Keep Prisons Single Sex!

A Successful Protest in Downtown Toronto

At the end of October, I flew from Calgary to Toronto for a protest to keep prisons single sex.

The goal of these protests, which are also held in countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, is to draw attention to the self-ID laws and policies which allow men to request transfer into women’s prisons—even if they have committed violent and sexual offences. Our protest was organized by Heather Mason, a fantastic Canadian advocate for women in prison.

I won’t lie: I was a little nervous. Three years prior to the date of our protest, on October 29, 2019, Canadian writer Meghan Murphey gave a talk at the Toronto Public Library that ended with an angry mob forcing their way into the building. Many of the women that had attended the talk were also present at the prison protest and recalled how scary the experience had been.

This is, of…