Juno News - November 23, 2023


SCANDAL： Violent men wreaking havoc inside women’s prisons

Hosted by
Harrison Faulkner
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Matthew Harkes Frederick Radcliffe Michelle Williams Bill C-63 Carissa Marie Radcliffe Alberta RADFEMS Catherine Lynn Adam Laboukain Tara DeSouza Isla Bryson Cause Bar Heather Auger Pyro Glad
This is what “decolonization” really means Media goes into overdrive to attack Poilievre

Episode Stats


Length

23 minutes

Words per minute

155.06

Word count

3,720

Sentence count

218

Harmful content

Misogyny

12

sentences flagged

Toxicity

14

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In 2017, Justin Trudeau promised to ensure that trans women were housed in prisons according to their gender identity, not their sex. But since then, Canada has housed dangerous male offenders in women's prisons. Why is this happening? And why is it happening in our country? In this episode, we talk to Heather Mason, a woman who has dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of trans prisoners.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Few Canadians know what life is like behind bars, and thanks to the legacy media's complete
00:00:11.320 negligence on this issue, fewer Canadians know that violent male sex offenders are living amongst
00:00:18.200 vulnerable women inside Canada's female correctional facilities. Take the story of
00:00:24.180 Frederick Radcliffe, who now goes by the name of Carissa Radcliffe, a pedophile who was designated
00:00:29.520 as a dangerous offender in 2010, who now serves time in a Canadian female prison. Or take the story
00:00:36.080 of Adam Laboucan, a convicted pedophile who raped a three-month-old infant, who now claims to be a
00:00:43.180 woman, and is serving time at the Fraser Valley Institute for Women in the Mother Child Unit. Or 0.55
00:00:50.640 what about Matthew Harkes, a convicted male pedophile charged with 200 offenses of sexual abuse,
00:00:57.660 now living as a woman, and serving time in a women's prison? How and why is all of this happening 0.99
00:01:04.700 in our country? Well, let's start in 2017, when Justin Trudeau was holding a town hall event in
00:01:10.360 Kingston, Ontario, and took this question from a transgender attendee. My question to you is,
00:01:16.500 will you do your best to ensure that trans women are put in prison, or prison more appropriate to 1.00
00:01:22.020 their gender identity? The answer is yes. I will ensure that. I mean, this is a great example of
00:01:34.300 the value of having these community meetings like this in these town halls, because I'll admit,
00:01:42.060 I consider myself to be a fairly strong advocate for LGBTQ2 issues, and fairly aware of all the
00:01:51.020 different pressures, and this wasn't one that I had ever thought of. So thank you for bringing it
00:01:55.220 forward, and I will make sure that we look at it, and we address it, and we do right in recognizing
00:02:00.520 that trans rights are human rights. That was on January 12, 2017. On January 13, 2017, the very next
00:02:09.420 day, after Trudeau told Canadians that trans rights are human rights, and then you'll look into the issue,
00:02:15.320 Correctional Services Canada introduced a directive saying that inmates will be placed in prisons
00:02:20.600 according to their gender identity and not their sex. Later that same year, Justin Trudeau introduced
00:02:27.240 Bill C-16, making gender identity a protected characteristic in the Canadian Human Rights Act.
00:02:34.660 This has been followed up by directive after directive making it easier for dangerous male inmates
00:02:40.000 to simply claim that they are a woman and serve time in women's prisons. Now, this is happening all over
00:02:45.980 the Western world, where transgender insanity has taken hold of governments and organizations. But 1.00
00:02:51.780 unlike in other parts of the world where this is an issue, in Canada, legacy media has refused to talk
00:02:57.200 about it. In Scotland, when a male double rapist claimed he was a woman and was placed in a women's
00:03:02.820 prison, the public outcry was so harsh that the Scottish First Minister at the time, Nicola Sturgeon,
00:03:08.800 was forced to resign after this insane interview went viral across the world.
00:03:14.100 My question is, are all trans women women? You haven't answered that question.
00:03:17.860 Well, that's not the point that we're dealing with here.
00:03:21.020 That's the question I'm asking.
00:03:21.760 Trans women are women, but in the prison context, there is no automatic right for a trans woman.
00:03:26.860 So there are contexts where a trans woman is not a woman?
00:03:29.340 No, there is circumstances in which a trans woman will be housed in the male prison estate.
00:03:36.980 Is there any context in which a woman born as a woman will be housed in the male estate?
00:03:40.600 Look, we're talking here about trans women. 0.85
