Ep 870 ｜ Former Prisoner on the Dangers of Men in Women's Prisons ｜ Guest： Heather Mason
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
155.87535
Summary
Heather Mason is a former fentanyl addict who spent time in federal prisons. She saw firsthand what this integration of men into women s prisons actually looks like, and how it puts other women at risk. Since she has gotten out of prison, she has become a founding member of Canadian Women s Sex-Based Rights, an organization that fights for the rights of women, especially vulnerable women in prison. She s going to share her heartbreaking story with us today and how that actually led to the advocacy work that she does today.
Transcript
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Men are being transferred to women's prisons, not just in the United States, but also in Canada.
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This is putting the most vulnerable women at risk.
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She is a former fentanyl addict who spent time in federal prisons, saw firsthand what
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this integration of men into women's prisons actually looks like, how it puts other women
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Since she has gotten out of prison, she has become a founding member of Canadian Women's
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Sex-Based Rights, which is an organization that fights for the sex-based rights of women,
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She's going to share her heartbreaking story with us today and her experience in federal
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prison and how that actually led to the advocacy work that she does today.
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God has used her life in pretty incredible ways, and this is someone that we need to share
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This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Heather, thanks so much for taking the time to join us.
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Before we get started with our conversation, can you just tell us a little bit about who
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I was an addict for many years, been incarcerated.
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When I got out, I became an advocate for federally sentenced women, looking at their conditions,
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dealing with all sorts of the things that you deal with inside prisons.
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And it got me onto the topic of men who identify as women and transfer into women's prisons.
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So I ended up co-founding an organization called Cause Bar, so Canadian Women's Sex-Based Rights.
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And I've been fighting for rights and protections to single-sex spaces and putting on protests
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Wow, I am very thankful for the work you're doing, and I want to make sure that we focus
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But just so people kind of have the context of why you're doing what you do,
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I want to back up and just hear about your story.
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Childhood, whatever time you feel like kind of led you down the path of eventually ending up incarcerated.
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He was always in a different city or even country working.
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When I was 15 or 16, I started partying and doing drugs.
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But like most teenagers, well, I guess not all.
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And then I ended up dating a man that was nine years older than me.
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And he got me hooked on oxys, which actually eventually led to doing fentanyl patches.
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So I first did that and then I blame it on the government.
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So all of us did oxys, you know, very few of us died.
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And then they were like, oh, we have a problem.
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So what they did was they made oxyneos, what made them harder to abuse and thinking that
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But we didn't because we obviously had problems and didn't get the help we needed.
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So we actually changed to fentanyl patches and more people started dying.
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And the price of them just shot up because they started doing like the patch for patch program.
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So if you had a prescription to patches, you had to bring them back to the pharmacy in
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And then all of a sudden, fentanyl powder started coming out and more and more people
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And where are you getting the fentanyl patches and the oxy?
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At one point, I had a connection with a guy who worked in a disposal plant.
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So all the patches that got sent back to be destroyed, I would get them for a really good
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So I ended up selling drugs with my ex to support our drug habit.
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It was the easiest way to be able to afford that habit without committing other crimes like
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And then I got arrested for the last time, May 6, 2017.
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I was incarcerated to three years at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario.
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And tell me about the first time you got arrested.
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So also, my ex and I, we ended up having a child together.
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And we were walking to Shoppers Drug Mart so that I could get my prescription.
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So they're giving you a synthetic opiate in hopes that you're able to wean off the methadone and stay clean.
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And while you were trying to sustain your addiction, what was the situation like for your child?
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And the relationship that I was in was extremely toxic, abusive.
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But it was hard to stay away because of finances.
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You were on the methadone trying to stay clean while you were pregnant.
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And then you said that you were walking together to get your prescription.
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And the cops ended us arresting us on the side of the road.
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So they actually had a warrant to raid my ex's house.
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And they found a loaded sawed-off shotgun on over-under.
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So at the time when we got arrested, all I had on me was mace, like bear spray, which is
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So I ended up being charged with possession of a weapon and possession of narcotics.
