In 1995, the Regina Correctional Centre in Saskatchewan implemented a no-smoking policy that banned smoking on the premises, both indoor and outdoor. Of the 450 inmates at the Centre, 425 were habitual smokers and 85 percent of the inmates were of aboriginal ancestry.

The inmates challenged the no-smoking policy, claiming that it violated several of their civil rights as guaranteed under the Charter. First, it violated s. 2(a), the right of freedom of conscience and religion, because tobacco has a special role in Aboriginal culture and religion. Second, it violated s. 15, equality rights, because patients in psychiatric institutions and federal penitentiaries are permitted to smoke. Third, it violated s. 7, the right to life, liberty, and security of the person because, in other situations, smokers can go elsewhere so as not to smoke in a non-smoking area, but prisoners had no where else to go. And finally the ban was cruel and unusual treatment because prisoners are confined to their cells with little to do but smoke and the policy was taking away that one comfort.

The Saskatchewan Court held that the policy did not violate the rights of the inmates. In reaching this decision, the Court determined that smoking by Aboriginals had no connection with religious ceremonies, but rather that Aboriginal inmates smoked to satisfy an addiction to tobacco. The Court noted that Aboriginals were permitted to use tobacco on ceremonial and special occasions. On the question of equality rights, the Court found that permitting psychiatric patients to smoke is perceived as a medical necessity. In addition, the Court pointed out that federal prisons did not fall under provincial jurisdiction.

While the Court found that the ban on smoking did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, it did encourage the Centre to reconsider a policy that might be regarded as being “insensitive.”