Federal Court orders Alberta prison to act on complaints about extreme heat

The Federal Court has directed an Alberta prison to take steps to install air conditioning in response to complaints about extreme heat that go back two decades.

The court says Correctional Service Canada has failed to put an effective solution in place at the Edmonton Institution for Women’s secure unit.

The court directed Correctional Service Canada to record temperature readings in the unit and to ask for authorization to install air conditioning.

It says the heat has caused inmates to suffer from sleep deprivation and panic attacks.

One affidavit from an inmate housed in 2018 in a corner cell nicknamed “the oven” says a maintenance worker recorded a temperature of over 40 C in her cell.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has referred a separate complaint by the John Howard Society of Canada about heat in prisons to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2026.