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And then he was charged with everything that was found in his house because I didn't actually
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And so what happened to your son at that point?
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Um, the police let me call my father and he came to where we were being arrested on the
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And so I went to jail while I was pregnant, which was awful.
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And then two weeks later, I ended up getting arrested again.
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Um, but it was because I had an old, um, so it actually was a pen tube cut in half.
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So it was used as a hooter, like to smoke the fentanyl patches.
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So then I got possession of drug paraphernalia.
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And because I was already on bail, um, I had to go back to jail.
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And then my sister ended up bailing me out and I had a residential surety stipulation, which
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meant I had to live in my sister's house with her.
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So he ended up staying in and he ended up going to prison.
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And then how long were you clean after rehab and having your baby until you were arrested
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Probably about, so she would have been six and a half months old when I got arrested again.
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And the difficulty and staying clean, like you have two kids, you have some kind of familial
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The draw to drugs, I guess the draw to maybe even selling just to make that money.
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Tell us a little bit about what that's like for those who haven't experienced, like why
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I had a lot of, um, bad things that had happened to me and I didn't deal with that trauma.
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Um, and I didn't have a very good support system as a child.
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I basically was like on my own, had to fend for myself.
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I had to raise my sisters because my mom was high.
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Um, our house was like overrun with, um, junkies.
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So I would wake up in the morning before my sisters and I'd have to clean up the house
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because there would be like needles and drug paraphernalia laying around and I would clean
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Um, I saw a lot of things that I shouldn't have seen at a very young age.
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Um, I lost my childhood and had to become a parent very young.
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So I had a whole bunch of issues and then also being addicted to drugs.
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Um, so I seen a lot of crime, a lot of violence, which compounded my trauma.
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Um, so I was in a really dark place and I just, the drugs gave me like an escape from
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They numbed all that pain and I didn't have to feel those emotions.
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Um, and then with the drug dealing, it was, I thought that it was the better option over
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say prostituting myself or robbing banks or breaking into people's houses and stealing
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I was getting drugs and getting them at a discounted price and then selling them to other
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Um, cause just to let you know, cause you probably don't know, I was smoking up to two, 100 milligram
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So 200 milligrams of fentanyl and one, 100 milligram patch costs $600.
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And so the only way that you were able to make it work was through selling.
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And your sister, were you still living with your sister at this point when you got arrested
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Um, no, so, um, I'm grateful that my sister did bail me out, but it was rough because she
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So in the house that was her, her husband, her three kids and their dog.
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So the judge eventually let me move back into my house because I've had my house the whole
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I was just like sitting there with all my stuff in it with no one living in it.
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Um, and I was probably back home on my own for like two months and then I got arrested
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And then your two kids now, they went to go live with your sister?
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So my daughter went with her paternal aunt and my son went and lived with my brother.
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Um, so I ended up doing, I got six months and did four.
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And then as soon as I got out again, I was right back into the drugs because now I had
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the added guilt of not having my children and not like failing them as a mother.
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Um, it was the first time I was ever alone in my life because I was with my ex from the
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time I was 19 till all of this and I didn't know how to be alone.
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I didn't know how to sit in those like feelings.
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Um, so yeah, I started using again and then I ended up dealing with my charges from before
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because it takes a long time when you're going through trial and everything.
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So my first set of charges, I couldn't plead guilty to them.
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I had to wait until my ex went to court and pled guilty because they were afraid that if
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they let me plead guilty to just what was on me, that come trial, I would turn around and
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say what was in his house was mine and get him off.
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So they made me sit on bail and conditions for like two years.
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So I finally pled, was able to plead guilty and I got weekends.
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So I was actually doing weekends and I was just so messed up.
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Like I ended up overdosing in the jail on my weekends.
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Like the jail guards would know that I was extremely high and they would just throw me
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So they came to like wake me up for food and I wasn't waking up.
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And I remember finally coming to, and like, there was all these guards around me and the
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nurse was there and they were like trying to shake me awake and they were about to call
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Um, and then they just went and put me in a segregation cell.
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Um, and I felt like the jail knew I needed help.
