Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 870 | Former Prisoner on the Dangers of Men in Women's Prisons | Guest: Heather Mason

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Today we're joined by Heather Mason, activist, survivor of fentanyl addiction, and founding member of caWsbar, an organization that works to preserve the rights and protections of women and girls. Heather tells her story of becoming addicted to fentanyl, selling drugs, and going to prison multiple times. She shares her difficult journey in Canadian federal prison, where she got routinely strip-searched and violated, and shares stories of men, many of whom were sexual predators, being placed with women and babies in women's facilities. We discuss her advocacy for single-sex prison spaces, and Heather explains how it was the Christians above anyone else who saw her as a human worthy of dignity while she was in prison. --- Timecodes:' (02:18) Heather's story (05:40) Heather's charges / getting arrested (21:20) Life in jail  (26:20) Violated in jail / strip searching (28:20) Christians in prison (32:56) Men in women's prisons --- Today's Sponsors: Seven Weeks Coffee — get your organically farmed and pesticide-free coffee at sevenweekscoffee.com and let your coffee serve a greater purpose. Use the promo code 'ALLIE' to save 10% off your order. Range Leather — highest quality leather, age old techniques and all backed up with a “forever guarantee." Go to rangeleather.com/Allie and use coupon code "ALLIE" to receive 15% off your first order. ExpressVPN — have more anonymity online. Go to ExpressVPN.com/ALLIE and get three extra months FREE. EveryLife — the only premium baby brand that is unapologetically pro-life. EveryLife offers high-performing, supremely soft diapers and wipes that protect and celebrate every precious life. Head to EveryLife.com and use promo code ALLIE10 to get 10% of your first order today! --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise – use promo code 'ALLIE10' for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.

Men are being transferred to women's prisons, not just in the United States, but also in Canada. This is putting the most vulnerable women at risk. An advocate for these women is Heather Mason. She is a former fentanyl addict who spent time in federal prisons. saw firsthand what this integration of men into women's prisons actually looks like, 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, which is an organization that fights for the sex-based rights of women, especially vulnerable women in prison. She's going to share her heartbreaking story with us today

and her experience in federal prison and how that actually led to the advocacy work that she does today, God has used her life in pretty incredible ways. And this is someone that we need to share the arrows with. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use code Alley at checkout. That's good ranchers.com code Alley. Heather, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Before we get started with our conversation, can you just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do? Yes. So my name is Heather Mason. I'm from Saranya, Ontario, Canada. I was an addict for many years, been incarcerated. When I got out, I became an advocate for federally sentenced women,

looking at their conditions, dealing with all sorts of the things that you deal with inside prisons. And it got me on to the topic of men who identify as women and transfer into women's prisons. So I ended up co-founding an organization called Causebar, so Canadian women's sex-based rights. and I've been fighting for rights and protections to single sex spaces and putting on protests across Canada to keep prison single sets.

Wow. I am very thankful for the work you're doing and I want to make sure that we focus a lot of our time on that, but just so people kind of have the context of why you're doing what you do, I want to back up and just hear about your story and we can go as far back as you want to. childhood, whatever time you feel like, kind of led you down the path of eventually ending up incarcerated. So start wherever you feel comfortable. Sure. So my childhood, my dad was an alcoholic. He was always in a different city or even country working. He wasn't around much. My mom was an addict. I ended up running away from home when I was 15 or 16. I was.

started partying and doing drugs, but like most teenagers, well, I guess not all. Some don't, but a majority of them do. And then I ended up dating a man that was nine years older than me, and he got me hooked on oxies, which actually eventually led to doing fentanyl patches. And oxy, like oxy cotton, like the painkiller? Okay. Yes. So I first did that. And then I blame it on the government. So all of us did oxies. You know, very few of us died. And then they were like, oh, we have a problem.

Let's get rid of them. So what they did was they made oxyneos, what made them harder to abuse and thinking that everyone was just going to quit doing them. But we didn't because we obviously had problems and didn't get the help we needed. So we actually changed to fentanyl patches. And more people started dying. You needed more and more and more. And the price of them just shot up because they started doing like the patch for patch program.

