Mohamed Al Ballouz is accused of killing his wife and two children in September 2022. His trial is currently being held in Montreal. He is standing alone.
We learned a few months ago that the accused now identifies as a woman, so much so that journalists have a hard time giving coherent news about this trial.
As a result, he's referred to as both a “he” and a “she”, sometimes in the same sentence.
It's hard to blame the journalists for this, as it's a rather perilous exercise. It seems obvious that the murder was committed by Mr. Al Ballouz. At the time of the incident, there was no indication that he was experiencing any problems of gender dysphoria.
But since he now calls himself a woman, he must be referred to as “the accused”.
So far, despite the tragic nature of the facts reported, it could even be comical. Nothing to write home about.
The problem is that, under Canadian law, Mr. Al Ballouz, because of his self-identification as a woman, has every chance of serving his sentence in a women's prison if convicted of the triple crime attributed to him.
This pattern is becoming a little too recurrent in Britain and Canada to be just an isolated case. Why do so many men, when facing justice, suddenly identify themselves as women? Let's remember that Luka Rocco Magnota also tried this: in order to be transferred from a high-security to a medium-security prison, he suddenly identified himself as female, which would have facilitated the transfer because of the many specialized treatments Magnota required due to his new “identity”. In 2023, Jody Burke, accused of rape and declared a dangerous offender, tried to present himself as Amber. The Crown prosecutor claimed that Burke would do anything to have his sentence reduced. The judge, for his part, described Mr. Burke's transition project as opportunistic.
In Great Britain, Adam Graham, convicted of rape, suddenly identified himself as a woman and was transferred to a women's prison. Many voices have been raised in defense of women's safety in prison (there have been precedents, such as this woman who became pregnant as a result of an assault by ONE other inmate...) and here in Canada, Heather Mason, a former inmate who saw the havoc wreaked by the inclusion of these individuals in prisons with women, has made it her hobbyhorse. In Scotland, in the face of pressure from women's advocates, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon saw her power greatly weakened. Graham was finally transferred to a men's prison.
In a few days' time, if convicted, Al Ballouz will be on his way to the penitentiary. Strangely, no woman identifying herself as a man has ever asked to be incarcerated according to her “perceived gender”. This is because it is widely known that life in a women's prison is “gentler” than in a men's prison.
We call on the government to recognize the danger of relying on self-declaration of gender to incarcerate individuals. We ask the government to consider the safety of women. Let this safety not be sacrificed on the altar of the need to recognize everyone's right to be validated in their felt identity.
