How Justin Trudeau Put Male Rapists in Women’s Prisons
How Justin Trudeau Put Male Rapists in Women’s Prisons
Yes, that is a thing that he did
One of the great delusions of gender identity ideology—of which there are many—is that locking male rapists into prison cells with females is a good thing to do.
This is not hyperbole, as badly as I wish it were. In Canada, as in other countries that have adopted gender self-ID (read: sex self-ID), all a man has to do to be considered female in the eyes of the prison system is declare himself as such.
And while it is wrong, in my very strong opinion, to put any man in a female prison on the basis of self-ID, the fact that these transfers are granted to violent male murderers, rapists, and pedophiles speaks to just how far gone the adherents of gender identity ideology are.
For the better part of the last decade, policies that place men who declare a female gender identity into women’s prisons have spread across Canada.
It all began in Ontario in early 2015, when The Globe and Mail reported “Gender identity to determine where Ontario transgender inmates are placed.” Correctional Service Minister Yasir Naqvi called the new policy “the most progressive policy on the treatment of trans inmates in North America.”
"No other jurisdiction in Canada has such policy,” he said. “In fact one of the things that I'll be doing is sending a copy of our policy to all other my colleagues across the country."
As is all too often the case, equating “progressive” with “good” was an easy excuse for Naqvi not to consider the absurdity of what he was supporting.
British Columbia followed in Ontario’s footsteps later in 2015. The Globe and Mail reported that the change in policy was prompted by a male inmate name Bianca Sawyer.
The article was highly sympathetic to Sawyer, noting that he had “experienced countless indignities such as using a toilet in front of a male inmate and being strip-searched by male staff.”
Sawyer was also quoted as saying, “You can imagine what it would be like to be a woman living in a men's prison: You might be forced to double-bunk with a man, you might be at risk of sexual violence … you would be living in fear on a daily basis.”
And the final gem: "Having your gender affirmed by being able to live in a women's prison is very important just on a basic human rights level."
What is glaringly missing is any concern for the female prisoners whose human rights were now being trampled—who now would have to face the indignities of using a toilet in front of and double-bunking with men.
The next big advancement in the push to place male inmates into female prisons came in 2017, and it was instigated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
On January 12, during a town hall in Kingston, Ontario, Trudeau took a question from a trans-identified man who asked, “will you do your best to ensure that trans women are put in a prison more appropriate to their gender identity?”
“The answer is yes,” Trudeau responded, without hesitation—and he hardly skipped another beat to follow through on the promise.
The very next day, a CBC News headline declared “Correctional Service flip-flops on transgender inmate placement policy.”
This was surprising not only because of how quickly the change came after Trudeau’s seemingly off-the-cuff remark, but because it came just days after Correctional Service Canada (CSC) released a policy that only allowed transfers after “sex reassignment” surgery.
CSC now said that transfers would be considered on a case-by-case basis and promised to update the policy to ensure that inmates are treated according to "self-identified gender or gender expression, regardless of their physical anatomy or the gender noted on their identification documents."
These changes would bring CSC policy in line with Canada’s notorious Bill C-16, which was making its way through Parliament at the time.
Bill C-16 became law on June 19, 2017, amending the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code to include protections for “gender identity” and “gender expression.”
Only one month later, on July 21, 2017, CBC News reported: “In historic 1st, transgender inmate wins transfer to women's prison.”
The inmate was Fallon Aubee, a contract killer serving a life sentence at British Columbia’s Mission Institution. Aubee was transferred to Fraser Valley Institution for Women under an interim CSC policy.
"I think it's going to be a huge adjustment going to the prison for women,” Aubee told CBC News, “not just for me but for the women who are there as well because I am pre-op so there's a stigma that's attached to 'there's a guy living here.’”
“I'm a woman and I'm going to be recognized as a woman and I'm going to live in a woman's prison."
CSC spokesperson Lori Halfper also said that decisions around transfer timing, cell assignment, and inmate interactions would be made “to ensure they are appropriate and safe for the transferred inmate.”
Nothing was said about making sure these decisions would be appropriate and safe for the actual female inmates.
On December 27, 2017, CSC implemented its new transgender inmate policy, which stated that transgender inmates would be placed in institutions of their preference regardless of their sex.
The policy did add the caveat that transfers would not happen if there were “overriding health and safety concerns,” but even this veneer of protection would soon be contested.
In 2019, CSC refused transfer to a male inmate named Jamie (previously John) Boulachanis, a convicted murderer, because he was considered too great of an escape risk. In a stunning ruling, Justice Sébastien Grammond of the Federal Court overruled the decision and ordered that CSC transfer Boulachanis to a women’s institution.
Several parts of Grammond’s decision are truly jaw-dropping, beginning with: “Ms. Boulachanis was born in the body of a man.”
To Grammond, Boulachanis may have been born a man, but now, by virtue of “gender identity,” he no longer was one.
Grammond continues:
I have no difficulty accepting the fact that it is appropriate to separate men and women in a correctional environment and that it is appropriate to implement less strict security measures in response to the different situation of women. But that is not the issue. The real issue is to determine whether, in a context where it is justified to keep separate institutions for men and women, Ms. Boulachanis should be treated as a man or as a woman [emphasis mine].
Again, Grammond offers no reason why Boulachanis is anything other than a man or why self-declaration might make it so.
The Attorney General argued that the greater physical capabilities of a trans woman inmate like Ms. Boulachanis would increase the escape risk. The escape risk would be a relevant factor in assessing the “potential for violent behaviour,” a factor that must be taken into account in determining an inmate’s security classification.
Ultimately, the Attorney General’s argument is based on the idea that a man will always be a man, despite a change in gender identity or expression and despite the philosophy behind the amendments made to the CHRA in 2017.
Again, Grammond believes that a “change in gender identity or expression” somehow means that a man stops being a man.
It is true that, in some circumstances, decisions may be based on statistical studies that differentiate men and women – one can think of insurance. As I mentioned above, keeping separate correctional institutions for men and women is justified by such differentiation.
Statistics compiled according to the binary categories of “man” and “woman” do not tell us much about the dangerousness or predisposition to criminal behaviour of trans people specifically because they cannot automatically be treated as either gender.
Even though Grammond supports keeping separate correctional facilities for men and women, he offers no justification for why statistics about men and women cannot be applied to men and women who simply declare a new gender identity.
These are the types of word games and lapses in rational thinking that have led to the situation we are in today.
In addition to Aubee and Boulachanis, several more high-profile male inmates started getting transferred into female prisons after the passage of Bill C-16.
“Trans killers, baby rapists terrifying female inmates,” wrote Brad Hunter for The Toronto Sun in 2019. Serial pedophile Matthew Harks, serial sex offender Tara Pearsall, and child killer Tara Desousa had also made their way into female jails by that time.
The transfers continue unabated today.
Canadian activist Heather Mason, who herself was incarcerated at Grand Valley Institution for Women when the transfers started, tries to raise awareness by putting on protests to Keep Prisons Single Sex. I attended one such protest in October of this year.
Unfortunately, as quick as Trudeau was to notice one single trans-identified man raising an issue, he does not seem to care that a growing number of women across Canada have a bone to pick with prison policy as well—much less about the vulnerable women locked in with these transfers.