So if you had a prescription to patches, you had to bring them back to the pharmacy in order to get your next prescription. So it skyrocketed the price of patches. And then all of a sudden, fentanyl powder started coming out and more and more people started dying. And where are you getting? So the fentanyl patches and the oxy, are you getting it? from prescriptions? How are you getting these drugs? So a lot of them did come from prescriptions. We would buy them. At one point, I had a connection with a guy who worked in a disposal plant. So all the patches that got sent back to be destroyed, I would get them for a really good price.

So I ended up selling drugs with my ex to support our drug habit. It was the easiest way. to be able to afford that habit without committing other crimes like robberies or thefts. Yeah. Those types of crimes. And you were how old at this point? So I got addicted when I was 20. I didn't get arrested until I was 26. So I was 26 the first time I got arrested.

And then it was downhill after that. I was getting arrested every year. And so I did a bunch of time in provincial. he ended up going away to prison and then I got arrested for the last time May 6th, 2017, and I ended up doing pen time. So I ended up getting federal time. I was incarcerated to three years at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario. And tell me about the first time you got arrested. What were you finally booked for? Possession. So also my X and I, we ended up having a child together, but like it was very toxic. We were on and off. So I actually

had my own house and he had his. But that day, we were together and we were walking to shoppers drug mart so that I could get my prescription. I was on methadone. And we ended up getting a... Methadone is like a maintenance program. So you'll go to a clinic and you'll see a doctor and you have to do year in analysis and they give you a daily drink. So it's supposed to, it's maintenance, right? So they're giving you a synthetic opiate in hopes that you're able to wean off the methadone and stay clean. And this is while you were pregnant? Yeah, with my second child. Oh, with your second. So how old was your oldest at this point? Almost three. Okay, so you had an almost three-year-old. And while you were trying to sustain your addiction. What was what was the situation like for your child? Um,

not good. Um, it was really hard to quit. I was in a bad place. Um, self loathing, no confidence, hated myself. Um, and the, the relationship that I was in was extremely toxic, abusive. We shouldn't have been together, but it was hard to stay away because of like finances. but also just trauma bonding, right? Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political.

They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular.

This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Yeah. So you were pregnant with your second child. You were on the methadone trying to stay clean while you were pregnant. And then you said that you were walking together to get your prescription. Yes.

and the cops ended up arresting us on the side of the road. My son was with me. It was pretty traumatizing. So they actually had a warrant to raid my ex's house. So they raided his house. And they found a loaded, sought-off shotgun on over-under. So it took two different types of ammo. And they found boxes of ammunition.

They also found some other drugs. So at the time when we got arrested, all as I had on me was mace, like bear spray, which is illegal in Canada. Oh, really? Yeah. And I had a 25 milligram patch on me. So I ended up being charged with possession of a weapon and possession of narcotics. And then he was charged with everything that was found in his house because I didn't actually live there. Okay. And so what happened, what happened to your son at that point? You get arrested. You get taken to jail. Where did he go?

My dad actually came and picked him up. The police let me call my father and he came to where we were being arrested on the side of the road. And he took my son. And so I went to jail while I was pregnant, which was awful. Yeah. And then I ended up getting bailed out. And then two weeks later, I ended up getting arrested again. But it was because I had an old, so it actually was a pen tube cut in half. So it was used as a hooter like to smoke the fentanyl patches. So that was like in the bottom of my purse. So then I got possession of drug paraphernalia. And because I was a already on bail, I had to go back to jail. And then my sister ended up bailing me out and I had a residential surety stipulation, which meant I had to live in my sister's house with her. So then I went to rehab and I got clean. My ex couldn't get out. So he ended up staying in and he ended up going to prison. Okay. And then you had your baby. Yeah. And then how long were you clean after rehab and having your baby until you were arrested again? Probably about. So she would have been six and a half months old when I got arrested again. So I was clean for maybe eight months. Okay. And the difficulty

and staying clean, like you have two kids, you have some kind of familial support. But the draw is obviously there. The draw to drugs, I guess the draw to maybe even selling just to make that money. Tell us a little bit about what that's like for those who haven't experienced. Like, why is that pull so strong? So I had a lot of trauma from my childhood. I had a lot of bad things that had happened to me. Yeah.

