Correctional Service of Canada - transgender prisoners housed in women's prisons

[frazzled1]

From the Toronto Sun torontosun.com/news/national/hunter-trans-killers-baby-rapists-terrifying-female-inmates

Terrifying. Enjoy your erasure women.

There are 200 women behind the 2.4-metre-high barbed-wire fences at the Grand Valley Institute.

Most are the products of shattered and abusive homes, violent relationships, drugs and bad choices.

Unloved and looking for redemption.

Heather Mason was one of them. She knows the fear curdling inside the Kitchener-area jail and others sprinkled across the country.

Stoking that fear has been the arrival of transgender cons with appalling histories of violent sex assaults — and murder.

A dozen more are allegedly slated to arrive at Grand Valley.

“It’s bizarre, among their conditions are to not be around women and children. Where are they? Around women and children,” Mason told the Toronto Sun.

It really is horrifying that this is happening. "Lots of countries have brought in self ID, there really are no problems" my arse.

Interesting to see it in a Canadian newspaper though. That’s novel.

Mutterings in Ireland too about the same thing. It’s almost as if pretending men are women might have some drawbacks.

You know when the Faculty of Advocates pointed out in the Scottish GRA consultation that self-ID was still too recent in the countries where it had been introduced to tell if there would be unintended negative consequences...

Wouldn’t it be amazing if it turned out that slowing down the U.K. GRA process, largely achieved by women (many of them ‘radicalised on Mumsnet’) ended up being the thing that allowed enough time for the wheels to properly begin falling off in other jurisdictions...

I just hope that the problems becoming apparent elsewhere is enough to actually stop it.

What's horrifying is that information like this just keeps coming out. And as the problems reveal themselves, all that happens is the mask slips. The TRAs and politicians pushing this stuff reveal they don't care about women, they never did, and they think our safety is an acceptable price to pay for transwomen's "validation." And they keep on pushing it.

I'm just glad Toronto of all places is starting to wake up.
But it's the stuff of nightmares what's happened.
How can people be so stupid to let these laws in?

How can people be so stupid to let these laws in?

A lot of the time it’s done on the sly, either quietly when no one is looking or disguised as something else. If I remember right, there was some protest when bill c-16 passed (the one that added gender as a protected category) but it predominantly came from right wing religious groups and was subsequently portrayed as the ravings of bigots and nothing to pay attention to. It was very much portrayed as the next big inequality to be tackled, that transgender people were now the most oppressed of the oppressed and that not affirming the identity of children was akin to conversion therapy for homosexuality.

So of course, aside from the right wing religious conservatives, no one wanted to be the person who stood in the way and looked like an intolerant monster. No one really stopped to look deeper or question what would happen.

I think that may also have been the bill that had people concerned that children could be removed from parents who refused to affirm their gender and/or wanted to take a watchful waiting or counseling approach (can’t do that - counseling is conversion therapy apparently). But again, all of the protest about it was framed by the media and others as simply the paranoid ranting of (probably Christian) bigots, with emphasis in the fact that if children were removed from homes it would be because their parents we’re abusing them by not affirming (cue lots of comparisons to gay conversion therapy etc).

Interesting to see it in a Canadian newspaper though. That’s novel.

It is, although the Sun is a pretty conservative paper, it's detractors would say almost a tabloid though it's pretty reliable on facts.

Unfortunately the article won't likely reach the people it needs to who wouldn't be caught dead reading it.

That is terrifying! Those poor women and children!

I stumbled across this the other day - Canada seems to have forgotten what it knows about some of its most dangerous inmates!

"Sexual Homicide and Paraphilias: The Correctional Service of Canada’s Experts Forum 2007"

Extracts from this page:

www.csc-scc.gc.ca/research/shp2007-paraphil10-eng.shtml

Risk Assessment: Sexual Violence and the Role of Paraphilia

"My goals in this chapter are threefold. The first is to review some important points concerning the process of sexual violence risk assessment. The second is to discuss the role of paraphilia, an established risk factor, in sexual violence risk assessment. The third is to comment specifically on issues related to sexual sadism, erotophonophilia (lust murder), and necrophilia with respect to the assessment and management of risk for sexual violence."

