80% of Canadians want to segregate prisoners based on biological sex, says poll

Rebel News

A new poll found that many Canadians still want to segregate men from women in federal prisons. However, younger Canadians are less receptive to the idea.

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute uncovered that 80% of Canadians believe it's either "somewhat important" or "very important" to segregate prisoners based on biological sex.

Canadians over 55 valued segregation the most, while the youngest group, aged 18 to 34, appreciated segregation the least.

The poll comes after recent data from the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) revealed that nearly half (44%) of male-to-female transgender inmates went to prison for sexual offences.

However, opinions are split on how to house male-to-female transgender prisoners.

Half of the respondents said the federal government should house prisoners in separate facilities. In contrast, the other half could not decide where to accommodate them.

Women respondents supported housing male-to-female transgender prisoners in women's facilities at a rate of 16% more than men. At the same time, their male counterparts expressed strong opinions on conflicting sides of the questionnaire.

Though male respondents said sex segregation was "very important" (42%) at a higher rate than female respondents (35%), the group also noted that sex segregation was "not important at all" (11%) — nearly twice as high as women who voted that way.

However, young adults supported segregation by biological sex the least.

A quarter of those between 18 and 34 expressed in the poll that sex-segregating was "somewhat unimportant" or "not important at all."

Given four answers, 68% of young adults did not select "it's very important" when asked if the federal government should separate male and female prisoners into different facilities.

Gender has become a recent concern in Canada's penitentiaries as reports have surfaced of violence and sexual coercion involving "gender diverse" inmates.

A CSC research brief found that men are typically involved in sexually coercive and violent (SCV) incidents in prison — as are women and "gender-diverse" persons.

In 2021/22, federal prisons reported 39 offender-on-offender SCV incidents, varying from isolated incidents of unwanted touching to extended periods of abuse.

Though men constituted the majority of victims and instigators in SCV incidents, smaller subgroups of women and gender-diverse persons are also involved. When asked how many gender-diverse persons were involved in these incidents, the CSC would not release the numbers citing privacy concerns. 

In November 2021, the federal government reported 93 people in federal prison as being "gender-diverse," most of whom reside in male facilities. Indigenous Canadians comprised 69% of instigators and 57% of victims.

In January 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the sex-based placement system "torture," despite a 2017 CSC policy mandating transgender inmates not receive special treatment. 

The directive reads: "Pre-operative male-to-female offenders with gender dysphoria will be held in men's institutions, and pre-operative female-to-male offenders with gender dysphoria will be held in women's institutions."

However, Trudeau permitted transgender inmates to serve their sentences according to their gender identity. 

In April, the Canadian Human Rights Commission said Canada needs to address SCV in federal prisons for women. The commission said it is "deeply concerned" by the lack of action in handling SCV and abuse in federal prisons.

A national study on SCV will begin in early 2023 and will likely be completed within a year.