And I didn't deal with that trauma. And I didn't have a very good support system as a child. I basically was like on my own, had to fend for myself. I had to raise my sisters because my mom was high. Our house was like overrun with junkies. So I would wake up in the morning before my sisters and I'd have to clean up the house because there would be like needles and drug paraphernalia laying around. And I would clean that up and then I'd get my sisters up for school.

I saw a lot of things that I shouldn't have seen at a very young age. I lost my childhood and had to become a parent very young. Yeah. So I never dealt with any of that. So I had a whole bunch of issues. And then also being addicted to drugs, you put yourself in precarious situations. So I've seen a lot of crime, a lot of violence. violence, which compounded my trauma.

So I was in a really dark place, and I just, the drugs gave me like an escape from reality. They numbed all that pain, and I didn't have to feel those emotions. So I liked it. Yeah. And then with the drug dealing, it was, I thought that it was the better option over, say prostituting myself or robbing banks or breaking into people's houses and stealing their stuff like I thought that was the better option I was getting drugs and getting them out a discounted price and then selling them to other addicts to be able to afford my addiction right um

because just to let you know because you probably don't know I was smoking up to two 100 milligram patches a day, so 200 milligrams of fentanyl, and one 100 milligram patch costs $600. So I had a $1,200 a day drug habit. Wow. How is that feasible? Right. And so the only way that you were able to make it work was through selling. Yeah.

And your sister, were you still living with your sister at this point when you got arrested for the second time? no so um i'm grateful that my sister did bail me out but it was rough because she was married so in the house it was her her husband her three kids and their dog and then it was me my two kids and a dog yeah so there was a lot of people under one roof so it was quite stressful yeah so the judge eventually let me move back into my house because i've had my house the whole time right I was just like sitting there with all my stuff in it with no one living in it. And I was probably back home on my own for like two months.

And then I got arrested again. Yeah. And then your two kids now, they went to go live with your sister? With my family. So my daughter went with her paternal aunt. And my son went and lived with my brother. And how long were you in jail at this point? So I ended up doing, I got six months and did four.

And then as soon as I got it again, I was right back into the drugs because now I had the added guilt of not having my children and not like failing them as a mother. It was the first time I was ever alone in my life because I was with my ex from the time I was 19 until all of this. and I didn't know how to be alone. I didn't know how to sit in those, like, feelings. Yeah. So, yeah, I started using again. And then I ended up dealing with my charges from before because it takes a long time when you're going through trial and everything.

So my first set of charges, I couldn't plead guilty to them. I had to wait until my ex went to court and pled guilty because they were afraid that if they let me played guilty to just what was on me that come trial I would turn around and say what was in his house was mine and get him off. So they made me sit on bail and conditions for like two years.

So I finally was able to plead guilty and I got weekends. So I was actually doing weekends and I was just so messed up. I ended up overdosing in the jail on my weekends. Like the jail guards would know that I was extremely high and they would just throw me in a cell and not even check on me. So they came to like wake me out for food and I wasn't waking up.

And I remember finally coming to and like there was all these guards around me and the nurse was there and they were like trying to shake me awake and they were about to call 911. And then they just went and put me in a segregation cell. So I really needed help and I felt like the jail knew I needed help. And what they did instead of getting me the help that I needed was they called the methadone clinic, told them my overdose and got me cut off my methadone. Why did they get you cut off your methadone? Because they said that I was mixing all these different drugs and that being on methadone

was increasing my risk of overdosing and dying, which is not false. It's true. But getting me cut off of a drug that could help me get off these other drugs wasn't the brightest idea. Like obviously, you know, I needed either detox, rehab, counseling, or all of them put together. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't, I didn't. I didn't. get any help there. Right. So I was still doing my weekends when I ended up getting arrested again. Yeah. And then I went to jail again, got six months, did four months, got out. And then I went right back to drugs again. And then I ended up getting arrested May 6th, 2017, which was kind of like a blessing in a disguise, but at the same time, it's ironic because my house got raided and I heard the police

come in. So like I jumped up at a bed and I had a little bit of dope and I hooped it. So for people that don't know what that is, that means I shoved it up my vagina. But there was a guy there. He was a dealer from Toronto. And when he heard the cops come in, he threw all his dope on the ground. And he's like it's not mine, it's not mine, it's hers. So I ended up, we both went to jail, but I went to jail with my drugs. And then I ended up getting charged for his drugs. And he walked on all the charges. So I elected to not go to trial. The crown came to me and was like, I'll give you a plea deal. You plead guilty to trafficking of fentanyl. And I will give you three years. If you fight this and go to trial, I'm asking for five to six.