"there are many different forms of paraphilia, each of which has diverse symptomatology. Also, specific forms of paraphilia frequently are comorbid with each other and with other mental disorders (Kafka & Hennen, 2002)."

"In correctional settings, it appears that a minority of people convicted of sexual offenses – substantially less than half – meet the criteria for a lifetime diagnosis of paraphilia. The prevalence rate among people charged with non-sexual offenses is unknown."

"it has been noted for many years that people who develop paraphilia report having had a sexual experience with an inappropriate stimulus at an early age, usually before puberty (age 10 or younger), that they found intensely arousing and resembled the focus of their paraphilia (Lehne & Money, 2003; Herdt & McClintock, 2000). This is consistent with some behavioral (e.g., conditioning) theories."

"Surgical castration is highly effective in changing sexual arousal and moderately effective in changing sexual behaviour, but does not appear to change the focus of people’s sexual appetites and is almost never performed due to its harmful consequences and irreversibility."

"No single theory or set of theories of sexual violence is generally accepted in the field. Most theories agree, however, that there are several major motivations for (alternatively, pathways to) sexual violence. Aside from paraphilia, some of the more commonly discussed causal risk factors include: impulsivity or poor self-control; anger or vindictiveness; loneliness or social isolation; empathy or attachment deficits; and cognitive distortions or attitudes that condone antisocial, violent, or sexually violent behaviour (Ward and Beech, 2006)."

"fetishism may be associated with risk for sexual violence if it predisposes people to consider and positively value the idea of stealing women’s shoes or underwear; and sexual sadism, if it predisposes people to consider and value the idea of demeaning, controlling, humiliating, or injuring other people without their consent."

"Two observations can be made here. First, according to theory, there should be a clear link between the nature of the paraphilia and the nature of the sexual violence for which people are at risk. This is a very useful idea, because it can be used to guide risk assessment in terms of trying to explain past behaviour (“Is it possible that one reason this offender raped a woman is that he suffers from a paraphilia such as sexual sadism [biastophilia, etc.]?”). This idea can also be useful for forecasting future behaviour (“Given the nature and course of this offender’s sexual sadism [biastophilia, etc.], what impact is it likely to have on his future decisions regarding sexual violence?”). The second observation is paraphilia is only one of many potentially important causal risk factors. According to theory, paraphilia does not operate in isolation, and risk assessment must consider how it may interact with other factors (e.g., attitudes that support or condone sexual violence, lack of empathy, loneliness). This is useful because it helps to ensure that risk assessments are personalized or individualized, rather than generic or stereotypical."

"paraphilia is an important risk factor for future sexual violence."

"he impact of paraphilia almost certainly changes over time (e.g., is much less important in late adulthood than in early or middle adulthood)."

"risk is the probability or likelihood that the person will perpetrate a specific type of sexual violence."

"Chromosomal sex may not change, but a person may develop a gender identity disorder that leads him to become resentful of, and angry at, people of the opposite sex."

"Victim safety planning is most relevant in situations that involve “targeted violence,” that is, where the identity of the likely victims of any future sexual violence is known"

"Static security is a function of the physical environment. It is effective when it improves the ability of victims to monitor their environment and impedes individuals from engaging in violence. The risk management plan should consider whether it is possible to improve the static security where victims live, work, and travel."

"Sexual sadism, erotophonophilia, and necrophilia are related but distinct forms of paraphilia. The primary sexual stimulus in sexual sadism is the humiliation, control, degradation, or suffering of another person; the participation of the other person may be consenting or coerced (Marshall et al., 2002; Money, 1990)."

"The primary sexual stimulus in erotophonophilia is sexual arousal to the murder of an unsuspecting partner; classically, orgasm is coincident with the death of the victim (Skrapec, 2001). This paraphilia is not included in the DSM-IV-TR; it may be diagnosed as a subtype of sexual sadism (Money, 1990) or of Paraphilia NOS."

"evaluators should consider the possibility that offenders suffer from one of these disorders if there is evidence in the case of any of the following: excessive or unnecessary cruelty, either physical or psychological, toward the victim; actual or attempted homicide of people who resemble their preferred sexual objects or with whom they engaged in sexual activity; symbolic or ritualized representations of death; and possession of erotic collateral material with themes of cruelty or death."

