A judge has reserved a decision on whether a transgender inmate being held at a men's prison, Amanda Cooper, should be moved to a women's facility. Cooper, 59, has a history of sexual offences against women in Quebec dating back to the 1980s, committed while living as a man. Deemed a dangerous offender, she is serving a third federal sentence after a 2001 conviction and underwent gender surgery while incarcerated.
Legal Arguments in Federal Court
Lawyers argued virtually before Federal Court Justice Janet Fuhrer on Monday morning. The case was taken to federal court for judicial review after Cooper was involuntarily transferred from one men's institution to another, despite identifying as a woman.
Correctional Service Canada (CSC) stated that the decision to move Cooper from Atlantic Institution in New Brunswick to Millhaven Institution in Ontario in 2025 was due to Cooper's refusal to integrate into the prison population. Cooper remained in a Structured Intervention Unit (SIU), effectively in isolation, which CSC described as self-imposed. CSC asserted it had done its due diligence, offering Cooper multiple options to mitigate SIU placement.
CSC noted that the relationship between Cooper and the case management team had deteriorated, prompting the transfer to Millhaven, where a new team and suitable measures could avoid SIU.
Safety Concerns and Arguments for Transfer
Jessica Rose, counsel for Cooper, argued that there was a significant safety risk if Cooper were to enter the general prison population due to her surgery, describing Cooper as a "woman with a vagina." Rose highlighted the serious harms to health and well-being from prolonged segregation. She contended that if a man committed crimes against men, it would be "absurd" to send him to a women's prison to avoid incarceration with his victims, noting that women's prisons also house inmates with histories of offending against women.
"Security and risk is CSC's bread and butter," Rose said. "To say they have no capacity to manage risk for this one individual… their decision doesn't explain why that should be the case for Ms. Cooper but not for dangerous cisgender women with a history of sexually victimizing women."
CSC previously denied Cooper's request to transfer to a women's prison due to safety concerns for inmates and staff. Rose argued that Cooper should have been transferred to one of five federal women's prisons in Canada, which would have resolved the SIU issue.
Policy and Decision-Making
Rose claimed that if Cooper underwent CSC's intake assessment today, the inmate with female genitalia would be placed in a women's prison per CSC's policy on gender diverse offenders (Commissioner's Directive 100, or CD-100). This policy dictates placement according to gender identity unless overriding health and safety concerns cannot be resolved, in which case the offender is placed in a site aligning with their current sex (anatomy). Rose noted that Cooper's current sex is female and marked as such in CSC's system, but argued that Cooper is subject to a different decision-making framework that ignores CD-100 principles, calling it "incoherent decision making."
Laura Rhodes, counsel for CSC, disagreed. She stated that Rose's hypothetical assumes Cooper's behaviour has changed, overlooking that Cooper became "increasingly verbally abusive towards staff, threatening their psychological emotional safety, stating violent and criminally threatening comments against members of her case management team" while at Atlantic Institution. The situation escalated to the point where Cooper was denied access to a staff member she showed fixation toward in February 2025, and several other female staff members could not have contact with her.
Rhodes said the case management team's position was for Cooper to work toward medium security at a men's institution, as the requested women's institutions are "less restrictive and therefore not suitable for her current risk level." If Justice Fuhrer quashes the involuntary transfer decision, Cooper would be moved back to Atlantic from Millhaven, though Rose argued the remedy should be a transfer to a women's prison.
No date has been provided for a decision.
