Dear [MP’s Name]:
As a concerned constituent in your riding of [NAME OF THE RIDING], I am writing to raise an urgent issue regarding a Charter Challenge launched by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) and Charter Advocates Canada (CAC) on behalf of Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (caWsbar). This lawsuit challenges the practice of housing transgender-identifying (transID) male inmates with female inmates in federal prisons, a policy that has sparked significant controversy and demands your attention as my parliamentary representative.
The lawsuit argues that this practice, which began with Bill C-16 in 2017 and was updated in 2022, violates female inmates’ Charter rights under Sections 7, 12 and 15, including their right to life, liberty, security of the person, and protection from cruel and unusual punishment. The heightened risk to female inmates is stark when one considers the data provided by Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) in 2024:
Viewed in aggregate, these numbers are alarming and suggest strongly that male sex offenders exploit CSC’s stance on gender self-identification to gain access to incarcerated women.
Before 2017, men who had completed sex reassignment surgery could be transferred to women’s prisons. Since the enactment of An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (Bill C-16), pre-operative male offenders have been transferred to women’s prisons. Female inmates have reported physical and psychological harms due to their presence, as highlighted by Heather Mason, a former inmate at Grand Valley Institution for Women and board member of caWsbar. With or without surgery, housing men with women in prison is dangerous and in direct opposition to Article 5 of the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
The safety and rights of female inmates—a vulnerable population—must be prioritized. As a concerned constituent, I am deeply troubled by the erosion of women's sex-based rights within this context. I urge you to advocate for reforms that address these violations and ensure the availability of single-sex spaces in federal prisons.
Now that we have witnessed the real-life consequences of the legislation and Bill C-16's bureaucratic interpretation, we are even more convinced that allowing transID males into female prisons violates female inmates' rights under sections 1(a), 1(b), and 2(b) of the Canadian Bill of Rights. Your stance on this issue will significantly influence my future voting considerations and that of many others who share this concern.
Please let me know how you plan to address this issue as my elected Member of Parliament. For more details on the lawsuit, you can refer to the Justice Centre’s news release here: https://x.com/JCCFCanada/status/1909318392529776970. I look forward to your response and to seeing your commitment to defending women’s rights in this critical matter.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Contact Information]