"it appears that about 25% of men who kill their intimate partners engage in sexual activity with the victim just before, during, or just after the homicide; in cases of the latter type, the sexual act seems to be motivated more by a desire to express affection or anger toward the victim more than sexual gratification.3"

"offenders are likely to minimize or deny symptoms of paraphilia"

"Supervision strategies should focus on restricting opportunities for close contact and sexual activity with vulnerable (living) victims,"

(continued . . . )

(continued . . . )

Extracts from this page (note ICD-10 was replaced by ICD-11 this year and DSM-IV has been replaced by DSM-V):
www.csc-scc.gc.ca/research/shp2007-paraphil08-eng.shtml

Diagnosis, Assessment and Identification of Severe Paraphilic Disorders

"Paraphilias are relatively rare anomalies in sexual functioning where the individuals concerned engage in a variety of behaviours for sexual gratification that are incompatible with, or disruptive to consenting adult sexual behaviour. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10, World Health Organization, 1992) diagnostic classification systems for mental disorders recognise and define a wide range of paraphilias. DSM-IV-TR provides definitions for eight main categories and ICD-10 does so for seven, each system also has a general category – in “Not otherwise specified” (DSM-IV-TR) and “Other disorders of sexual preference” (ICD-10)."

"In DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) paraphilias are defined in terms of : (a) at least a 6-month period of recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies or sexual urges involving the specific paraphilic behaviour, and that the fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviours; (b) cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. In 2000, a variation (DSM-IV-TR) added that this diagnosis, in some cases could be made where the individual, even though not personally distressed or impaired in their functioning, had acted out the urge and, in some cases, carried out the behaviours with a non-consenting party. In ICD-10, paraphilas are described, much as in DSM-IV-TR, as being carried out to gain sexual excitement and gratification. In ICD-10, sadism and masochism are combined in one category whereas they form two categories in DSM-IV-TR. Where there is a non-consenting victim of the behaviour, or a child victim of the behaviour, a number of paraphilias would constitute offences. These are: (1) sexual sadism (sexual excitement to the psychological or physical suffering of the victim); (2) pedophilia (sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children); (3) frotteurism (rubbing against and touching a non-consenting person); (4) voyeurism (the act of observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity), and; (5) exhibitionism (exposing genitals to unsuspecting strangers). Others that would not necessarily constitute offences but may be linked to offences include: (1) fetishism (involving nonliving objects); (2) transvestic fetishism (involving cross-dressing) and; sexual masochism (involving the act of being humiliated, beaten, bound, or otherwise made to suffer). There is a range of other paraphilias listed in DSM-IV, which also may or may not become linked with offending behaviour. These include: (1) scatologia, involving making obscene phone calls; (2) necrophilia involving an erotic attraction or sexual interest in corpses; (3) partialism sexual interest exclusively focused on a particular body part; (4) zoophilia involving sexual activity with animals (i.e., both actual sexual contact and sexual fantasies, higher in psychiatric patients); (5) coprophilia, sexual activity involving feces; (6) klismaphilia, sexual activity involving enemas; (7) urophilia, sexual activity involving urine; (8) masturbation, sexual self-gratification; (9) autogynephilia, describes a man’s propensity to be sexually aroused by thoughts or images of himself as a woman (with female attributes); (10) asphyxiophilia or hypoxyphilia, when a patient uses hypoxia to achieve sexual excitement; this can be complicated by autoerotic asphyxiation; (11) video voyeurism deriving sexual gratification from videos, usually of women doing natural acts or women involved in sexual activity; and (12) infantophilia, a new sub-category of pedophilia in which the victims are younger than 5 years."

"In my experience, assessing sexual homicide cases in court and within institutions, assessments often highlight contradictory information. For example, (1) the police recorded timings of the perpetrator’s actions on the night of the offence (suggesting a high level of focus and competence) and the offender’s account of his physical or mental state at the time (suggesting that he would not have been capable of this); (2) the perpetrator’s account of a deceased victim having wished to be bound with soft scarves and the forensic evidence that she had, in fact, been bound with a variety of items such as phone lines torn from her room;"

------
I bolded that last sentence because it reminded me of "We Can't Consent to This"
wecantconsenttothis.uk

Molesmokes

It raises some questions for me that autogynaphilia is talked about as a known and accepted phenomena, when you now have a group of people denying it exists at all. Not just saying that it doesn't apply to all men who crossdress or present as women, which would be true, but that it is a bogus idea.

