Christie Blatchford: Prison management told guards, if Ashley Smith ‘dies, it’s her own fault, it’s by misadventure,’ court hears

The absurdity of it, the eye-rolling madness of it, never seemed to resonate with anyone at the Grand Valley Institution for Women.

There, the powers-that-be had two basic options: Search Ashley Smith until the cows came home and keep her safe from herself, or follow the doctrine of “least restrictive” which, in the name of female bodily integrity, permeates the women’s side of Canadian federal corrections.

At its most simple, the choice was between a live teenager with injured pride or a dead one with intact dignity.

Consider what I think of as The Glass Conversation.

It took place on Sept. 22, 2007, less than a month before Ashley asphyxiated in her isolation cell at Grand Valley in Kitchener, Ont.

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