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And what they did instead of getting me the help that I needed was they called the methadone
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clinic, told them I overdosed and, um, got me cut off my methadone.
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Because they said that I was mixing all these different drugs and that being on methadone was
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increasing my risk of, um, overdosing and dying, which is not, not false.
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Um, but getting me cut off of a drug that could help me get off these other drugs wasn't,
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Like, obviously, you know, I needed either detox, rehab, counseling, or all of them put
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So I was still doing my weekends when I ended up getting arrested again.
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And then I went to jail again, got six months, did four months, got out.
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And then I ended up getting arrested May 6th, 2017, which it was kind of like a blessing in
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But, um, at the same time, it's ironic because my house got raided and I heard the police come
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So like I jumped up at a bed and I had a little bit of dope and I hooped it.
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So for people that don't know what that is, that means I shoved it up my vagina.
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And, um, when he heard the cops come in, he threw all his dope on the ground and he's
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So I ended up, we both went to jail, but I went to jail with my drugs.
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And then I ended up getting charged for his drugs and he walked on all the charges.
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Um, the crown came to me and was like, I'll give you a plea deal.
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Um, you plead guilty to trafficking of fentanyl and I will give you three years.
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If you fight this and go to trial, I'm asking for five to six.
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So I took the plea deal of three years for trafficking of fentanyl and my co-accused walked on all
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Um, and karma, cause he ended up getting arrested like a year later for accessory after the fact
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So then tell me about your experience in federal prison, because obviously, I mean, for anyone,
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it would be an impactful moment in their life, but you have gone on to then advocate for women
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So this must, I mean, you must have learned a lot in those three years.
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So tell us a little bit about, you know, the highs and lows, the lessons that you learned
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in some of the trials that you experienced when you were in there.
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Um, yeah, so obviously I had quite the experience.
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Um, the last time that I got arrested, um, I actually applied for a transfer to Windsor,
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Ontario, where there was a new super jail and I got transferred there and I wanted to go
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there because they had more programs and more opportunities for me to work on myself.
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And in Sarnia jail, there's just, there's no opportunities.
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You're in this tiny cell locked down all the time.
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So if people don't know what a cell looks like, it's probably like six feet by seven feet.
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So there's a woman on the top bunk, a woman on the bottom bunk, and then there's a third
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So from their waist down, um, it's under the bed from their waist up, their head is beside
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Um, so I ended up going to Windsor jail where they don't triple bunk you and your rooms are,
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I probably completed, um, no, 85 Bible studies through correspondence in the mail with church.
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Um, yeah, I really got into all the church groups.
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Like if it weren't for our Christian volunteers, I don't think I would be where I am today.
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They were just like, so loving and caring and they didn't judge me and they looked at me
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I needed them to, um, support me and tell me I'm doing great.
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And I remember them always telling me that I have this sparkle in my eye and that they really
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think that when I get out, I'm going to do great things and I'll be forever appreciative
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I also went to NA and then there was for the first time ever, um, they were doing a walls
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It's when people are awaiting courts, um, or who have been refused bail.
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Cause when you're sentenced, you usually are sent to a sentence jail.
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And if you're sentenced over two years, then you go to the penitentiary prison, which is
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So the university of Windsor had this course that they were coming in and doing.
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So it was like seven university students from the university and seven of us prisoners and
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a professor would come in and we would learn together as one.
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So it's like there were, they, they weren't better than us.
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So I ended up doing that course and it actually was a women's gender studies course.
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And I actually, when I pled guilty in court, they wanted to sentence me.
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And I was like, look, judge, like I'm doing this university course.
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I want to complete this course and just sentence me to federal in three months when I'm done.
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So I ended up going to federal in December, 2017, and it was like complete culture shock.
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I never realized how bad provincial jail was, how badly they treated you until I got to federal
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because I was minimum security because I'm not a, I'm not a public safety risk.
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Like those things never happened in provincial.
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And then once I got there, I just was doing every single program and activity that I could do to keep
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Again, I involved myself with all the church groups like Celebrate Recovery, AA, NA.