And yet I don't hear psychologists or psychiatrists coming out to correct them, to say to the public that people like that do exist and could be a risk factor with things like self-id. Something which might be helpful because I think for many, it's a concept that seems to weird to be true, and there has also in recent years been some push back around the idea that children's sexualisation can have effects on their development, so some may be inclined to dismiss it.

I don't really think that the ones working in prisons with offenders are unaware of these things or have forgotten them, I think it would be difficult to ignore what's right in front of them. I suspect they are being pushed out of the discussion within prisons.

Resurrecting this thread in response to post by @SunsetBeech today in “It Will Never Happen - Resource Thread”

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3348290-It-will-never-happen-resource-thread?msgid=103539525

SunsetBeetch

From Glinner's site: the continuing situation in women's prisons in Canada:

Twitter thread from Heather Mason

twitter.com/mason134211f/status/1346131910628679682?s=21

I have been receiving a ridiculous amount of phone calls from women in Grand Valley Prison for Women in Kitchener, Ontario regarding Angela Valentino who was transferred there after they released Steve Mehlenbacher on bail for a sexual assault charge.

Thread

Angela beat up Steve in Edmonton & CSC couldn't have them both @ GVI together. They sent Steve to a halfway house in Quebec & grabbed Angela from Joilette prison for women in Quebec and transferred to GVI.

Angela told the women at GVI that Steve got beat up for being a rapist.

The women @ GVI are reporting they are triggered and scared to leave their houses or for the women who live w Angela they don't wanna leave their room.

It's been reported that Angela has choked a woman on compound & CSC moved "A" to another house.

"A" was shooting women up with Fentanyl & was so high they couldn't stand up for count. The guards didn't make "A" stand up for count.
"A" left a raw bloody chicken outside the door & the guards came & questioned the women about it & said it meant someone was getting stabbed.

None of us women know abt that. "A" lived in this house & wanted 2 hurt some women who lived there cuz "A" thought they ratted them out

CSC moved "A" again "A" was just found to be selling merchandise on compound & got aggressive with CSC & wouldn't turn over what was being sold

CSC pepper-sprayed "A" & handcuffed them & brought em to seg for a few days.

The women are scared shitless of this person and CSC lets Angela do whatever they want because of the risk of Human Rights Claims.

The women are asking for our help. They want you to know what's going on inside. They are calling me asking why it's happening & why no one is doing anything about it. CSC won't help them. They keep moving these prisoners around & these women stay scared & abused.

By JL on Glinner's site:

”Monday 4th January - The Terrified Women In Canadian Prisons”

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/a-week-in-the-war-on-women-monday-71b

Archived: archive.is/Vp2wC

more to follow . . .

Heather Mason is asking for help and has tagged loads of Canadian news outlets in her Twitter thread above - as usual they will no doubt ignore this.

Heather has also tweeted this (Pinned Tweet):

twitter.com/mason134211f/status/1348430053303050242?s=21

“Hey Canadians 👋
You will want to bookmark this page for future reference.

Information on women's prisons in Canada.”

www.keep-prisons-single-sex.org.uk/canada

(Click through for all the links as many do not show below)

Canada

The issues facing women in prison in Canada, including their offending patterns, vulnerabilities and needs mirror those faced by women in prison in the UK. Female offenders from indigenous communities are significantly over-represented in the prison system, making up 42% of the total female prison population. Women from indigenous communities experience additional vulnerabilities.

The prison system in Canada is split between the federal and the provincial systems. The federal system is for prisoners serving sentences of two years plus one day or more and typically those who have committed more serious offences. The provincial system is for those serving sentences of a shorter duration, together with those held on remand.

The most recently available data indicate that there are 693 female offenders in the federal prison system representing 6% of the total federal prison population.

The total number of female offenders in the provincial prison system is around 6,000, again representing around 5% of the total prison population.