So I took the plea deal of three years for trafficking of fentanyl, and my co-accus walked on all charges. And karma, because he ended up getting arrested like a year later for accessory after the fact to murder. And he went to jail. So then tell me about your experience in federal prison because obviously, I mean, for anyone, it would be an impactful moment in their life. But you have gone on to then advocate for women who are in the system. So this must, I mean, you must have learned a lot in those three years.

So tell us a little bit about, you know, the highs and lows, the lessons that you learned in some of the trials that you experienced when you were in there. Yeah. So obviously I had quite the experience. The last time that I got arrested, I actually applied for a transfer to Windsor, Ontario, where there was a new super jail. And I got transferred there. And I wanted to go there because they had more programs and more opportunities for me to work on myself. And in Sarnia Jail, there's just, there's no opportunities.

There's no programs. It's cement. You're in this tiny cell locked down all the time. There's usually three of you per cell. So if people don't know what a cell looks like, it's probably like six feet by seven feet, if that. There's a bunk. So there's a woman on the top bunk, a woman on the bottom bunk, and then there's a third person who sleeps on the floor. So from their waist down, it's under the bed.

From their waist up, their head is beside the toilet. So there's no privacy whatsoever. There's nowhere to move. to walk. So I ended up going to Windsor Jail where they don't triple bunk you and your rooms are yourselves are bigger. I started attending church groups. I started doing like Bible studies.

I probably completed, no, 85 Bible studies through correspondence in the mail with church. Yeah, I really got into all the church groups. Like if it weren't for our Christian volunteers, I don't think I would be where I am today. They were just like so loving and caring and they didn't judge me and they looked at me like I was human for the first time. And I don't know how long. And I needed that. I needed them to support me and tell me I'm doing great.

And I remember them always telling me that I have this sparkle in my eye and that they really think that when I get out, I'm going to do great things. and I'll be forever appreciative of them. So I did a lot of that. I also went to N.A. And then there was, for the first time ever, they were doing a Walls to Bridges course in a remand jail. So remand is provincial. It's when people are awaiting courts or who have been refused bail.

Because when you're sentenced, you usually are sent to a sentence. jail and if you're sentenced over two years, then you go to the penitentiary prison, which is federal. So the University of Windsor had this course that they were coming in and doing. So it was like seven university students from the university and seven of us prisoners. And a professor had come in and we would learn together as one. So it's like they weren't better than us. We weren't better of them, we were equal. So I ended up doing that course and it actually was a women's gender studies course and it was my first glimpse of feminism. And I did that course and I actually, when I pled guilty

in court, they wanted to sentence me and I was like, look, Judge, like, I'm doing this university course. It's really good for me. Can you hold off on my sentencing? I want to complete this course and just sentenced me to federal in three months when I'm done. And he agreed because I was bettering myself. So I ended up going to federal in December 2017 and it was like complete culture shock. I never realized how bad provincial jail was, how badly they treated you until I got to federal because I was minimum security because I'm not a public safety risk. I'm not a danger to anyone but myself.

And you got responsibilities. Like you had to wake yourself up. You could walk without handcuffs. You could make your own food. Like those things never happened in provincial. So it was definitely a culture shock. And then once I got there, I just was doing every single program, an activity that I could do to keep myself busy and out of trouble.