00:03:42.100 And I'm now asking about women born as women?
00:03:43.800 I don't think there are circumstances there, but...
00:03:46.580 So it's different for trans women?
00:03:47.660 Well, yes.
00:03:49.640 So they're not equal?
00:03:50.540 That is not... There is a risk assessment process done for trans women that takes account of the nature of the crime. 0.99
00:03:58.580 Clearly, significant concern arises out of sexual crime and whether it's appropriate for them to be in a female prison or a male prison.
00:04:06.520 Stick around for an interview with a woman who has devoted her life to speaking up on this issue
00:04:10.440 and for advocating for the rights of female inmates in this country.
00:04:13.980 Also, of course, stick around for the race show of the week.
00:04:17.720 But before we do that, drop a like in the video, help us out with subscribing to the True North YouTube channel.
00:04:22.140 And the comment question for the episode is this.
00:04:25.020 Why is the Canadian legacy media so silent on this issue?
00:04:30.980 Let me know in the comments and let's get into it.
00:04:33.340 Well, joining us now on the show is Heather Mason, a founding member of the organization Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights,
00:04:40.840 a volunteer group working to preserve the rights and protections of Canadian women and girls.
00:04:46.420 Heather, thank you so much for joining the show.
00:04:49.620 Thank you for having me on.
00:04:52.240 So before we get into the details and this just complete outrage that we're seeing in correctional facilities,
00:04:59.040 tell our audience a little bit about what started you on this path of advocating for women's rights inside our prisons.
00:05:06.840 So I actually am a former federal prisoner myself.
00:05:10.720 I did time in provincial and federal jail.
00:05:14.780 And when I got out, I originally started speaking on panels for the Elizabeth Fry Society in regards to strip searching and segregation.
00:05:23.400 And then I went to their national conference in Ottawa in 2019, and they were passing the inclusion policy.
00:05:30.940 And one of the women that I was in jail with got up and talked about her experience of being incarcerated with men who identified as women.
00:05:39.960 She was groomed and sexually harassed.
00:05:43.420 And the staff at the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies and the Elizabeth Fry Societies said, 0.99
00:05:50.460 you don't need a vagina to be a woman, and I'm concerned about the transphobia in the room. 1.00
00:05:55.660 And she actually left the stage crying and didn't have any support. 0.98
00:05:59.880 And it was at that moment that I realized somebody had to stand up and support these women that were in prison and recently released from prison.
00:06:09.020 And I decided to be that person.
00:06:11.500 And that is what has got me on to advocating for women in prison. 0.67
00:06:16.860 When you were in prison yourself, did you ever interact with men who were there with you?
00:06:24.580 Yes.
00:06:25.580 So when I was incarcerated, I got transferred to Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario in December 2017.
00:06:36.080 And they had just passed Bill C-16 that year.
00:06:40.780 And CSC, so Correctional Service of Canada, had actually just changed their policy that allowed me to do that.
00:06:46.860 men to transfer into women's prisons without having a gender dysphoria diagnosis, without being on hormones, and without having surgery.
00:06:56.680 So they had just started transferring them in when I was in.
00:07:00.980 So not only was I in prison with some of them, but I was actually in the Toronto halfway house with one of them as well.
00:07:08.540 Just incredible.
00:07:09.740 I mean, besides your organization that you're a part of, where are the other women's rights organizations?
00:07:16.020 Where are the other feminist groups speaking up about this? 1.00
00:07:18.200 It seems, at least from my perspective, pretty silent.
00:07:22.220 Yeah.
00:07:22.820 So the only women's organizations that stand up and speak out about this are like grassroots organizations. 0.99
00:07:29.380 So like you have COSBAR, you have WDI, Alberta RADFEMS, Gender Dissent, no organization that receives funding from the government or say like the United Way or other places like that.
00:07:46.940 None of them are speaking up about this issue because if they do, then they'll no longer get their funding.
00:07:53.200 So they just go along with the current narrative.
00:07:57.880 And we talked about this a little bit before the interview on the show.
00:08:01.820 It's the origin of this, the idea that a man who just claims that he's a woman can get access to a women's prison.
00:08:10.500 Did this all really kick off after Justin Trudeau was at that town hall speaking to a transgender person after he said that he would look into the issue?
00:08:19.200 Because a day after that, then the Correctional Services Canada mandate was changed.