The law on gender recognition

There are two main routes to changing one's legal gender in Canada: the Federal route and the Provincial/Territorial.

The Federal Route:
Individuals can apply to Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada using form CIT 0404: Request for a Change of Sex or Gender Identifier.

Once the person's gender is changed with IRCC, the agency will issue a Verification of Status annotated with the person's change of name (if any) and the new gender marker. Minors may also apply for a change of sex/gender with parental consent.

The Provincial Route:
Procedure varies between Provinces. There is no requirement for surgery, although a medical report stating that the applicant’s gender identity does not correspond to that listed on the birth certificate may be required. The applicant must state that they have assumed, identify with and intend to maintain the gender identity that corresponds with the change requested. In some provinces minors may also apply with parental consent.

Gender Identity as a Protected Characteristic

Gender identity is a protected ground in human rights legislation federally and in most, if not all, provinces and territories. For example, the Human Rights Code (Ontario) states:

Every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to services, good, and facilities, without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, color, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability.

Gender identity was added to the Canadian Human Rights Act as prohibited grounds for discrimination and to the Criminal Code in two sections, the first dealing with hate speech and hate incitement, and the second regarding sentencing for hate crimes via Bill C-16, which passed in June 2017.

Single-sex spaces

The primary approach adopted by most agencies and institutions is admission on the basis of self-ID reflecting a widespread belief that self-ID is a protected ground in federal and provincial law. The lack of clear definition of ‘gender identity’ in law does nothing to discourage this belief. As a result, trans-inclusive policies in relation to single-sex spaces and services are commonplace.

Case law on admission to single-sex spaces is still relatively undeveloped with the result that there is little to refer to concerning the actual legal obligations in respect of single-sex services and spaces. A notable exception to this is the legal action brought against Vancouver Rape Relief. In 2002 a human rights complaint was brought against Vancouver Rape Relief by Nixon, which Vancouver Rape Relief won on appeal (Link 2 below) because of an exception built into British Columbia’s human rights legislation which the court read as protecting the right not to associate where the service was directed at a protected group, in this case women.However this exception is unique to British Columbia and cannot be relied upon either federally or in different provinces.

Prisons policy and practice

The current policy for transgender prisoners can be found atwww.csc-scc.gc.ca/lois-et-reglements/584-pb-en.shtml

As with other agencies and institutions, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) operates on the basis of self-ID. Although safety and security criteria are taken into consideration, no consideration is given to anatomy or whether the applicant has gone through the legal process of changing gender. Strip-searching is also conducted on the basis of self-ID with males able to request that only female officers are involved.

CSC has a duty to accommodate based on gender identity or expression, regardless of theperson’s anatomy (i.e. sex) or the gender marker on identification documents. This includes placing offenders according to their gender identity in a men’s or women’s institution,Community Correctional Centre or Community-Based Residential Facility, if that is theirpreference, unless there are overriding health or safety concerns which cannot be resolved. Offenders may also choose whether strip and frisk searches and urinalysis testing are conducted by a male or a female staff member. As well, CSC staff must use offenders’ preferred name and pronoun in oral interaction and written documentation.

In practice, considerations of the safety of female prisoners rarely influence a decision to house a male in the female estate. The CSC does not take into account the reasons for or duration of ‘transition’. This leaves the system wide open to males making applications to the female estate for purely nefarious purposes.

The CSC is responsible for collecting data on the prison population. Official data on the number of males held in the female prison estate is patchy and unreliable. An Access to Information and Privacy Request asking for this data can be made.

Research undertaken by our colleagues in Canada suggests that there are at least 14 males in women’s prisons within the federal system. The number of males held in women’s prisons within the provincial system is not known. According to the Office of the Correctional Investigator, there were around 52 prisoners with gender considerations in March 2018. Most were classified as medium-security (67%), high risk (65%), and low reintegration potential (63%). Nearly two-thirds were held in the male estate.

Data provided by the Ministry of Justice indicates that In the England and Wales a high proportion of male offenders identifying as women have been convicted of sexual offences. We see a similar pattern in Canada. According to the CSC Deputy Commissioner for Women 50% of transfer requests in 2019 came from men convicted of sexual crimes against women and girls. There is no requirement for ‘reassignment’ surgery in order to obtain legal change of gender. There is no requirement for either surgery or hormone treatment in order to transfer to the female estate. This is consistent with the reports from women in prison that the male offenders they are imprisoned with still have fully-functioning and unaltered male bodies.

