Canada: Federal Prisons Ordered to Pay for Sex Changes

The National Post ^ | February 7, 2003 | Janice Tibbetts

[Loyalist]

Federal prisons ordered to pay for sex changes
Court ruling: Procedure available if doctors deem it is 'an essential service'

OTTAWA - Canada's federal prisons will be forced to allow sex-change surgery for transsexual inmates as a result of a court ruling that concluded a blanket ban is discriminatory.

"If the medical opinion is that sex reassignment surgery is an essential service for a particular inmate, it follows that it should be paid for by Correctional Services Canada, as would any other essential medical service," wrote Madam Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson of the Federal Court of Canada.

Corrections Canada will revise its policy because of the decision, spokeswoman Michele Pilon-Santilli said.

But she warned that sex-change operations will not be available for all transsexual inmates.

The decision upholds a 2001 decision from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in the case of convicted murderer Synthia Kavanagh.

The tribunal said that it was discriminatory for prisons to have a blanket ban on sex-change operations but not on "non-essential" services such as the removal of tattoos.

The Corrections and Conditional Release Act requires prisons to provide essential health care to inmates.

Kavanagh, a 41-year-old transsexual, alleged discrimination based on sex and disability after prison officials refused to allow her to undergo a sex-change operation that had been pre-approved before she was imprisoned for the 1989 Toronto murder of her transvestite friend, Lisa (Leo) Black.

Kavanagh, who began life as Ricky Chaperon, began hormone therapy and lived as a woman as a teenager.

When she was convicted, she had been been conditionally approved for sex reassignment surgery.

She ended up paying the $14,000 for her operation because of the prisons' ban. After spending more than a decade in various men's prisons, she was transferred more than two years ago to Joliette Institution, a medium-security women's prison north of Montreal.

The ruling is expected to affect less than a dozen transsexuals in Canadian prisons. In 2000, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 10 of the 2,500 inmates in federal penitentiaries were "pre-operative" transsexuals, but not all of them wanted surgery.

Sex-change surgery is considered an essential service that is covered by medicare in most provinces when a patient has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the medical term for people who believe they are the wrong sex.

It should be no different in Canadian prisons, said Justice Layden-Stevenson.

"The right of government to allocate resources as it sees fit is not unlimited," said Justice Layden-Stevenson in a judgment released yesterday.

"A human rights tribunal enjoys a broad discretionary power to award remedies to redress a discriminatory practice."

Ms. Pilon-Santilli said that Corrections Canada allowed the operations decades ago -- often with sad results.

"There have been a lot of tragedies of people who went through it but just could not adjust," Ms. Pilon-Santilli said.

Prisoners are permitted to dress as women and take hormone replacement drugs.

Kavanagh's lawyer could not be reached yesterday to say whether Kavanagh would seek reimbursement in light of the court decision.

The decision agreed with the human rights tribunal that candidates for sex changes would need medical assessment from one of five medical specialists.

© Copyright 2003 National Post

[bulldogs]

I will be happy when Christ sets this all straight.

[Sgt_Schultze]

...Sex-change surgery is considered an essential service that is covered by medicare in most provinces when a patient has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the medical term for people who believe they are the wrong sex.

I believe I am in the wrong economic class. If I move to Canada, will they make me a millionaire?

[freedomcrusader]

In the meantime, people who work for a living have been waiting 6 months for truly essential services. Yep, this is the way the U.S. ought to go....NOT.

[Hodar]

"If the medical opinion is that sex reassignment surgery is an essential service for a particular inmate, it follows that it should be paid for by Correctional Services Canada, as would any other essential medical service," wrote Madam Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson of the Federal Court of Canada.

Gosh, how silly of me. I was under the impression that 'essential service' would mean something like heart bypass surgury, or something that would keep the prisoner alive; not something that someone really wants. I wonder if I can move to Canada, get a speeding ticket; and live in a mansion (I would really like that).

[Guillermo]

And the same people who argue that sex mutilation surgery should be paid for by taxpayers are the same ones asking "Why do Muslims hate the West".

[Andyman]

Let's see, law-abiding cancer patients wait for months for surgeries . . . similar heart patients die waiting for surgeries . . . With one-sixth the population, Seattle has more MRI devices than all of British Columbia . . . American border hospitals have plenty of Canadian patients . . . but Canadian prisoners get state-sponsored sex changes.

Yeah, I guess Canadians are morally superior beings.

[dawn53]

My husband was a Canadian with permanent residency in the US. After 9/11 he got fed up, and applied for his US citizenship, so now he's an American.

Foolishness like this makes him so happy he finally got his US citizenship.

At the Naturalization Oath Ceremony, the INS admonished everybody to take a close look at their citizenship paperwork before they left the building. The INS spokesman said to check your birthday, the spelling of your name, etc. He said to pay special attention to the box where your "Gender" is marked.

His explanation to his caution was this, "If you happen to be male and the gender on your paperwork is stated as female, it would be easier to get a sex-change operation than to get the INS to change the paperwork."

[Paleo Conservative]

I believe I am in the wrong economic class. If I move to Canada, will they make me a millionaire?

No, but the reverse is true. If you were a millionaire and moved to Canada, they would make you middle class.

[Sgt_Schultze]

:-)HA!

Thanks for the warning.

[headsonpikes]

Canadian socialism is good for more laughs than American socialism.

I'll freely concede that. ;^)

[Dionysius]

"O Canada! I change my sex for thee!"

[sheik yerbouty]

"O Canada"!

[A2J]

And this is the place the liberdopians look to as an example of how the U.S. should be.

Go figure.

[canuck_conservative]

In Canada these days, you can get the taxpayers to foot the bill for a lot of your stuff, as long as you can meet one simple test: you have to prove you (and people like you) have been "historically discriminated against". Thus, men, heterosexuals, and whites are all S.O.L.

For everyone else, it's open season on the Canadian treasury.