The transgender inmates in Quebec will now be imprisoned in detention facilities according to their anatomical sex, not their gender.
On Wednesday, the Quebec government announced changes that focus on guaranteeing “justice on the treatment of all inmates,” said François Bonnardel, Public Security Minister of Quebec, in a press release online.
Previously, transgender inmates could request to imprison at the center of detention of their choice. For security reasons, they could also choose to be isolated from the general population both in their accommodation sector and during social reintegration programs.
The announcement continues to the case of Levana Ballouz, a trans woman who was convicted of murdering her partner Synthia Bussières and her two children Eliam Al-Ballouz, 5 years old, and Zac Al-Ballouz, 2, in 2022.
Balleuz, 38, was known as Mohamad to Ballouz at the time of charges. Once convicted, he made a request to meet his time in a federal women’s prison.
The application was denied and is currently being held in a prison of men. His case caused a debate about where trans prisoners should meet.
The Quebec government says that the new guide announced this week promotes safety and access for transgender inmates to social reintegration and socialization services.
“Security must always be the first, for the benefit of the correctional officers, our fellow citizens and the imprisoned,” Bonnardel said in the online press release.
Sylvie Guertin, Bussières’s mother who was killed, says she received a call from Bonnardel informing him about the new board on Tuesday.
“I said ‘Oh, my God’. I was very happy to listen to the news.” They listened to me. “
She says the minister was inspired by his plea. “He said ‘It is not correct that a man who killed a woman and then two children go to a women’s prison,” Guertin recalled.
From the beginning, he was against Ballouz’s plea of being placed in a women’s prison, especially taking into account the violent nature of the crimes committed against his daughter and grandchildren.
Celeste Trianon says he believes that Ballouz’s case certainly played an important role in the government’s decision to move forward with this directive.
Trianon, a trans defender and a legal clinic operator in Montreal, says he understands the logic of wanting to prevent people from exploiting women in prisons. But he added that a case can “incite fear” although there are solutions to address difficult situations.
“We cannot like a model template of what a trans person is and apply to all,” he said.
“My initial reaction was the disgust of seeing that such a flagrant transphobia is pushed forward.”
“I don’t see how they could justify it,” says the lawyer
Alexandra Paquette, prison lawyer and president of the Association des avocats Carterraralistes du Québec, He says that this movement is a step back for fundamental rights.
“From what we understand … if your anatomy is male genitals, you will have to undergo surgery to reach a female institution,” said Paquette.
“[That] It does not correspond to the concept of gender identity. “
She points out that in 2017, the Federal Government made it possible for people to request to be imprisoned in the institution that corresponds to their gender identity.
Since then, most provinces have adopted similar policies in provincial prisons, but Packette says that a policy has been expected in Quebec. Meanwhile, he says that cases have been resolved in case by case.
Quebec’s trans -prison population represents 0.1%
With the imprisoned transgender population that represents only 0.1 percent of the prison population in Quebec, only six people, Paquette says that government energy could have been used to improve personnel endowment and resource problems in detention centers.
“The provincial government is a very conservative way to write such instructions,” said Paquette. “I don’t see how they could justify it.”
Amy Matychuk, a lawyer based in Alberta in a practice of right of misconduct of justice of prison and police, says there are many transgender people who will choose not to seek any kind of surgical modification to their body, but that are not yet identified as the sex that were assigned to birth.
Require that people go to an institution based on their sexual characteristics is not a directive that prevents violence against trans people, he says.
“And it is not a policy that will necessarily protect other correctional inmates or officials,” Matychuk said, noting that there are no good data that show that this type of policies really protect anyone.
In a statement sent by email, a spokesman for Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security said that this directive immediately enters into force and that training and guidelines will be available for staff in the near future.
The office confirmed that this will affect trans inmates who are already imprisoned, but that “they will be taken into account so as not to displace them during their imprisonment, not to hinder their social reintegration.”
When asked about the exceptions to this directive, the office said they could request whether there are predominant health or safety risks for the imprisoned trans or other people imprisoned in the same detention center.