Case Studies

Steven Lawrence Mehlenbacher has an extensive history of offending including 16 convictions for bank robbery. Most recently he was serving an aggregate sentence of 14 years and 3 days. He is currently on release at a halfway house in Quebec. He was originally imprisoned in the male estate, including at Mountain Institute in British Columbia. Whilst in prison, he ‘transitioned’ in 2018 and was transferred to the female estate at Edmonton Institution for Women and was then moved in around May 2019 to Grand Valley Institute for Women.

GVI is an open campus prison consisting of residential-style small group accommodation houses for minimum and medium-security inmates. There is also a secure unit for maximum-security prisoners. There, Mehlenbacher was able to sexually harass the women he was imprisoned with and engage in sexual exhibitionism. It also appears that three women were required to take the morning-after pill, having participated in sexual activity with him. Mehlenbacher is HIV positive, which puts the women he is imprisoned with at additional and unacceptable risk. In March 2020 he was charged with the sexual assault of a female prisoner.
(Karen Finlay, Women Are Human, 24 August 2020 /Brad Hunter, Toronto Sun, 19 November 2020)

Frank Colasimone has a lengthy and extensive offending history which includes several convictions for armed robbery and drugs offences. His most recent conviction was in September 2016 when he was sentenced to 14 years and 6 months imprisonment. He was initially sent to the male estate and was held at both Matsqui Prison and Kent Institution. At the time of an appeal against sentence in November 2017 he was still listed as a man.

However, in 2018 or 2019 he began to identify as a woman and was transferred to the female estate at Fraser Valley Institution. Whilst he was there he sexually harassed female prisoners. For a while he was the romantic partner of fellow prisoner, Michael Williams, who was also held at Fraser Valley Institute (see below).

(Liam Britten, CBC, 16 September 2017)

Michael Williams was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the first-degree murder and rape of a 13-year old Indigenous girl in 2005. He had lured Nina Courtepatte from a shopping mall before raping, strangling, stabbing and then bludgeoning her to death with a hammer. Although he was 17 when he committed the crime, the judge deemed his actions so serious that he should be tried as an adult. (CBC, 18 October 2007) Williams has a history of violence going back to childhood.

At some point after imprisonment, Williams began identifying as a woman and was transferred to Fraser Valley Institute in the female estate. Whilst at FVI, three accusations of assault were made against him. He had sexual relationships with several women. Williams was transferred back to the male estate and has applied to be transferred back into the female estate because he made allegations against men he was held with that they were drugging him in order to rape him. These allegations were found to be groundless. He has been supported in his attempts to be moved back to the female estate by Morgane Oger.(Brad Hunter, Toronto Sun, 1 February 2020 / Karen Finlay, Women are Human, 3 February 2020)

Jean-Paul Aubee was sentenced to life in 2003 for first-degree murder in a gang-related contract-killing that took place in Saskatchewan about ten years earlier. Aubee killed a key witness who was testifying in a murder trial. He was sent to the male estate.

During his incarceration he identified as a woman and changed his name to Fallon. In 2017 became the first prisoner, as a fully intact and unaltered male, to be transferred to the female estate on the basis of gender identity alone. (Kathleen Harris, CBC, 21 July 2017)He is being held at Fraser Valley Institution. Aubee acknowledged that some female prisons might be hesitant about accepting him, stating that there was a stigma attached to being ‘pre-op’. Nevertheless he remained optimistic, "I want to be able to defuse that [stigma] with my character, my attitude, my generosity, so they say, 'Wait a minute, she's just one of the girls.'"