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Um, but I saw a lot of really bad stuff while I was inside.
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I saw the way we were treated, um, just everything like the abuse from the guards, um, how women who
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were like ADHD and were on medication that the prison won't give you your ADHD medication on the
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weekends because you're not in school and you don't work on weekends.
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So then these women were unmedicated on the weekend, which impacted them huge.
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And they would act out and then they'd be disciplined for it.
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Um, I just saw a lot of crazy stuff and it was really traumatizing.
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So they're not supposed to strip search you unless there's a need for it.
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Sometimes I was strip searched four times a day, which is absolutely insane if you think about it,
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but you would be strip searched while you're on your period as well.
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So then you'd have to remove your tampon in front of them.
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You would also have to put your tampon back in, in front of them.
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So the whole time you're like, please don't get blood on the floor.
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And if you do, you have to clean it up in front of them.
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And they would make comments about your body because they'd feed you like 3000, um, calories a day,
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So while you're strip searching in front of them, they would make comments about your body.
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Like we're not already depressed and self-conscious as it is.
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So that's why it was so impactful, really, not just for the first time when you were in prison,
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but probably for the first time in your life when you like met with these Christian groups
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and counselors and you really felt like they just treated you like a human.
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And they always tried to do special things for us.
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So they would try to bring us in treats or they would do fun activities with us.
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I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't done that in jail.
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And like, what really changed me was I had all these weird things that happened to me.
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And so an example, this one time, there was a woman who got transferred to Windsor jail.
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So the sergeant came in and was like, hey, do you know so-and-so?
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And I'm like, she's the one that ratted me out.
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Like, I don't want to see something screw up, like, you know, what you're doing here.
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And I went back into my cell and I picked up my Bible study.
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And it said, how can you ask God for forgiveness when you can't forgive others?
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And I just got goosebumps because like, just little things like that just happened all
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And gosh, I mean, God just cares about you so much.
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I know that it seems like so many people and so many places failed you.
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But obviously, like, it's obvious to me that he had his hand on you and that he even had
00:28:30.640
his hand on your children and that he guided you in the way that you did and that he's redeemed
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And I just hope that those like Christian women that you got to meet with were representations
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of that to you, that it's not just them that that were loving to you, but that they were
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showing you that the God who created you really, really loves you and values you.
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And to me, just from an outsider looking at it, it seems like that was that was really
00:29:00.560
And so tell me about then getting out and then being the advocate.
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advocate that you are now, what made you start caring about women's sex-based rights,
00:29:43.060
So just to backtrack a bit, but I was pretty, I was pretty oblivious to all of this.
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So when I was incarcerated in provincial jail in 2015, it's when I first noticed that there
00:29:57.220
was men who identified as women, um, in the Windsor jail, they had, um, different ranges.
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So they had direct supervision where guards were on range with you 24 seven, and you had quite
00:30:13.560
And then across the hall was indirect supervision.
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You didn't really get a whole lot of privileges.
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Um, the guards would come through every half an hour to check.
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So I was taken off range Monday to Friday and the guards would walk me into the laundry
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So I would talk to the guards and they're like, yeah, like, um, this person's a sex offender.
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So they're hiding out on the women's range and like the female guards identify as, were
00:31:00.780
So they, they, yeah, they still had their penis, but they identified as being a woman.
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So they were trying to identify as these weren't just men who got a special privilege of being
00:31:14.900
They were actually trying to say that they were women.
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So they were hiding from the men because they wouldn't be safe on the men's range because
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people who have crimes against women and children are not safe on men's ranges.
00:31:35.180
And when the guards were walking into the laundry job, like I remember the one day that
00:31:39.420
I'm complaining that they had to strip search, um, this guy that was across the hall.
00:31:44.200
And every time they had strip search him, he would get an erection.
00:31:49.740
So that was my first experience of that, but I didn't really understand what was going
00:31:55.600
Um, but they still separated you women from these men who identified as women at this point.
00:32:05.000
So it hadn't passed into our Canadian human rights act.
00:32:08.880
It was only our provincial human rights act and all our provincial jails operate different.