00:08:26.040 I mean, is this really the origin of all this?
00:08:29.500 Yes.
00:08:29.960 So I actually submitted an access to information request and we received it, but it was all redacted.
00:08:37.940 So then we had to fight with the office to get it unredacted.
00:08:42.200 And so they're the commissioner's briefing notes on gender identity or expression.
00:08:49.460 And it states right in those briefing notes about Justin Trudeau and the town hall meeting and meeting to reassess the policy that they have.
00:09:01.160 It's unbelievable.
00:09:03.180 Now, in this 2022 Commissioner's Directive on Gender Diverse Offenders, it states that these transfers are going to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
00:09:15.440 And it's going to go through some sort of assessment for decision that includes a security check.
00:09:21.080 Now, if that's the case, I'm just wondering how it's possible that someone like some of these people who are violent, dangerous pedophiles end up passing these security checks and end up in prisons.
00:09:34.440 If they're going on this case-by-case basis, how do people like this, how do men like this end up in these women's facilities?
00:09:41.300 Because they have advocates and organizations supporting their transfers.
00:09:48.720 So the Elizabeth Fry Society actually puts on workshops teaching their staff how to get these men in women's prisons.
00:09:56.940 But there's also like Morgane, Auger, and BC that fight and teach them how to advocate for themselves, fill out the paperwork, get transferred into women's prisons. 1.00
00:10:09.040 Morgane, Auger, actually brags about being the one that helped Michael Williams get into the woman's prison.
00:10:18.980 For people that don't know who Michael Williams is, he actually murdered a 13-year-old indigenous girl in Edmonton.
00:10:28.740 And his nickname's Pyro because he likes fire and they tried to light her on fire. 0.93
00:10:33.880 She was also raped.
00:10:35.040 Morgane helped him get into Frasier Valley Institution for Women in BC. 0.73
00:10:43.740 You just explained an outrageous case.
00:10:46.520 Obviously, you're really close to this issue.
00:10:49.740 Can you tell us a little bit about more some of these horror stories, some of these men who are totally dangerous, totally violent,
00:10:56.980 and should have no interaction with women at all that are in these women's facilities? 1.00
00:11:00.980 Yeah, so there's actually one that goes by Catherine Lynn now.
00:11:06.780 He's been in for at least 25 years in the men's prison. 0.96
00:11:12.180 He actually slit the throat of a woman who didn't want to see him, and he raped her dead body. 0.81
00:11:21.400 He is in Grand Valley Institution for Women. 0.94
00:11:25.720 There's also Frederick Radcliffe, who goes by Carissa, and he has several charges against young teenage girls sexually assaulting them.
00:11:39.780 There's Matthew Harkes, who's a prolific serial pedophile, who has numerous, like, tons of victims, lots of charges, likes four- and five-year-old girls. 0.83
00:11:52.880 But actually, when he's in the women's prisons, he's like the number one predator because he grooms, sexually harasses, and sexually assaults the women inside. 0.83
00:12:01.660 He targets women who are developmentally delayed or who are childlike in appearance.
00:12:08.360 There's also Tara DeSouza, who actually molested a three-month-old baby and caused so much damage the baby had to have reconstructive surgery.
00:12:19.420 The list just goes on and on.
00:12:21.860 With the report that CSC put out last year, it states that 94% of these men committed their offenses as their biological sex.
00:12:35.700 So this means that nearly 100% of these men who identify as women committed their crimes living as men. 0.60
00:12:43.960 It also shows that 44% are in for sex crimes, and that 86% are in for violent crimes or indeterminate sentences, which mean they're more than likely dangerous offenders.
00:12:57.380 And a lot of them do have that dangerous offender status.
00:13:02.480 Yeah, well, it's just unbelievable.
00:13:05.260 One of the things that you talked about at the Rebel News live event, which we briefly had a discussion over the weekend at, was that women who are in these prisons, who are forced to interact with these dangerous, violent males, are unable to speak up and to raise concerns about this.
00:13:26.540 Talk a little bit more about that, because that part to me really, really was shocking, that these female inmates can't make an issue out of the fact that they have to live amongst these violent, dangerous men. 0.83
00:13:40.900 Yeah, so as soon as we're transferred in, we're told that we're to accept these men and that we're not to call them men and that we must use she, her pronouns.
00:13:53.040 So we're groomed right from the beginning to participate in these delusions.
00:14:00.240 But there is a case where Matthew Harkes actually sexually assaulted an Indigenous woman in the bathroom.
