OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — The Canadian government has filed its response to a legal challenge of its policy of housing men in female prisons, acknowledging several instances of sexual abuse but denying the policy is at fault.
Last year, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) filed a motion on behalf of Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (CAWSBAR), challenging the Correctional Service Canada’s “Directive 100: Gender Diverse Offenders,” which permits males who “identify” as women to be incarcerated in women’s prisons.
CAWSBAR says that this violates the Charter Rights of female inmates, including “their section 7 right to life, liberty and security of the person, their section 12 right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment, and their section 15 right to equality as female persons.” The challenge cited 10 instances of “trans-identifying males” sexually assaulting female inmates.
On August 31, the government filed its Statement of Defence, which acknowledges the incidents but “wholly denies that any alleged harm to inmates housed in women’s institutions flowed from the implementation of CD 100,” maintaining that the policy allows adequate room for case-by-case risk assessments.
“The facts as plead by the Plaintiff do not demonstrate that CD 100 results in inferior correctional services for cisgender women inmates [i.e., women who are not gender-confused] in comparison to male inmates,” the statement claims. “CD 100 does not create a distinction or perpetuate an unfair or objectionable disadvantage based on an enumerated or analogous ground within the meaning of s. 15(1) of the Charter.”
“The Directive is neutral in purpose, applies uniformly to all persons subject to it, and does not subject cisgender women inmates to differential treatment based on a protected ground or immutable characteristic. In the alternative, Canada states that pursuant to section 15(2) of the Charter, CD 100 is an ameliorative policy aimed at improving the condition of a disadvantaged group, namely gender[-confused] inmates.”
“The government’s own Defence shows that female inmates have made serious complaints about what has happened to them in women’s prisons, including complaints that resulted in sexual-assault charges,” responded constitutional attorney Chris Fleury. “Female inmates are being exposed to real risks and real harm. This case is about protecting their safety, dignity, and constitutional rights.”
In recent years, there has been growing concern around the world over placing men who claim to be women in female prison populations, which has proven to be a means of both securing lighter treatment during incarceration and gaining easy access to women to prey upon. Transgender status also has the potential to be exploited to avoid incarceration entirely in some cases, as seen in Wales when a man who identified as a woman received a suspended sentence keeping him out of prison despite physically assaulting two partners within days of each other, on the grounds that he would be “vulnerable” behind bars.
In May 2024, Hector Bravo Ferrel, a U.S. Army Iraq veteran who served the California Department of Corrections for 16 years, spoke out about his decision to resign in protest of leaders allowing male inmates to exploit “gender-affirming” policies. “They were like kids in the candy store, because they knew they were going from a men’s prison to a females’ prison,” he said.
LifeSiteNews reported in 2023 that a Correctional Service Canada (CSC) report found sex crimes account for almost half of gender-confused male inmates in Canada, dramatically increasing the risks of putting them with women further still.