Conservative platform pledges ban on trans women in women’s prisons

ANALYSIS: The Conservative Party of Canada’s 2025 federal election platform also hints at possible future anti-trans policies

The Conservative Party of Canada released their full costed platform today for the 2025 election, and it includes a ban on trans women from federal women’s prisons in Canada. 

Under the platform’s section regarding public safety, the Conservatives pledge to “Defend women’s safety by repealing Commissioner’s Directive 100, and ensure that women’s spaces and services remain protected in federal institutions and policy.”

Commissioner’s Directive 100 is a policy that was released by Canada’s Correctional Service in 2022, and designed to preserve the human rights of incarcerated trans and gender-diverse people in Canada. It called for training around gender identity for correctional service staff, as well as ensuring that incarcerated people are held in facilities that align with their gender identity. 

The directive’s purpose is stated as aiming to meet the needs of Canada’s prison system’s “gender diverse offender population in ways that respect their human rights and ensure their safety and dignity.”

Senior editor Mel Woods breaks down what this pledge could mean for future anti-trans policy at the federal level.

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Senior editor Mel Woods is an English-speaking Vancouver-based writer, editor and audio producer and a former associate editor with HuffPost Canada. A proud prairie queer and ranch dressing expert, their work has also appeared in Vice, Slate, the Tyee, the CBC, the Globe and Mail and the Walrus.

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