, the Toronto South Detention Centre opened to replace the Toronto West Detention Centre and the Toronto Jail (Don Jail). The Toronto Jail was demolished and is now a vacant site situated beside the new hospital facility.
Demolition of the Toronto West Detention Centre commenced in December 2016 with a projected finish of February 2017. The 111 Disco road site is slated to become the home of the new Ontario Emergency Preparedness and Response Headquarters.
Notable prisoners
Hassan Almrei, Syrian who came to Canada on a forged passport, alleged to have been involved in an al Qaeda forgery ring.CTV Television Network, Canada criticized for Hassan Almrei detention, 6 November 2005 Wahid Khalil Baroud, Palestinian who came to Canada on a forged passport, alleged to be a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Force 17, who served as a bodyguard to PLO leader Yasser Arafat and coordinated PLO terrorist acts. Laurie Bembenek, also known as Bambi Bembenek, convicted of murder of her husband's ex-wife Karla Homolka, serial killer, co-accused with her then-husband Paul Bernardo Abdullah Khadr, awaiting extradition, 2004–current, alleged tied to terrorism.Toronto Star, $500,000 paid for capture of Khadr, 13 May 2008 Karlheinz Schreiber, German-Canadian businessman embroiled in a dispute with former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney;National Post, Karlheinz Schreiber free again on bail 17 April 2008 later extradited to Germany Ernst Zündel, neo-Nazi, was held at Toronto West from 2003 until his 2005 deportation
See also List of correctional facilities in Ontario
References