Ontario Elizabeth Fry Societies make their allegiance to men clear.

I called in to a CBC radio show called “Ontario Today”. The topic at hand was women’s experience with the Ontario justice system. Being an early bird, I got the first worm — I was the first caller on the show, and the only real-time caller with experience in an Ontario women’s jail.

I shared that while in custody, I was housed in a range with two men. One was a gay man with long black hair who had recently started taking estrogen. He was very open about his plans to retain his genitals. The other was a straight man with short hair and stubble on his face. This second man ended up being removed after only a week because he cornered one of the youngest women on our range in her cell in an attempt to sexually assault her.

I also talked about the case of Charles Waddling-Leeson. A man, now designated a Dangerous Offender, who while awaiting his Dangerous Offender application hearing, began identifying as a woman and was moved into an Ontario women’s jail. This man had 40 violent convictions, many of which were for sexually violent crimes against women, and was “vague and contemplative” about his desire to transition. According to Waddling-Leeson’s risk assessments, he was in the 99.99th percentile for sexual re-offending and the 98th percentile for violent re-offending, yet Ontario Corrections thought there were no over-riding safety concerns that should prohibit him from being housed with women.

The host, Amanda Pfeffer, was quick to say she could not verify my experience, but everyone can go read Charles Waddling-Leeson’s reasons for judgement to find out what kind of men are being housed with women. I challenge anyone to read the judge’s decision to find Waddling-Leeson a Dangerous Offender and come out thinking that he’s a vulnerable type of woman.

Lindsay Martin, President of the Elizabeth Fry Societies of Ontario and Operations Director & Systemic Advocate of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northwestern Ontario, responded to my call in the typical way — she showed zero empathy for women locked up with violent, fully intact men. She didn’t even bother to bring up how supposedly vulnerable, marginalized and at risk for male violence men who claim to be women are. Martin’s first response to my call was to talk about non-inclusion:

And to address her concerns about trans folks being incarcerated with them, I think that really speaks to non-inclusion of transwomen in our systems.

And that’s where I’m going to leave that.

Note that in this scenario, women like me are the “systems”, since our actual correctional systems are alarmingly inclusive of men who say they’re women.

When the host pushed further and asked, in a rather clumsy way, if fully intact men should be jailed with women, Martin wasted no time in saying “absolutely”.

Martin expounded:

And the reason I believe that is because, you know, there are a lot of things that go on behind prison walls, and I think targeting and focussing on transwomen in custody is not a conversation that should be focussed on.

There is definitely concerns about male guards in prison.

You know, when we’re talking about sexual assaults, there’s a recent one that just occurred in southwest Detention Centre.

There’s alleged sexual assault against female inmates and the women there.

And I think that that, you know, those conversations need to be had, and I think that we’re focussing too much on …

<host interrupts> Okay, Lindsay, I hear you. We’re gonna be right back from your calls in 90 seconds.

So, the reason women should not have female-only incarceration is because male correctional officers sometimes sexually assault the women they’re tasked with overseeing. If this doesn’t make sense to you, it’s because it doesn’t make sense.

Why should the fact that one group of men harm women mean that another group of men, who are arguably more likely to harm women, should be granted access to where women are vulnerable?

The answer is, it shouldn’t.

NOTE: Lindsay Martin appears to prefer they/them pronouns. I prefer sex-based pronouns, so that is what I use.

The full show can be heard here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-45-ontario-today/clip/16188454-womens-experience-ontario-justice-system-story