From the beginning, it was not an ordinary case, and Nyki’s was not an ordinary life: read an article about her teenage years here. Nyki, arrested on her 21st birthday, received bail following her arrest. In her time on bail she founded a non profit, while she waited 3.5 years for her trial. The non profit, called “Books to Bars” became responsible for over 30,000 books being donated to multiple jails and prisons in Ontario, and became a beloved initiative in Southern Ontario that was carried on by school teachers for years after she was sent to prison.
After she was convicted in 2011, she began to help those around her in prison. She ran a music program and taught inmates to play guitar and write songs to gain confidence, and was very involved in the Walls to Bridges program, an educational initiative.
In 2020, she was released, 13 years after her arrest. She was employed by Emma’s Acres, a victim’s supporting farm social enterprise in British Columbia, where she taught men being released from prison to farm, and operated community programs for victims of crime. Today, she supports marginalized women. She is also a PhD student. She dedicates time to helping other people who have been incarcerated gain access to employment training.
