French Publisher Releases Book by Nathalie Gettliffe and Francis Gruzelle About Her Incarceration

By Dan Ferguson Staff Reporter
Sep 29 2006

Former Surrey resident Nathalie Gettliffe gave birth to a son named Martin in a Lower Mainland hospital on Tuesday, according to a press release issued in France by the baby’s father, Francis Gruzelle.
Gruzelle said the child bears the same name as the famed French Holocaust writer Martin Gray and like Gray, the child has survived a “particularly hostile environment.”
Gettliffe has been held in prison since she was arrested on her return to Canada in April, five years after she went to France with two children from her marriage to Surrey resident Scott Grant.

The children, Max and Josephine, were reunited with their father in June after French courts ordered their return.
The case has generated considerable controversy in France, with supporters saying Gettliffe took her children to remove them from the influence of the church her ex-husband belongs to, the International Church of Christ.
Gettliffe supporters have pointed to a 1995 French government report that declared the church a “sect.”

However the report also defined several other religious organization as sects including the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists and Transcendental Meditation without calling to have any of them outlawed.

Last week, a French publisher released a book by Gettliffe and Gruzelle about her incarceration.
Originally called “In the hell of the Canadian prisons” it is now titled “Letters from prison” and contains a series of letters from Gettliffe to Gruzelle, many complaining about her treatment while she was being held in jail, first at the Surrey Pre-trial Centre and then the medium-security Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge
Gettliffe’s trial before a B.C. Supreme Court jury in Vancouver is scheduled to begin Nov. 20.

Francis Gruzelle Speaks Out About Nathalie's Incarceration

VANCOUVER (CP) - A Frenchwoman detained by Canadian authorities for allegedly kidnapping her two children after a protracted custody battle gave birth to another child Tuesday, her partner said.

Nathalie Gettliffe, 35, gave birth to a baby boy named Martin while in custody at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, Francis Gruzelle, the newborn's father, said in a statement.
Getliffe has been detained since April.

Gruzelle has openly criticized Canadian authorities for his partner's ongoing detention and her case has won wide media attention in France.
Last week, he told France-3 television that Gettliffe was "physically exhausted" and blamed her poor health on prison conditions.

Gettliffe faces up to 10 years in jail in Canada if found guilty on two counts of child abduction. She said she took her children to France in 2001 to remove them from the influence of their Canadian father, Scott Grant, because he was increasingly active in the International Church of Christ.

While Canadian authorities recognize the church, French authorities consider it a cult.
French authorities returned the 11-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl to Vancouver in July, reuniting them with their father, who had been granted full custody by a Canadian court.
Grant said Tuesday he was unaware of whether his ex-wife had given birth.
But he said she had changed criminal lawyers in recent days. Her current lawyer, Richard Fowler, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Her civil lawyer, Vincent Pigeon, said he was unaware whether she had given birth.
B.C. Corrections spokesman Bruce Bannerman cited privacy laws for being unable to confirm or deny the birth.
"I know it's out in the press but I'm not able to give you any information about any offender who's under our care," said Bannerman.
Alouette warden Brenda Tole also cited privacy laws but suggested a call to the nearest hospital to the prison, Ridge Meadows Hospital.
The hospital would not comment and would not confirm Gettliffe was there.
Gettliffe's criminal trial is set to begin in November.

Nathalie Gettliffe Gives Birth to Baby Boy While Being Imprisoned in Canada

News Release - From Canadian Embassy in France



Paris, September 26, 2006 – Nathalie Gettliffe, a Canadian and French citizen being held in a minimum security detention centre in the province of British Columbia, gave birth to her child today.

The delivery took place in accordance with the rules set out by British Columbia’s correctional services. These make provisions for pregnant inmates about to give birth to be transported by ambulance to the nearest general hospital. Upon being discharged from the hospital, mothers and their newborns can be accommodated in detention centres until the legal proceedings against them have been concluded or until they are conditionally released or transferred to another facility.

The Alouette Centre, where Nathalie Gettliffe is being held, is a minimum security detention centre located on several hectares of land approximately 60 km outside Vancouver. Completely renovated in 2004, it has one- and two-person cells without bars on the windows. The cells open onto a common room where inmates can come and go as they please. There are 128 women being held at the Alouette Centre, six or seven of whom are pregnant. A dietician helps to prepare meals, and inmates’ special dietary needs are taken into consideration. There is a nurse at the centre and a doctor assigned to it.

Ms. Gettliffe is represented by Canadian counsel who can see her at any time. She receives visits from her maternal uncle who permanently resides in Vancouver. Finally, the Consul General of France also has unrestricted access to Ms. Gettliffe. Ms. Gettliffe is awaiting her trial on November 20 for child abduction after she failed to comply with legal decisions regarding the custody of her first two children. The children, who had been taken to France illegally, have been returned to their father, Scott Grant, in Canada. As mentioned last Friday in a news release from the French Foreign Affairs and Justice ministries, this was upheld by the French courts, in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1980.

Ms. Gettliffe contends she left Canada to get her children away from the influence of the International Church of Christ, to which the father belongs. However, decisions made and upheld by the Canadian and French courts giving the father custody of the children took into account all considerations brought to their attention.

Despite interruption of mediation begun by MAMIF (the French Justice Ministry’s international family mediation service), Ms. Gettliffe, who was several months pregnant, decided on her own initiative to travel to Canada on April 10, 2006, to defend a thesis at the University of British Columbia. She was arrested on April 11, 2006. The Canadian courts turned down her request to be released on bail.

The general reputation of the Canadian correctional system is good enough for it to have been cited as a model numerous times in recent years, including by a Parliamentary Commission of the French National Assembly which, in 2000, saw Canada’s system as the model they should follow in their country to achieve a more efficient penitentiary system. Following a visit to Canada (including British Columbia) in 2005, a United Nations committee drafted a report on the norms governing detention. The report was favourable towards Canada and in particular stressed that “Canada is a country governed by the rule of law, in which a strong and independent judiciary strives to ensure that trials are fair and exercises a generally vigorous control over the lawfulness of all forms of deprivation of liberty.”

For more information, please contact: Ralph Jansen, Communications and Public Affairs Unit Canadian Embassy Tel.: 01-44-43-22-90

Correctional Service Canada
http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/

Alouette Correctional Centre for Women
http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/corrections/centres/medium/location/alouette.htm