A violent transgender inmate has been released on parole after serving his sentence in a women’s federal prison in Canada. Cassidy Honsinger, 29, stabbed a teenager repeatedly in a park in Cornwall, Ontario.
Honsinger was first arrested on September 10, 2022, after attacking a 17-year-old girl he had no prior interactions with. According to Parole Board of Canada documents provided to Reduxx, the girl had been sitting with a friend at a local park when she saw Honsinger riding his bike nearby. For reasons that are unclear, she began to call at Honsinger, who then responded by approaching her, pulling out a steak knife, and stabbing her repeatedly. Police were immediately called.
Witnesses observed Honsinger casually walking to his nearby home from the park, exiting shortly after to dispose of his knife in a sewer drain on the street. Honsinger was arrested shortly after, and the knife was retrieved from the sewer.
While the victim survived the attack after being rushed to hospital and treated for quarter-inch punctures on her body, she would later provide an impact statement to the court revealing that she was suffering from limitations in using one of her hands as a result of her injuries. She also spoke about her fear of going out following the attack, and had to begin a medication regimen to combat the night terrors she suffered due to trauma.
Honsinger was ultimately sentenced to two years in federal prison for aggravated assault. During the hearing, it was learned he had a previous “not criminally responsible” designation as he had a number of “mental health challenges.” The designation was applied in 2014, after Honsinger was charged with four counts of assault for strangling his own mother.
The Parole Board of Canada document reviewed by Reduxx notes that Honsinger had been formally diagnosed with “schizophrenia, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Anti-Personality Disorder, Borderline intellectual functioning, Cannabis Use Disorder (possibly in remission), and Attention Deficit Disorder.” It goes on to state that, when not on medication, Honsinger becomes “paranoid, experiences auditory and visual hallucinations, and becomes violent toward others and property.” It adds that he has expressed threats of violence and death to others.
But Reduxx has now learned that Honsinger had been housed at the Grand Valley Institution for Women for a portion of his sentence.
According to Heather Mason, a Canadian advocate for incarcerated women’s rights, a source at Grand Valley told her that female inmates had been “walking on eggshells” around Honsinger.
“My source revealed that he had significant mental health problems, including schizophrenia, and the women were concerned that he might experience an episode and become violent towards them,” Mason explained. “She pointed out that they were extremely vigilant and kept their distance from him, changing their routines and demeanor to minimize contact and prevent provoking him.”
Mason says that she was first made aware of Honsinger’s presence at Grand Valley, a female federal penitentiary, in fall of 2023. Honsinger’s parole documents indicate a statutory release, which occurs after completing two-thirds of the sentence, suggesting he served at least 16 months.
Prior to being sent to Grand Valley, Mason says she had been informed that Honsinger had been detained at a psychiatric hospital in Quebec.
After learning he was released on parole, Mason says she began to have concerns for the safety of those around him.
“Based on my opinion, he poses a substantial risk to others due to his violent past, including altercations with his mother, correctional officers, and community health professionals,” she says. “Additionally, his history reveals non-compliance with community supervision and an extended psychiatric hospital stay, where he struggled with medication adherence and exhibited recurrent violent behavior.”
Mason goes on to condemn the policies which enable males to self-identify into women’s prisons in Canada.
“The inclusion of violent males misidentified as women in female programming and institutions raises concerns, as it obscures women’s unique experiences and histories by incorporating trans-identified male statistics, which can inaccurately represent women’s criminal behaviour pathways and have severe repercussions as this data is incorporated into risk measures, security classification, reclassification, programming, and parole,” she explains.
“These women have been punished through their prison sentence and should not be subjected to further punishment by living in fear of violent attacks, including being beaten or stabbed, by a male inmate who poses a significant threat due to his mental instability and history of violence.”
A report released by the Correctional Service in 2022 revealed that 82% of “gender diverse” prisoners in Canada who had a history of sexual offending were men who identified as transgender. Almost all had committed their crimes prior to claiming a transgender status. The overwhelming majority committed offenses that caused death or serious harm to their victims, over half of whom were women or children.
In June of 2017, the category of “gender identity” was made a protected characteristic after it was added to the Canadian Human Rights Act via a controversial piece of legislation known as Bill C-16.
The Canadian government claimed the bill had been assessed for its impact on women prior to approval, but has repeatedly refused to release any details of the assessment’s findings.