00:14:07.800 And the women who lived in the house with Harkes locked him out of the house and wouldn't let him in the house, because in prison we live in cottages.
00:14:15.480 We don't live in, well, on medium compound, that is.
00:14:19.240 We don't live in, like, cells.
00:14:21.020 So he went and got the guards.
00:14:24.740 The guards came and said, if you don't let him in the house, we're going to put bullying in your paperwork.
00:14:30.200 And when you have something like bullying put in your paperwork, when you go for parole, that's a strike against you.
00:14:36.880 And it may cause you to not get parole and not get out.
00:14:42.220 So the women are told that they're being bigots or they're transphobic if they raise concerns about any of the men that are in prison.
00:14:54.040 Basically, they have no one to speak to, no one to support them.
00:14:58.140 That's why when a lot of the women get out, they end up contacting me. 1.00
00:15:02.340 They'll contact me on Twitter or on Facebook so that they can let me know what's going on.
00:15:08.820 Right.
00:15:10.620 Well, one of the things that I find shocking about this, and I have to admit that it wasn't an issue I was really paying attention to or knew enough about,
00:15:19.840 is the fact that in this research, other countries that have had this same thing going on,
00:15:25.660 it's been a major story in Scotland when a double rapist, Isla Bryson is the name that this guy was going by,
00:15:33.200 was transferred to a women's prison.
00:15:35.060 It caused such an uproar that it basically triggered the resignation of the Scottish First Minister.
00:15:40.280 Where is the outrage in Canada over this?
00:15:42.200 Why is it that, why is it that really, it's only a handful of outlets talking about this issue,
00:15:47.340 the legacy media don't want to seem to talk about it, and it doesn't seem to be a big issue at the political level?
00:15:53.260 Yeah, so that's our problem here in Canada.
00:15:56.120 Our mainstream media will not report on it.
00:15:59.120 The only people that report on it would be like True North, Rebel News, Toronto Sun.
00:16:05.080 And a lot of people won't accept stories from right-wing conservative news sources.
00:16:12.200 So that's an issue for us here.
00:16:16.120 If CBC or CTV were to actually pick up the stories and report on it, then there might be more outrage.
00:16:24.340 But I haven't had any success with them reporting on any of this, even with the documents from the government.
00:16:31.420 I had a news agency report on one of my protests.
00:16:35.700 So I put on 21 protests across Canada, even had a National Day of Action where we had protests in like eight different places in Canada at the same time.
00:16:45.840 And I believe it was my second protest.
00:16:48.260 So back in 2021, I had a news agency report on my protest, and they put an article out.
00:16:55.460 And within days, it was like scrubbed from the web because trans activists were calling and complaining so much that they pulled the article.
00:17:07.440 And that's what we deal with here.
00:17:08.780 Yeah, well, it almost seems as though if the legacy media aren't talking about the issue, then they're either not complicit necessarily, but they don't care about these women who are forced to live beside violent, dangerous male prisoners.
00:17:23.920 I really don't understand why they would be so silent on this issue.
00:17:28.160 Um, I believe there's a lot of bullying going on, like you're on Twitter, I'm on Twitter, we see how trans activists are.
00:17:38.540 Um, and there is, there's a lot of bullying that goes on, like they'll dox them, they'll try to get them fired, they'll try to get their funding pulled.
00:17:48.260 Um, and honestly, we need someone that's going to have enough courage to stand up and say, I don't care if you dox me.
00:17:57.160 I don't care if you try to get me fired, I'm going to do the right thing here and get this information out to the public.
00:18:03.880 Um, I've been in contact with CBC and CTV, um, journalists before, and they've wanted to write a story, but it gets axed by their editor.
00:18:13.820 Their editor won't let them print the story.
00:18:17.260 Unbelievable.
00:18:17.860 I mean, that's a scandal in itself almost, you know, these, these policies are, are, they're federal policies, right?
00:18:24.500 They, when, when Justin Trudeau says he's going to look into the issue the next day, Correctional Services Canada changes their, their directive.
00:18:32.360 And then there's all of these different layers that come into place over the years that have caused this problem.
00:18:37.340 Um, I'm guessing that there is some sort of federal legislative solution to this.
00:18:42.980 Now, the question I have for you is, have you been in contact with any conservative politicians or, or any politicians who seem willing to actually, uh, a listen to you and, and, and what you're, and what you're advocating for and, and be a promise to commit to ending this absurd practice.
