A top Canadian legal group is suing the country’s government to stop the dangerous practice of housing female prisoners with ‘transgender’ male convicts.
TORONTO, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) -- One of Canada’s top constitutional legal groups has launched a lawsuit on behalf of a women’s rights group against the Canadian federal government to try to stop the often dangerous practice of forcing female prisoners to share spaces with gender-confused males.
The lawsuit was filed by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) on behalf of a nonpartisan group called Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (CAWSBAR) in Canada’s Federal Court in Toronto, Ontario, on April 7, 2025.
The lawsuit states that allowing confused males who claim to be female to use female-only prison spaces is “cruel and unusual punishment and violates the Charter rights of female inmates, including ‘their right to be protected from mental, physical, and sexual abuse’.”
“This lawsuit is a pivotal stand for the safety and dignity of female inmates, challenging a policy that disregards their Charter-protected rights and exposes them to intolerable harm,” said John Carpay, president of the JCCF.
“It underscores the urgent need to prioritize the security of vulnerable women over ideological directives.”
The CAWSBAR lawsuit will assert that allowing gender-confused males to use female prison spaces violates the “constitutionally protected” rights of female inmates in relation to Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This section “guarantees female inmates the right to life, liberty, and security of the person. Section 12 guarantees the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment. Section 15 guarantees equality before and under the law as well as the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex,” notes the JCCF.
Specifically, the lawsuit goes after Canada’s Correctional Service Canada’s "Commissioner’s Directive 100: Gender Diverse Offenders," which has been in place since May of 2022. This allows so-called “trans-identifying male inmates” to be allowed to transfer to any one of the nation’s six female jails.
CAWSBAR is asking the Federal Court to declare that this “Directive is of no force or effect,” according to the JCCF.
As noted by the JCCF, the lawsuit references a lengthy list of “physical and psychological harms female inmates have suffered as a result of being forcibly confined with trans-identifying male prisoners, including sexual assaults, sexual harassment, beatings, stalking, and grooming.”
Women's rights group says Canadian gov't has ‘failed’ to protect vulnerable womenCAWSBAR, since 2019, has advocated for a Canada where “women and girls can be assured that their sex-based rights to bodily privacy, dignity, fairness, and security are upheld both in law and in public policy.”
According to CAWSBAR board member Heather Mason, who is also a former inmate at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario, the group “initiated this action” to highlight the “federal government’s failure to protect women and to raise public awareness about the cruel and unusual punishment that incarcerated women endure as a result of this transfer policy.”
“This matter is especially important to me as a former federal prisoner,” she continued, adding, “I firmly believe that all women are entitled to sex-based rights and protections as specified in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
The JCCF notes that most female prisoners come from difficult backgrounds that many times include them being victims of sexual and physical abuse by males.
“The current practice of having both males and females attend the same group therapy sessions makes it difficult for female inmates to fully participate in the treatment they seek,” notes the JCCF.
Before 2017, only males who had undergone permanent body-altering surgery were allowed into female jails. This changed, however, after the government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October of 2016 passed Bill-16, which changed Canada’s Canadian Human Rights Act to include both "gender identity" and "gender expression" as prohibited grounds of "discrimination."
The JCCF noted that lawyers will provide the court with “evidence of psychological and physical harms that often lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, flashbacks of stressful violent and/or emotionally disturbing events involving men, anxiety, anger, depression, hopelessness, and suicidality.”
“Female inmates are reluctant to complain about these arrangements. The court document states that complaints ‘are often viewed by correctional officers and staff as harassment, intolerance, and/or ‘transphobia.’ Female inmates do not speak out for fear of an entry on their institutional record, which will eventually be considered by the Parole Board of Canada, and which could impact the decision to grant or not grant parole,” noted the JCCF.
2023 research from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found that “More than 90% (55 of 61) of [gender-confused male] prisoners were incarcerated for violent offences. Of the group, nearly half (25) had a most serious offence that was homicide related and a third (18) had a most serious offense that was sexual in nature. In comparison, fewer than three-in-10 (6 of 21) [gender-confused females] were convicted of homicide related offences. This proportion of [gender-confused males] incarcerated for sexual and homicide-related offences is extraordinarily high compared to the general female prison population.”
The Liberal government under Trudeau consistently pushed an anti-life, anti-family narrative on Canadians.
In addition to supporting effectively unlimited abortion, Trudeau and his government stood behind even the most extreme aspects of gender ideology, such as the chemical and surgical “transition” of minors.