00:32:16.420
Whereas our federal it's there's policy and procedures and they all are basically the same.
00:32:23.500
Um, and then when I was transferred to prison is in 2017.
00:32:31.680
So gender identity or expression had just been added into our Canadian human rights act.
00:32:40.420
Um, and then more and more were transferring in.
00:32:44.060
And then when I was in the halfway house, so after I got released from prison, I had to
00:32:52.040
And there was a man living there in our halfway house.
00:32:55.600
Um, so to get back to your question, I received a Facebook, um, message.
00:33:04.600
So I saw it and I didn't know who this person was.
00:33:08.760
And it was April Hallie who lives in Newfoundland.
00:33:12.300
And she said, Hey, I know that you were in prison.
00:33:17.020
Can you talk to me about men in women's prisons specifically?
00:33:29.760
And the person who she actually asked about, I was in the halfway house with, um, and then
00:33:38.360
I ended up winning like a scholarship to, um, this conference in Ottawa.
00:33:46.060
So I was in the Elizabeth Fry halfway house and the Elizabeth Fry halfway house is, there's
00:33:54.860
a whole bunch of halfway houses across Canada for women.
00:34:00.160
So case the Canadian association of Elizabeth Fry societies is the top of the umbrella.
00:34:07.760
Um, so case was having their national conference in Ottawa in 2019 and I won a scholarship.
00:34:15.400
So I got my travel and accommodation paid for to attend this conference in Ottawa.
00:34:23.740
And while I was there, they passed their inclusion policy and a woman I knew from prison had gotten
00:34:31.940
up and stated how she was groomed and sexually harassed by a prolific serial, um, serial pedophile
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well at Grand Valley and that it traumatized her and triggered her because she had suffered
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And the women at this conference were like, you don't need a vagina to be a woman.
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And, um, I don't like the transphobia in this room and they didn't support her.
00:35:10.100
In prison, she was groomed by a man who identified as a woman.
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Matthew Harkes, who's a prolific serial pedophile.
00:35:21.680
So like, I know that it's Canada and so it's different, but that's around the time in the
00:35:26.380
United States of the Me Too movement and Believe All Women.
00:35:31.420
So at the same time that that's happening, which we've experienced our fair share of this in
00:35:35.680
the United States too, at the same time that's happening, basically women are told to sit
00:35:40.940
If the man who raped them or molested them, whatever identified as a woman.
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And it was crazy because all these women are paid to advocate for federally sentenced women.
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CAIFS is the only national organization in Canada that supports federally sentenced women
00:36:10.280
There was a lot of yelling between the federally sentenced women and the people who worked for
00:36:21.380
There was, there was a total divide, a total divide.
00:36:35.300
I ended up meeting a lot of women who didn't support the policy and actually all the workers
00:36:42.200
who worked for CAIFS who did not support the full inclusion policy ended up leaving CAIFS.
00:36:51.880
And now pretty much all the women that work there in support of, um, trans women in women's
00:37:06.220
That's what got me to see what was really going on.
00:37:09.140
And when I got back to Toronto from Ottawa, I went into my message folder on Facebook and
00:37:19.740
And that's when I started speaking out and advocating for women and documenting everything
00:37:26.180
and sending off access to information requests and finding like-minded women within Canada
00:37:34.780
and co-founding Cause Bar and putting on all the protests that I put on across Canada.
00:37:44.980
And I knew that somebody had to fight for these women because the one organization that is paid to do it
00:37:52.700
has left us behind, which is ironic because their, um, theme of their conference was no one left behind
00:38:05.680
And there are some statistics, like you've talked about it, that outlet Redux has reported on this
00:38:11.180
a lot, um, that a lot of these men who identify as women, most of them have a history of violent
00:38:20.220
I mean, we are talking about violent rapists of young children.
00:38:25.820
There is, uh, one who was, uh, uh, a guy named Adam and I can't even like go into the details,
00:38:33.800
but he brutally raped an infant and then decided later that he was going to identify as the opposite
00:38:46.460
It's happening in liberal States across the United States.