Again, I involved myself with all the church groups like celebrate recovery, AA, N.A. But I saw a lot of really bad stuff while I was inside. I saw the way we were treated, just everything, like the abuse from the guards, how women who were, were like ADHD and we're on medication, the prison won't give you your ADHD medication on the weekends because you're not in school and you don't work on weekends. So then these women were unmedicated on the weekend, which impacted them. Huge. And they would act out and then they would be disciplined for it. I just saw a lot of crazy stuff. And it was really traumatizing. so they're not supposed to strip search you unless there's a need for it.

I was strip searched well over 400 times. Sometimes I was strip searched four times a day, which is absolutely insane if you think about it. But you would be strip search while you're on your period as well. So then you'd have to remove your tampon in front of them. You would also have to put your tampon back in in front of them. They required you to squat and cough. So the whole time you're like, please don't get blood on the floor. please don't get blood on the floor.

And if you do, you have to clean it up in front of them. So it's really traumatizing. It's humiliating. Yeah, it is. And they may make comments about your body because they'd feed you like 3,000 calories a day, which are like all carbs. So you would put on so much weight.

So while you're strip searching in front of them, they would make comments about your body. Like we're not already depressed and self-conscious as it is and you just rub it in even more. So basically treating you like an animal. Yeah, like the scum on the bottom of someone's shoe. So that's why it was so impactful, really not just for the first time when you were in prison, but probably for the first time in your life when you met with these Christian groups and counselors

and you really felt like they just treated you like a human. Yes. And they always tried to do special things for us. So they would try to bring us in treats or they would do fun activities with us. and like they just really cared about us and like it really really it helps and I think about them a lot do you consider yourself a Christian now I don't go to church um but yeah I would say that I am um it helped me through my incarceration uh I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't done that in jail. And like what really changed me was I had all these weird things that happened to me.

Like I would be doing my Bible studies. And so an example, this one time, there was a woman who got transferred to Windsor jail. And they were going to put her on range, but she told them that her and I had beef. So the sergeant came in and was like, hey, do you know so and so? And I was like, yeah, I do. We have a long history. and I'm like, she's the one that ratted me out.

And he's like, well, you're doing very well. Like, you're doing the laundry job. Like, I don't want to see something screw up, like, you know, what you're doing here. And I'm like, look, it's fine. Just put her on the other side. Like, I'm not going to engage with her. Like, what's done is done. Like, I don't care.

He's like, well, you know what? I'm not going to put her on range. And I went back into my cell and I picked up my Bible study. And like, I was like, reading. it and it said, how can you ask God for forgiveness when you can't forgive others? And I just got goosebumps because like just little things like that just happened all the time when I was inside. And gosh, I mean, God just cares about you so much. I know that it seems like so many people and so many places failed you. But obviously, like, it's obvious to me that he had his hand on you and that

he even had his hand on your children and that he guided you in the way that you did and that he's redeemed your life so much and protected you so much. And I just hope that those like Christian women that you got to meet with were representations of that to you, that it's not just them that that were loving to you, but that they were showing you that the God who created you really, really loves you and values you. And to me, just from an outsider looking at it, it seems like that was that was really the game changer. Yes. Yes, it definitely was. Just so many things happen inside. And I knew that there was something looking over me and leading me and teaching me. I felt it.

And so tell me about then getting out and then being the advocate that you are now. What made you start caring about women's sex-based rights, rights on the basis of being a female? So just to backtrack a bit. but I was pretty oblivious to all of this. So when I was incarcerated in provincial jail in 2015, it's when I first noticed that there was men who identified as women in the Windsor jail. They had different ranges. So they had direct supervision where guards were on range with you 24-7,

and you had quite a bit of freedom. And then across the hall was indirect. supervision and it was more like your cells you didn't really get a whole lot of privileges the guards would come through every half an hour to check and there was men across the hall from us and I had the laundry job so I was taken off range Monday to Friday and the guards would walk me to the laundry because I did the men's laundry and I would I always ask so many questions I always want to know everything so I would talk to the guards and they're like yeah Like, this person's a sex offender.

They don't feel safe on the men's range. So they're hiding out on the women's range. And like the female guards. These men who identify as, were they presenting as women, these men? No. Oh, no. So they were just. Okay.

