Fed prison wardens seek exemption from open telecom law to jam signals from thousands of cellphones smuggled behind bars; U.S. & Australia already do this. https://t.co/Iu6I7o3lsD #cdnpoli @DLeBlancNB @FrankCaputoKTC pic.twitter.com/J5bbn0PHC5

— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) November 27, 2023

"To better protect the safety and security of our institutions the Correctional Service continues to explore new, innovative means of preventing and seizing contraband," wrote the agency in its reply.

"Contraband, which is the bane of prisons and penitentiaries, has its value arbitrarily jacked up by Correction Services Canada to apparently signify its actual value within the institution.

The inflationary markup, in fact, is startling."https://t.co/1W7nmTi6bL

— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) November 6, 2022

The suggestions to address the smuggling include exemptions for cell signal jamming devices, akin to what occurs in Australia and the United States.

According to a report from Blacklock's Reporter, two Australian federal prisons were granted an exemption to the national ban on cell signal scrambling devices.

In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave state prisons the ability to scramble cell signals. 

American federal penal institutions already used jammers to deal with contraband cell phones.

The smuggled cell phones are used to avoid prison landlines, which are monitored and recorded.

The advent of new technology has been an opportunity for entrepreneurial smugglers.

In July 2022, in just one of many such instances across the country, two BC men who stayed at a Winnipeg Airbnb were arrested for using a drone to drop a package of drugs into a Canadian prison. Police recovered a firearm, meth and cocaine at their Airbnb. The duo faced dozens of trafficking and firearms-related charges

However, old technology works, too.

In March 2023, a pigeon wearing an empty backpack was captured at the Matsqui prison in Abbotsford, BC.

It was the second such pigeon-mule caught in recent months. A pigeon with a little backpack full of meth was caught by guards at Pacific Institution in Abbotsford, 80 kilometres east of Vancouver.

The inquiry of the ministry was posed by British Columbia Conservative MPs Frank Caputo and Ed Fast.