00:38:49.460
It's happening around the world, especially in these Western countries where these violent
00:38:54.320
male rapists, pedophiles are suddenly realizing that their femininity has just been repressed
00:39:00.900
their whole lives and without question, they are being moved into female facilities.
00:39:05.920
I mean, I don't understand how this isn't the top story that everyone is talking about
00:39:19.740
They don't think that the government would allow something like this to happen.
00:39:39.720
And I think that's the one thing that has definitely helped me in this fight.
00:39:48.220
It is, it is the thing that has helped me because a lot of people who do see it are scared
00:39:54.840
to fight because they're worried about their reputation.
00:39:59.600
They're worried about losing their job and their family.
00:40:03.400
And it's like, well, I already have criminal charges.
00:40:10.580
I already, you know, like I, I, there's so many jobs I can't work because of my criminal
00:40:17.120
So it's like, I've already lost all those things as a result of my own behavior.
00:40:21.260
So it makes me less fearful to go out there and fight and speak about it.
00:40:26.880
But a lot of people don't believe that it's happening.
00:40:32.460
I remember when I was in prison, I called my mom and I was like, mom, like there's guys
00:40:38.240
And she's like, what do you mean there's guys in there?
00:40:46.580
And you just need to say, you feel like one and she's like, like she, she didn't believe
00:41:08.900
Tell us about the instances that you've heard of, of women and women's prisons and not just
00:41:14.520
women's prisons, but women's shelters being violated and assaulting, assaulted by these
00:41:20.680
I think there's at least one case that I've heard of in the United States where a woman
00:41:23.440
was impregnated by this quote unquote female inmate.
00:41:29.480
So just so people know, our women's prisons are very different than men's prisons.
00:41:39.700
There's like nine bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a laundry room, and
00:41:44.780
There was no cameras in our houses and the guards only come through once every two hours
00:41:50.080
So there's a lot of freedom and a lot of ways to get away with things there.
00:42:02.160
So there have, there have been sexual assaults.
00:42:04.820
There's been grooming, there's been sexual harassment, there's been physical fights, criminal
00:42:14.800
There's been other times where the police have declined to press charges.
00:42:24.440
So that pedophile that I was talking about earlier, he actually sexually assaulted an Indigenous
00:42:30.000
woman in the bathroom in Grand Valley, the prison I was in.
00:42:34.300
And when the women found out, they locked the door on the house and locked him out and
00:42:41.200
So he went to the guard station and he told the guards and the guards went to the house
00:42:46.060
and they were like, you need to let her in or we're going to put bullying in your parole
00:42:53.980
So you get a parole report and it's given to the board.
00:42:59.360
So if they, if you incur charges or you have bullying in your paperwork or you have anything
00:43:06.540
bad in your paperwork, it can prevent you from getting parole.
00:43:10.020
And the one thing these women want are to get out and to be with their family and their
00:43:15.400
So this deters women from doing anything about it, just taking it and not telling.
00:43:23.980
Um, there's also a woman who finally had enough courage to charge one of the men with criminal
00:43:31.700
harassment and sexual assault and the, the courts or the crown gave him a plea deal and
00:43:41.080
allowed him to plead guilty to criminal harassment and he would drop the sexual assault charge.
00:43:51.480
And this other man who, uh, let's see the Adam, uh, Lubican, I don't know how to pronounce
00:44:00.700
Um, but he was the man who raped an infant and then was moved to the women's prison in Canada,
00:44:06.220
uh, because he said he identified as a woman and he was actually moved to prison that has
00:44:12.340
And some of the women there who were able to, you know, spend time with their babies
00:44:17.300
during visitation would say that he would just stand outside of the room and make them
00:44:26.280
This is, this is really a man, really a pedophile, really a rapist that is in a women's prison
00:44:32.280
harassing women who are incarcerated and their babies.
00:44:38.120
So another difference with the women's prisons compared to the men's is we have the mother
00:44:44.240
So our children four years and younger can live with us full time and all our women's
00:44:53.600
Um, so yeah, they will stand outside the mother child house and antagonize the women and stare
00:45:11.940
Um, and they ended up getting into a fight because this woman called Adam a pedophile and
00:45:19.340
Adam like picked her up and threw her, like beat her up, like beat her pretty bad.
