The Edmonton Institution for Women, one of six women’s corrections facilities in Canada (Photo credit: The Canadian Press/Jason Franson)

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that a lawsuit has been launched against the Federal Government, seeking an end to the practice of forcibly confining female inmates of federal prisons with trans-identifying male inmates. The lawsuit claims that this practice 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…”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the national and non-partisan organization Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (CAWSBAR) with the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto on April 7, 2025.

Since 2019, CAWSBAR 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.”

Their lawsuit takes aim at the Correctional Service Canada’s Commissioner’s Directive 100: Gender Diverse Offenders, which permits the practice of transferring trans-identifying male inmates to any of six women’s prisons across Canada. CAWSBAR is asking the Federal Court to declare that this Directive is of no force or effect.

Their lawsuit references an extensive 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.

Many female prisoners come from disadvantaged backgrounds that often include past physical and sexual abuse from 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. In advancing CASWBAR’s claim, 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.”

CAWSBAR is not the first organization to report on the risks associated with forcibly confining female inmates alongside trans-identifying males. According to 2023 research from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, “More than 90% (55 of 61) of [trans-identified 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) [trans-identified females] were convicted of homicide related offences. This proportion of [trans-identified males] incarcerated for sexual and homicide-related offences is extraordinarily high compared to the general female prison population.”

Prior to 2017, only males who had completed sex reassignment surgery could be transferred to a women’s prison.

In October 2016, however, Parliament passed Bill-16, which amended the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity and gender expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination. The Corrections and Conditional Release Act was also amended to include gender identity and expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination. Bill-16 became law on June 19, 2017, and Correctional Service Canada responded by drafting policies that authorized the transfer into women’s prisons of males who identify as women but have not necessarily undergone any surgical transitions.

The current policy, Commissioner’s directive 100: Gender diverse offenders, came into effect in May 2022.

CAWSBAR’s lawsuit argues that the current practice violates the constitutionally protected rights of female inmates. Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 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.

Their lawsuit also references section 28, which reads, “Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.”

Heather Mason is a CAWSBAR board member and former inmate at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario. She explained the reason for her organization’s involvement and her personal motivation. “We initiated this action,” she stated, “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,” she says.

“This matter is especially important to me as a former federal prisoner,” Ms. Mason continued, “I firmly believe that all women are entitled to sex-based rights and protections as specified in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre, stated, “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. It underscores the urgent need to prioritize the security of vulnerable women over ideological directives.”

From LifeSiteNews

By Calvin Freiburger

Physician-assisted suicide programs in the United States and Canada are discriminating against patients with serious medical conditions even when their cases are not terminal, in many cases pushing to end their lives for financial reasons rather than medical.

Catholic News Agency reported that a panel of disability-rights advocates recently examined the landscape of the issue during the Religion News Association’s 2025 annual conference. During the panel, Patients Rights Action Fund (PRAF) executive director Matt Vallière accused state euthanasia programs of discriminating against patients with life-threatening conditions in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, noting that when a state will “will pay for every instance of assisted suicide” but not palliative care, “I don’t call that autonomy, I call that eugenics.”

Inclusion Canada CEO Krista Carr, meanwhile, discussed her organization’s lawsuit against the expansion of Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program to “people with an incurable disease or disability who are not dying, so they’re not at end of life and their death is not reasonably foreseeable.”

More astonishingly, she added, this “funded right” to lethal injection is slated to be expanded to mental illness in 2027.

“By setting out a timeline of three years, it’s an indication that the systems need to move towards readiness in two years. There’s the opportunity to do another review, and to assess the readiness of the system through a parliamentary process,” Health Minister Mark Holland said in February of the move, which Dying with Dignity Canada presents as a matter of “equality” for “those whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.”

“It’s being called a choice,” but “it’s not a choice,” Carr said. Rather, these programs are pushing the “choice” on patients in “a desperate situation where they can’t get the support they need.”

As LifeSiteNews recently covered, the “most recent reports show that (medical assistance in dying) is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022.”

In America, nine states plus the District of Columbia currently allow assisted suicide.

Support is available to talk those struggling with suicidal thoughts out of ending their lives. The American Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the Canadian Suicide Crisis Helpline can both be reached by calling or texting 988.