Yeah, they still had their penis, but they identified as being a woman. Okay. So they were trying to identify as. These weren't just men who got a special privilege of being in the women's prison. they were actually trying to say that they were women. Yes. And they all had sex crimes. So they were hiding from the men because they wouldn't be safe on the men's range

because people who have crimes against women and children are not safe on men's ranges. And when the guards were walking into the laundry job, like I remember the one day that I'm complaining that they had to strip search this guy that was across the hall. And every time they had strip search him, he would get an erection. So they didn't want to strip search him. So that was my first experience of that. But I didn't really understand what was going on.

But they still separated you women from these men who identified as women at this point. Yes. This is 2015. Right. So it hadn't passed into our Canadian Human Rights Act. It was only our provincial Human Rights Act. And all our personal human rights act. provincial jails operate different, whereas our federal, there's policy and procedures, and they all are

basically the same. And then when I was transferred to prison, it was in 2017, so gender identity or expression had just been added into our Canadian Human Rights Act. So there were men there when I got there. And then more and more were transferring in. And then when I was in the halfway house, so after I got released from prison, I had to live in a woman's halfway house in Toronto. And there was a man living there in our halfway house.

So to get back to your question, I received a Facebook message. So I saw it and I didn't know who this person was. And it was April Halley who lives in Newfoundland. And she said, hey, I know that you were in prison. Can you talk to me about men in women's prisons specifically? Can you tell me about this person? And it was this long message.

And I thought, who is this crazy woman? Like, I'm not telling her anything. And the person who she actually asked about, I was in the halfway house with. And then I ended up winning like a scholarship to this conference in Ottawa. So I was in the Elizabeth Frye Halfway House. And the Elizabeth Frye Halfway House is, there's a whole bunch halfway houses across Canada for women. And I basically look at it like an umbrella. So Case, the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Frye societies is the top of the umbrella.

and then the e-fries are the spokes, right? So, Kaffes was having their national conference in Ottawa in 2019, and I won a scholarship. So I got my travel and accommodation paid for to attend this conference in Ottawa. So I went. This was June 2019. And while I was there, they passed their inclusion policy. And a woman I knew from prison had gotten up and stated how she,

was groomed and sexually harassed by a prolific serial pedophile well at Grand Valley. And that it traumatized her and triggered her because she had suffered from childhood sexual abuse. And the women at this conference were like, you don't need a vagina to be a woman. And I don't like the transphobia in this room. And they didn't support her. They dismissed her and she left crying. And I'm like, what on earth is going on? So she claims that in prison she was groomed by a man who identified as a woman.

Yeah, Matthew Harts, who's a prolific serial pedophile. And she was just shouted down. So like, I know that it's Canada and so it's different, but that's around the time in the United States of the Me Too movement and believe all women. So at the same time that that's happening, which we've experienced our fair share of this in the United States too, at the same time that's happening. Basically, women are told to sit down and shut up if the man who raped them or molested them, whatever, identified as a woman. Yes. Yeah. And it was crazy because all these women are paid to advocate for federally sentenced women.

Case is the only national organization in Canada that supports federally sentenced women, and they betrayed us. So it was a very intense weekend. There was a lot of yelling between the federally sentenced women and the people who worked for these organizations. There was a lot of crying. There was a total divide. A total divide. I've never seen anything like it. they did not support us at all.

They did not listen to us. And I ended up there, I ended up meeting a lot of women who didn't support the policy. And actually all the workers who worked for caves who did not support the full inclusion policy ended up leaving caves. So they ended up having like an overhaul. And now pretty much all the women that work there in support of,

trans women and women's prisons and halfway houses. Wow. So that weekend was my eye-opener. That's what got me to see what was really going on. And when I got back to Toronto from Ottawa, I went into my message folder on Facebook, and I messaged April back. And I said, what do you want to know?