00:45:24.500
And the guards wouldn't do anything about it because she called him a pedophile.
00:45:30.120
Um, it's like, well, he is a pedophile and this is what the general public would call
00:45:35.460
him, but you're not going to support her because she called a pedophile, a pedophile.
00:45:40.940
Um, and the moms can't do anything or they're at risk of having their child removed and sent
00:45:49.960
So they just stay quiet about it and there's not much they can do.
00:46:12.900
We advocate, we write letters, we put on protests.
00:46:21.640
So we focus on like lesbian women, washrooms, um, crime stats, prisons, sports.
00:46:30.020
There's a whole bunch of stuff that we try to focus on and raise awareness.
00:46:38.080
Um, cause it can be a pretty lonely job, um, advocating for single sex spaces, especially
00:46:44.820
when you're, you know, family and friends don't agree with what you have to say.
00:46:49.560
So having COSBAR has been great because you can meet women in your area and you'll have
00:47:04.400
There's always a door open for me and it's been awesome.
00:47:10.420
Well, tell me about some of the, the pushback that you've gotten.
00:47:15.940
So for the most part, I feel like they ignore me because they don't, they don't want to raise
00:47:22.960
They don't want people to know what's going on with the prisons.
00:47:26.760
Um, I do get like threats, um, like death threats, rape threats.
00:47:32.120
Um, but for the most part, it's, I don't get too much pushback.
00:47:43.260
Um, yeah, I put on, so tomorrow, actually I'm putting on a protest in downtown Toronto
00:47:51.760
And it will be, I believe it's the 20th protest I've put on in the last, um, two and a half
00:48:02.400
I think eventually like the more traction that you get, the more that people hear about
00:48:07.160
I mean, it's a good thing, but also, I mean, you're going to get people who are going to
00:48:12.880
be very viciously pushing back against you, slandering you and you're a tough person.
00:48:19.300
And I think that's, you know, why part of like why God has put you in this position and
00:48:24.880
part of like how he's redeeming all the horrible stuff that you've gone through is it's
00:48:29.240
also like inevitably toughened you a whole lot.
00:48:32.480
I imagine there's not very many things that people could threaten you with or say to you
00:48:41.580
Um, so to support me, um, I do have a fundraising page up.
00:48:49.540
So you can make donations, um, to help me cover like the cost of travel, accommodation, food,
00:49:01.920
So tomorrow I'll be doing a six hour drive, um, to be able to protest.
00:49:07.480
Um, also you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and come out to my protests.
00:49:15.180
You know, the more people that are there, um, the more that were recognized.
00:49:19.500
Um, also if you're in Canada, you can join cause bar, um, and help me put out access to
00:49:27.800
information requests or do research or collect data.
00:49:36.320
Um, but yeah, definitely if you want to support and you are in the area, come out to my protests.
00:49:45.820
Thanks for taking the time to share your story for being so vulnerable and then for
00:49:49.880
taking it and doing something that is courageous, especially in Canada.
00:49:53.800
I mean, there's a, there's craziness that goes on everywhere, but Canada seems to like
00:50:01.800
America seems to like follow in the footsteps of Canada when they do something crazy.
00:50:05.440
So it's, I mean, not everyone would have taken the step that you are to say, you know,
00:50:12.440
I'm not just going to live a different life, but I'm actually going to pursue a purpose
00:50:23.740
It's easier to stay quiet and just live a normal life.
00:50:30.580
Well, thank you for, for doing the next right and brave thing because someone's got to,
00:50:37.400
someone's, someone's got to be the one to advocate for these women.
00:50:42.040
I mean, you described how these women are objectified, treated as absolutely nothing.
00:50:46.760
And because you've been there, you can be the one to say, yeah, I've been her and her
00:50:51.640
life matters or safety matters or protection matters.
00:50:57.840
I do hope people support you as much as they possibly can.