Ontario's Premier Accountability Dashboard · Queen's Park Watch
Paul Dubé
Office of the Ombudsman of Ontario
Paul Dubé is Ontario's Ombudsman. In June 2025, he published a report calling the province's correctional system a "growing crisis" requiring "urgent reform," documenting 6,870 complaints to his office in 2024-25 — a 55% year-over-year increase and the largest single-year jump on record. He separately launched an investigation into conditions at Maplehurst Correctional Complex following the December 2023 crisis intervention response that a Superior Court judge later called "akin to torture."
Connected Scandals
Over 157 inmates were improperly released from Ontario's dangerously overcrowded provincial jails between 2021 and 2025 — six remain at large as of April 2026. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told the legislature they were all caught "instantaneously." Global News FOI documents proved that was false. Kerzner apologized "unreservedly." At the same Maplehurst facility running at 175% capacity, correctional officers zip-tied 200 inmates in their underwear for two days — and a judge stayed first-degree murder charges as a result.
Dubé's office documented a record 6,870 correctional complaints in 2024-25 — a 55% jump — and publicly called for "urgent reform" of Ontario's overcrowded jails. He launched a separate investigation into Maplehurst following the crisis intervention response that led to the murder charge stay. His annual report is the primary official source for the scale of Ontario's correctional complaint crisis.