Transgeder Females in Women's Prisons

"Throughout their sentence, offenders may apply for a voluntary transfer to a men's or a women's institution according to their gender identity or expression."

"[All transfers are assessed on a case-by-case basis with the Deputy Commissioner for Women having the final decision-making capability]."

Correctional Service Canada (CSC) 

 

"In each specific factual context, CD 100 has been implemented in good faith and consistent with the principles of fundamental justice, including not being arbitrary, overbroad, or grossly inappropriate."

"[The government] wholly denies that any alleged harm to inmates housed in women's institutions flowed from the implementation of CD 100."

Government of Canada 

 

"Female inmates are being exposed to real risks and real harm."

"This case is about protecting their safety, dignity and constitutional rights."

Chris Fleury, constitutional lawyer 

Photo credit: Leah Hennel

 

Canada's federal government filed a statement of defence in a constitutional challenge to Correctional Service Canada's "gender diverse" policy permitting some inmates' transfer on request to women's prisons. One inmate, according to the filing, was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of criminal harassment, following a female inmate filing a complaint in May of 2020. That inmate was also charged as an instigator in five  other incidents committed against three female inmates.

 

Additionally, a female inmate filed a complaint in October of 2024, leading to a charge of two counts of sexual assault. That inmate was identified in another incident. When particulars in the charges were demanded, the plaintiff spoke of 45 women who had been affected, whom she identified, in 59 incidents of harm. The government responded that "insufficient particulars were provided to allow Canada to respond".

 

Ten of the remaining 14 claims took place at Grand Valley Institution for Women, located in Kitchener Ontario, while three occurred at Fraser Valley Institution in Abbotsford, British Columbia and one other took place at the Okimaw Ohei Healing Lodge in Saskatchewan, on the Nekaneet First Nation. A police investigation took place in 2018 with no charges being laid; there was a 2019 report of sexual assault, and finally, a complaint in 2021 alleging sexual and physical assault.

 

Prison facility (Courtesy of Stocker)

 

Correctional Service of Canada's Commissioner's Directive 100: Gender Diverse Offenders, was implicated in the constitutional challenge against the federal government, brought by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms in 2025. In May of 2022 CSC introduced the policy on "gender diverse" offenders. The Investigative Journalism Bureau found that between 2017 and 2025, 57 transgender women had made 129 requests for transfer to a women's prison.

 

Of those requests, 35 were approved. There were 90 transgender women in federal prison by October 2025, 73 located in men's prisons and 17 accommodated in women's prisons. Of that number, eight had undergone gender-affirming surgery. Funded by the JCCF, lawyers brought the lawsuit on behalf of Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights, with the argument that allowing transgender inmates to be housed in women's prisons exposes female inmates to potential physical and psychological harms, violating their Charter rights.

 

Constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury, in a JCCF news release, stated that the defence used by the government indicates that serious complaints have been raised by female inmates regarding their experiences in women's prisons. The government has been revealed to have responded to claims involving 13 gender-diverse inmates alleged to have "taken and will continue to take, advantage of CD 100."  No specific allegations were provided for four of the inmates -- "It is their mere presence in a women's institution that is alleged to cause harm to cisgender female inmates". 

 

Correctional facility (Courtesy of Jeffrey Zalesny)