What are the reasons provided to an inmate for their transfer?

Although the courts will not lightly interfere with transfer decisions, this does not mean they will never interfere. In MacKenzie v. LeBlanc, 2007 BCSC 768, a federal inmate was given notice of the recommendations for his transfer from a medium-security institution to a maximum-security institution, and was given an opportunity to respond, but was not given reasons for the eventual transfer decision. He filed an application for habeas corpus. Martinson J. granted the inmate’s application and ordered his transfer back to the medium-security institution, stating that the lack of reasons was a significant breach of the requirement for procedural fairness. At ¶37, Martinson J. states that “while reasons need not be lengthy, they must be sufficient to allow an inmate and the reviewing court to determine without guessing what the process was that led to the decision.” In that case, Martinson J. was unable to infer from what was provided to the inmate, what the reasons for the transfer were.