I'm ready to talk. And that's when I started speaking out and advocating for women and documenting everything and sending off access to information requests and finding like-minded women within Canada and co-founding Cosbar and putting on all the protests that I put on across Canada. It just lit a fire under me. And I knew that somebody had to fight for these women

because the one organization that is paid to do it has left us behind. which is ironic because their theme of their conference was no one left behind. And they left us behind. Yeah. Wow. And there are some statistics, like you've talked about it, that Outlet Redux has reported on this a lot, that a lot of these men who identify as women, most of them have a history of violent sexual assault. I mean, we are talking about violent rapists of a year.

young children. There is one who was a guy named Adam, and I can't even go into the details, but he brutally raped an infant and then decided later that he was going to identify as the opposite sex was transferred to women's prison. This is happening a lot, not just in Canada. It's happening in liberal states across the United States. It's happening around the world, especially in these Western countries where these violent male rapists, pedophiles are suddenly realizing that their femininity has just been repressed their whole lives. And without question, they are being moved into female facilities. I mean, I don't understand how this isn't the top story that everyone is talking about right now. You know what it is, too? A lot of people just don't believe it.

They don't think that the government would allow something like this to happen. They're very naive. That's one thing that I'm not. I'm not naive. I've lived the street life. I've been around crime. I see the drug culture and the underworld. I know exactly how this world works.

And I think that's the one thing that has definitely helped me in this fight. Also, well, it's not the one thing. It is the thing that has helped me because a lot of people who do see it are scared to fight because they're worried about their reputation. They're worried about criminal charges. They're worried about losing their job and their family. And it's like, well, I already have criminal charges. I'm not allowed in the United States. I already lost my family and friends.

I already, you know, like there's so many jobs I can't work because of my criminal record. So it's like, I've already lost all those things as a result of my own behavior. So it makes me less fearful to go out there and fight and speak about it. Yeah. But a lot of people don't believe that it's happening. I remember when I was in prison, I called my mom and I was like, mom, like there's guys in here. And she's like, what do you mean? There's guys in there.

I'm like, yeah, men who identify as women. Like, you don't need surgery. You don't need hormones. You don't even need to dress like a woman. And you just need to say you feel like one. And she's like, like, she didn't believe me. And I'm like, mom, like, I'm not lying to you. Like, you know, she was like, wow.

Tell us about the instances that you've heard of of women and women's prisons and not just women's prisons, but women's shelters being violated and assaulted by these men who identify as women. I think there's at least one case that I've heard of in the United States where a woman was impregnated by this, quote, unquote, female inmate. Yeah. So just so people know, our women's prisons are very different than men's prisons. So we live in like cottage style houses. There's like nine bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a laundry room and a living room. There's no cameras in our houses. And the guards only come through once every two hours to check on us. So there's a lot of freedom and a lot of ways to get away with things there. These men are not put in segregation. They live in these houses with us. So there have.

There have been sexual assaults. There's been grooming. There's been sexual harassment. There's been physical fights. Criminal harassment. There have been charges laid. There's been other times where the police have declined to press charges. A lot of the women don't like to speak out.

I'll give you an example. So that pedophile that I was talking about earlier, he actually sexually assaulted an indigenous woman in the bathroom in Grand Valley, the prison I was in. And when the women found out, they locked the door on the house and locked him out. And he couldn't get in the house. So he went to the guard station and he told the guards. And the guards went to the house and they were like, you need to let her in or we're going to put bullying in your parole papers. So you get a parole report and it's given to the board. So if you incur charges or you have bullying in your paperwork or you have anything bad in your paperwork,

it can prevent you from getting parole. And the one thing these women want are to get out and to be with their family and their kids, right? So this deters women from doing anything about it, just taking it and not telling. There's also a woman who finally had enough courage to charge one of the men with criminal harassment and sexual assault. And the courts or the crown gave him a plea deal and allowed him to plead guilty to criminal harassment. And he would drop the sexual assault charge. So that's what he did. Wow.

And this other man who, let's see, the Adam Lubican, I don't know how to pronounce his last name, but he was the man who raped an infant and then was moved to the women's prison in Canada because he said he identified as a woman and he was actually moved to prison that has a mother baby unit. And some of the women there who were able to, you know, spend time with their babies during visitation, would say that he would just stand outside of the room. and make them feel uncomfortable, intimidate them. I mean, this is really happening. This is really a man, really a pedophile, really a rapist that is in a women's prison,

harassing women who are incarcerated and their babies. Yeah, so another difference with the women's prisons compared to the men's is we have the mother-child program. So our children, four years and younger, can live with us full time. And all our women's prisons in Canada have those. have six women's prisons. So yeah, they will stand outside the mother child house and antagonize the women and stare at their babies. And there's nothing the women can do.