(Rosie DiManno, Toronto Star, 20 February 2020)

Other males who have been held in the female estate include:

Patrick Pearsall AKA Tara Pearsall, a serial sexual offender and internet predator of underage girls. (Rosie DiManno, Toronto Star, 28 May 2018)

Jamie Boulachanis, who brought a legal case challenging the CSC’s refusal to transfer him to thefemale estate on the grounds that the risk posed by Boulanchis was too great to be managed in the female estate. The Judge found that the refusal to transfer him constituted discrimination on the grounds of gender identity or expression and that the harm caused to Boulachanis of continuing to hold him in the male estate was greater than the ‘inconvenience’ that could result from transfer to a women’s prison. The risk posed to women in prison was not taken into consideration by the court.

How can I help?

You can help by writing to the following:

• Your Member of Parliament. You can find out who your MP is here.
• Dr Ivan Zinger, The Correctional Investigator of Canada
• Anne Kelly, Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada
• Angela Arnet Connidis, Deputy Commissioner of Women Offenders Correctional Service Canada, Email: [email protected] Address: 340 Laurier Avenue West Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0P9 Canada Phone: 613-992-6067 Alternate phone (National Headquarters): 613-992-5821
• The Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies

Please let us know if you get a response and if you would like any support from our colleagues in Canada.

Further information and resources

Follow Heather Mason, Canadian feminist activist and campaigner for the rights of women in prison on Twitter:
@mason134211f

Watch Heather Mason talking to Meghan Murphy.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/NoXYinXXprisons
Email us:info@keep-pr

========

What I was looking for was info on how to help and found it eventually

Och, no, I think you'll find this literally never happens, OP. Must be a mistake.

Can Canada afford the lawsuits? For some reason I assume they are like US ones where people sue for $squillions.

Are there any lawsuits apart from the ones resolved by placing males in Women’s Prisons?

Heather is involved with the campaigning organisation “Canadian Women’s Sex Based Rights” but they do not, AFAIK, represent women in the courts:

www.cawsbar.ca/

The Canadian Prison system sounds horrific. Those poor women!

"Lots of countries have brought in self ID, there really are no problems" my arse.

What this means, when said, is that there have been no problems for the people self identifying.

Good point!

Canada, oh Canada.

Report: Canadian Kids’ TV Animation Nears Racial Equality, Lags Behind On Gender

www.cartoonbrew.com/series/report-canadian-kids-tv-animation-nears-racial-equality-lags-behind-on-gender-200707.html

Gender
Female characters remain underrepresented: 63% of the protagonists were male, 37% female. Intriguingly, of the anthropomorphic non-human characters, a full 70% were presented as male. The authors called for greater equality, adding, “creators must start thinking about gender as a fluid construct rather than as a dichotomous (male/female) category.”
They also looked at recurring aspects of character design where gender stereotypes are often reinforced, like body shape and dress. For example, 96% of characters with eyelashes were female.

The people allowing this to happen are sick, sick fuckers really getting off on women being put in danger.

Pretending they give a shit about human rights, ''just be kiiiind and considerate'', whilst they show not a jot of concern for the rights of vulnerable women. They'd rather throw all of their kindness and consideration at rapists. Can't risk hurting the feelz of a rapist now, can we? That's far too inhumane

So sick of this bullshit. Common sense, please make a comeback pronto, I'm fucking begging you!

”Female characters remain underrepresented: 63% of the protagonists were male, 37% female. Intriguingly, of the anthropomorphic non-human characters, a full 70% were presented as male. The authors called for greater equality, adding, ”creators must start thinking about gender as a fluid construct rather than as a dichotomous (male/female) category”

So, since “non-sexed” characters are overwhelmingly perceived as male, the solution to the under representation of female characters is to have more characters that will overwhelmingly be perceived as male. That makes sense.

And they’ll get away with it because they are using all the right gender-bullshit buzz-words.

Who would guess that we are 51% of the population? They know what a bloody woman is when they are looking for a surrogate to carry their babies!

There’s a post about a female only swimming pool in Australia that is getting a bit of grief on Facebook, I went to look and someone, with a male name, said they were a TW on the start of their journey, I thought they were joking but on their own page was a petition about housing TW in female prisons. It was because a TW was raped multiple times and then refused some treatment or something because they knew they’d end up back in the male estate. Lots of female named people were signing the petition but I too, a few short months ago would’ve signed that too as it just didn’t occur to me that it a logical step would see rapists (of women) also being housed with women. Now I see that the alternative to housing TW with men, doesn’t have to be to house them with women.