00:19:00.340 Um, so back in, I want to say 2021, I sent out letters to, I believe every single MP and I got a few callbacks.
00:19:13.200 Um, the liberals are not interested.
00:19:15.820 Um, I had a meeting with like one liberal MP and they kind of hijacked the meeting and wanted to use me, um, for their, um, they wanted to change the prostitution laws in Canada.
00:19:29.060 Um, so the meeting wasn't about my issues.
00:19:33.260 They were trying to hijack it and get me on board for their, their thing.
00:19:38.420 I've spoken to some MPs that are conservative, but it doesn't seem like they really wanted to put their neck on the line for this.
00:19:46.320 They wanted me to do most of the work and obviously for free.
00:19:50.180 And it's like, I'm a mom and I work and I'm not in a financial position to be like doing all of this work on my own.
00:20:00.260 Like, that's why I'm reaching out to them.
00:20:02.120 I need help.
00:20:03.500 Um, the only party in Canada that actually even put out a statement on this was, uh, the PPC.
00:20:13.160 And again, they don't even have a seat, but they acknowledged it and put a statement out on it.
00:20:20.820 I do notice more and more now, especially in Alberta, they're really talking about it and trying to pass policies.
00:20:28.440 Um, so I'm hoping that the times have changed and there's more people with courage to speak up, say something, do something.
00:20:38.180 Um, yeah, well, I feel like so much of where, where we're at in this country is a result of a lack of courage from people who are actually elected to speak up on these issues and speak up for constituents.
00:20:50.200 Um, you know, thank you so much for coming on Heather, before I let you go, can you tell us and tell the audience where Canadians can learn more about you, where they can follow you on social media and the work that you're doing with your organization?
00:21:03.400 Yeah, so they can follow me on Twitter, uh, Heather Mason. 0.56
00:21:08.700 Also, I'm on Facebook as well.
00:21:11.200 I do have a fundraiser page pinned to the top of my Twitter account where they can donate to me to help with like travel and accommodations and buying signs and traveling all over Canada to protest.
00:21:24.100 You can also reach out to Cause Bar.
00:21:25.920 That's Canadian women's sex space, right? 1.00
00:21:27.700 So we have members all across Canada, we meet up, we do all sorts of fun activities together, we write letters, we support each other, and we fight not only on the prisons, but, you know, washrooms, change rooms, sports, crime stats, children, there's so much to fight.
00:21:46.000 Um, so you can contact us and be put in touch with women in your area. 0.97
00:21:52.040 Amazing.
00:21:52.660 Thank you so much for coming on.
00:21:54.740 Thank you for having me.
00:21:56.300 All right.
00:21:56.780 Time for the ratio of the week.
00:21:58.600 The winner this week is the Toronto police.
00:22:01.420 You see, they wanted to remind us all that earlier this week was transgender day of remembrance.
00:22:07.440 Apparently that's a day when we honor and remember the transgender lives lost due to hate and intolerance.
00:22:14.180 As the police wrote on Twitter, on transgender day of remembrance,
00:22:18.360 we mourn and remember those who have lost their lives by anti-transgender violence.
00:22:23.080 Hate crimes have no place in our city.
00:22:25.460 Report any allegations of hate-motivated crimes to police for investigation.
00:22:29.960 40 replies to only 33 likes.
00:22:32.580 Still, probably more engagement than the Toronto police have ever gotten on social media.
00:22:36.700 The Peaceful Canadian writes,
00:22:38.180 Glad to see my taxes going toward the support of political propaganda.
00:22:41.960 Meanwhile, 30-plus shootings, stabbings, and assaults in Toronto over a single week.
00:22:47.500 Can you post the statistics of these, quote, trans hate crimes?
00:22:51.520 I want to see these alarming numbers that justify a remembrance day for trans people. 1.00
00:22:56.120 Seems like a goddamn joke to me. 0.99
00:22:58.200 The city is doomed. 0.99
00:23:00.320 Guaranteed at this rate in five years, police uniforms will be pink.
00:23:05.500 What a joke.
00:23:06.560 Focus on real crimes.
00:23:08.520 Would anything like that really surprise us at this rate?
00:23:10.980 All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us this week on the show.
00:23:13.540 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:23:15.040 Reminder to let me know your answer to the comment question.
00:23:17.760 Why is the legacy media silent on the issue of dangerous male inmates living inside women's prisons?
00:23:25.080 Let me know your answer to the comment question.
00:23:26.960 My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ratioed.
00:23:30.060 We'll be right back then.
00:23:35.620 We'll see you next week.
00:23:36.160 We'll be right back.
00:23:40.500 How is the