So one woman confronted Tara. So Adam goes by Tara DeSosa. And they ended up getting into a fight because this woman called Adam a pedophile. And Adam like picked her up and he, brewer, like beat her up, like beat her pretty bad. And the guards wouldn't do anything about it because she called him a pedophile. It's like, well, he is a pedophile. And this is what the general public would call him. But you're not going to support her because she called a pedophile a pedophile. And the moms can't do anything or they're at risk of having their child removed

and sent to live with their family outside of prison. So they just stay quiet about it. And there's not much they can do. Wow. Wow. So tell me what your organization does. So Cosbar is nationwide. We have members from all over Canada. We support each other.

We do group meetups. We advocate. We write letters. We put on protests. we do all sorts of things. We have seven issues, so we focus on like lesbian women, washrooms, crime stats, prisons, sports.

There's a whole bunch of stuff that we try to focus on and raise awareness and just keep recruiting more women. Because it can be a pretty lonely job advocating for single-sex spaces, especially when your, you know, family and friends don't agree with what you have to say. So having Cospar has been great because you can meet women in your area and you'll have a support system. So it's been awesome. I've met so many women. Like it doesn't matter where I go in Canada, there's always a door open for me and it's been awesome.

Yeah. Wow. Well, tell me about some of the pushback that you've gotten. So for the most part, I feel like they ignore me because they don't want to raise awareness. They don't want people to know what's going on with the prisons. I do get like threats, like death threats, rape threats. But for the most part, it's I don't get too much pushback. Politicians ignore me.

Everyone ignores me. Yeah. I put on, so tomorrow, actually, I'm putting on a protest in downtown Toronto to keep prison, single sex. And it will be, I believe it's the 20th protest I've put on in the last two and a half years. Wow. Okay. So how can people, how can people support you? I think eventually, like, the more traction that you get, the more that people hear about the work.

I mean, it's a good thing, but also, I mean, you're going to get people who are going to be very vicious. pushing back against you, slandering you, and you're a tough person. You've been through it all. And I think that's, you know, why part of like why God has put you in this position and part of like how he's redeeming all the horrible stuff that you've gone through is it's also like inevitably tough into you a whole lot. I imagine there's not very many things that people could threaten you with or say to you that are going to deter you from your mission. No, there isn't. So to support me, I do have a fundraising page up. It's on my Twitter so you can make donations to help me cover the cost of travel, accommodation, food, gas, those types of things.

Because Toronto's three hours away from me. So tomorrow I'll be doing a six-hour drive to be able to protest. Also, you can follow me. on Facebook and Twitter and come out to my protests. You know, the more people that are there, the more that were recognized. Also, if you're in Canada, you can join Cosbar and help me put out access to information requests or do research or collect data. There's always lots that can be done.

But yeah, definitely if you want to support and you are in the area, come out to my protests. Wow. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for taking the time to share your story for being so vulnerable and then for taking it and doing something that is courageous, especially in Canada. I mean, there's a there's craziness that goes on everywhere, but Canada seems to like take things to a whole other level. America seems to like follow in the footsteps of Canada when they do something crazy. So it's, I mean, not everyone would have taken the step that you are to say, you know, I'm not just going to like get clean.

I'm not just going to live a different life, but I'm actually going to pursue a purpose that takes a lot of bravery. Not everyone would make that choice. No, they wouldn't. It's easier to stay quiet and just live a normal life. That is for sure. Yeah.

Well, thank you for doing the next right and brave thing because someone's got to. Someone's got to be the one to advocate for these women who really don't have a voice. I mean, you described how these women are objectified, treated as absolutely nothing. And because you've been there, you can be the one to say, yeah, I've been her

and her life matters, her safety matters, her protection matters, and her voice does matter. So thank you for being that advocate. I do hope people support you as much as they possibly can. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. Hey, this is Steve Deast. If you're listening to Allie,

you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever

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