Lawyer pleads case of transgender woman seeking transfer out of men's prison

A lawyer representing a trans woman incarcerated in a men's prison says her client should be transferred to a women's institution because she fears for her safety. Atlantic Institution is a federal maximum-security facility located in Renous, N.B. seen on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX — A lawyer representing a transgender woman incarcerated in a men’s prison says her client should be transferred to a women’s institution for her safety.

Lawyer Jessica Rose told a Federal Court judge Monday that male inmates harassed and assaulted her client, Amanda Joy Cooper, after she came out as a woman in 2020. During a virtual hearing, court heard that Cooper, who is now 58, underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2024 and now has the anatomy of a woman.

“She has experienced … being groped by another prisoner, taunted, threatened, bullied and being subjected to inappropriate sexual comments from other prisoners,” Rose told Justice Janet Fuhrer.

“As a result of these encounters, and her reasonable belief that a woman with a vagina is at risk in a maximum-security men’s prison, she fears for her physical safety, her sexual safety and her emotional safety.”

Cooper was convicted of multiple sex assaults and declared a dangerous offender in 2001.

In her closing submission, Rose said Cooper was serving time at the maximum-security Atlantic Institution in New Brunswick when she asked to be transferred to a women’s prison. Instead, Correctional Service of Canada transferred her to Ontario’s Millhaven Institution, which is also a maximum-security prison for men.

Among other things, the agency cited security concerns for its decision.

During the past two years, Cooper has voluntarily spent virtually all of her time at both institutions in a highly supervised structured intervention unit, which keeps her segregated from the other inmates, Rose told the court.

“The reason for all of that intensive supervision … is that segregation causes serious harms to health and well-being,” Rose said, adding that the agency requires prisoners to spend as little time as possible in that unit.

“(But) she doesn’t dare risk integrating into the general population at a men’s institution because she’s a woman with a vagina.”

Court records show that Cooper was convicted of four counts of sexual assault, three counts of assault, and charges of forcible confinement and uttering threats. The documents say all her victims were women, except for one 14-year-old girl.

Rose criticized the agency’s decision to keep Cooper in a prison for men because of her long history of victimizing other women. The lawyer said it would be equally absurd to place a male inmate in a women’s prison because he had victimized other men.

Rose asked Fuhrer to issue a ruling that would order Cooper’s transfer to a women’s prison.

Federal lawyer Laura Rhodes told the court that the decision to transfer Cooper to Millhaven was partly based on the agency’s requirement to limit her time spent in segregation, adding that Cooper was unwilling to work with her case management team at the New Brunswick prison.

Rhodes said the the agency’s decision to deny Cooper’s request for a transfer to a women’s prison was also based on assessing the risks facing other inmates and prison staff.

“Her requested institutions, the women’s institutions, are less restrictive and therefore not suitable for her current risk level,” Rhodes said. “She is a designated dangerous offender.”

Cooper applied for a transfer to a women’s prison in Quebec in 2024, court documents show, but the application was denied because she “represented a very high risk for the inmate population there.”

At the conclusion of Monday’s hearing, Fuhrer said she would deliver her decision at a later date.

Meanwhile, Cooper has asked another Federal Court judge to grant an injunction in the case, which would allow for her transfer to B.C.’s Fraser Valley Institute for Women while Fuhrer’s judicial review works its way through the legal system.

Court documents say there were 125 gender-diverse inmates in the corrections system as of July 2025, comprising about 0.84 per cent of Canada’s incarcerated population. The documents say 88 were transgender women, with 72 of them housed in men’s institutions and 16 in women’s prisons.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2026.