VANCOUVER -- A B.C. woman who was pregnant when she began serving a jail sentence, and later had her baby taken away after being born, is suing the provincial government.

Patricia Block’s legal action claims that the Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General violated her and her baby’s constitutional rights because it cancelled its mother-baby program in 2008.

It is believed to be the first case of its kind in Canada concerning the rights of mothers and babies to remain together while incarcerated.

The mother-baby program allowed mothers to keep their babies while incarcerated at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, a provincial corrections facility.

The program was similar to the federal mother-child program, which is offered at Fraser Valley Institution, a federal prison facility for women.

After the provincial mother-baby program was cancelled in April 2008, Block pleaded guilty to possessing drugs for trafficking.

At the time, she was 4½ months' pregnant and requested a two-year federal sentence so she could keep her baby in the federal mother-child program.

But she received a short sentence and was not accepted in the federal program, so her daughter, born March 17, 2009, was removed from Block's care.

After her release in July 2009, the baby was returned to the mother by the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

The defendants -- the solicitor general of B.C., the attorney general and Lisa Anderson, the warden of Alouette -- recently filed an application to have the case dismissed, arguing that Block lacked standing to advance her claims.

In a ruling this week, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Carol Ross dismissed the defendants' application and allowed Block public interest standing.

That means the case now has to be decided on its merits.

Ross noted in her judgment, released Friday, that 12 women had babies while incarcerated in the provincial corrections system between February 2008 and Dec. 16 of last year.

As of last Nov. 1, 93 women were in provincial corrections facilities, with 47 of those identified as first nations women.

The judgment states that after Block was released from jail, she married her baby's father, took a culinary program, found a job and regained custody of another daughter, while her oldest daughter now is attending university.

Government will be taking the time necessary to review the before deciding our next steps.

The full judgment is online: http://bit.ly/A6fSeF

nhall@vancouversun.com