Author: Alex Dhaliwal
The federal government has acknowledged that two transgender inmates in women’s prisons faced sexual-assault charges following complaints from female inmates, while defending its gender-based prison policy.
Ottawa disclosed the cases in a statement of defence filed Monday in a constitutional challenge against Correctional Service Canada’s policy governing “gender diverse” offenders.
According to the filing, one inmate was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of criminal harassment in May 2020 after a female inmate filed a complaint.
A second inmate was charged with two counts of sexual assault following a complaint from a female inmate in October 2024.
The filing does not establish that either inmate was convicted of those charges, as first reported by the National Post.
The lawsuit was launched in 2025 by Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights (CAWSBAR), with lawyers funded by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
CAWSBAR is challenging Commissioner’s Directive 100, arguing that allowing transgender inmates to be housed in women’s institutions exposes female inmates to physical and psychological harm and violates their Charter rights.
CSC’s directive permits offenders who prefer it to be placed in an institution according to their gender identity or expression, regardless of sex, unless overriding health or safety concerns cannot be resolved.
Transfers are assessed individually, with the Deputy Commissioner for Women serving as the final decision-maker for transfers to women’s institutions.
CSC introduced its current directive in May 2022, replacing an interim policy adopted in 2017 after Parliament added gender identity and expression as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The government denies that the policy violates female inmates’ Charter rights.
Ottawa denies that alleged harm in women’s prisons resulted from CD 100, arguing transfers are individually assessed for inmate and institutional safety.
CAWSBAR alleges 45 female inmates were impacted in 59 incidents of harm.
Ottawa said the plaintiffs provided insufficient details for it to respond to 45 of those 59 alleged incidents.
Of the remaining 14, 10 allegedly occurred at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont., three at Fraser Valley Institution in Abbotsford, B.C., and one at Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge in Saskatchewan.
The allegations include a 2018 complaint that resulted in a police investigation but no charges, a 2019 report of sexual assault and a 2021 complaint alleging sexual and physical assault.
The government disputed several other allegations.
The inmate charged in 2020 was also alleged to have instigated five additional incidents involving three female inmates. Ottawa said the inmate was not involved in four of them, while a female inmate was also found to be an instigator in the fifth.
The inmate charged following the 2024 complaint was identified in another alleged incident, which the government said was a false allegation.
Constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury, whose organization is funding the challenge, said Ottawa’s own defence demonstrates that female inmates have raised serious safety complaints.
“The government’s own Defence shows that female inmates have made serious complaints about what has happened to them in women’s prisons, including complaints that resulted in sexual-assault charges,” Fleury said.
“Female inmates are being exposed to real risks and real harm,” he added. “This case is about protecting their safety, dignity and constitutional rights.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has vowed that a Conservative government would bar biological males from women’s prisons.
“Another reason Conservatives will ban biological men from women’s prisons. Period, full stop,” Poilievre said in response to reporting on the government’s filing.
Poilievre previously criticized CSC’s policy in December 2024 after convicted triple murderer Mohamad Al Ballouz, who identifies as a woman and goes by Levana, sought to serve a life sentence in a women’s institution.
“Surreal: A man who killed his wife and two kids now claims he is a woman to go to a female prison,” Poilievre said at the time.
“I can’t believe I have to say this: but when I’m PM, there will be no male prisoners in female jails. Period.”
Al Ballouz was convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of his wife, Synthia Bussières, and first-degree murder in the deaths of their two sons, five-year-old Eliam and two-year-old Zac.
Data previously obtained by the Investigative Journalism Bureau found that 57 transgender women made 129 requests to transfer to women’s prisons between 2017 and 2025.
Thirty-five requests were approved, while more than 70 were denied.
As of October 2025, 90 transgender women were incarcerated in federal prisons, including 17 housed in women’s institutions and 73 in men’s institutions. Eight of the 17 housed in women’s institutions had undergone gender-affirming surgery.
Ottawa also responded to allegations involving 13 gender-diverse inmates whom CAWSBAR accuses of taking advantage of the policy. For four, the government said no specific incidents were alleged beyond their presence in women’s prisons.
The Federal Court rejected Ottawa’s bid to strike the lawsuit in May, granting CAWSBAR standing to proceed with its constitutional challenge without ruling on the underlying allegations.
Ottawa is now asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit with costs.