Here's a court ruling that the anti-feminists out there
should have fun with.

From The Edmonton Sun, August 13, 1993
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Women guards can frisk men

By Sean Durkan and Steve Tilley
Staff Writers

Women have more rights to privacy than men, the Supreme Court of
Canada said yesterday in ruling that female prison guards can frisk
male cons and peer into their cells unannounced.

Former prisoner Philip Conway asked the court to rule that since
male guards can't perform these duties in female prisons, women
guards should be banned from performing them in male prisons.

Conway argued that frisking involved touching a prisoner's body all
over, and by peering into cells unannounced, female guards may see
male inmates naked or using the toilet.

But in a 7-0 ruling dismissing Conway's appeal, Justice Gerard
La Forest wrote there is more expectation of privacy in female
prisons because women are different.

Al Swaine, assistant warden at the Edmonton Institution, applauded
the judgement, saying had it gone the other way it would have caused
staff scheduling chaos.

The maximum-security jail has an all-male population and about 40
female guards, said Swaine.  Part of the guards' duties include
surprise cell checks.

Female guards at "the Max" can frisk men over clothing but won't do
flesh searches - allowed by the court ruling - except in emergencies,
said Swaine.

Carol Hutchings, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society
prisoners' rights group, agreed that cross-gender searching is more
threatening to women than men.

But Edmonton prisoners' rights advocate Damon Horne called the decision
an "absurd double-standard.

"We should all be equal before the law," said Horne.

La Forest said prisoners have "no reasonable expectation of privacy" but
that women have more expectation than men.

"Given the historical, biological, and sociological differences between
men and women, it is clear the effect of cross-gender searching is
different and more threatening for women than for men," La Forest said.

"Biologically, a frisk search or surveillance of a man's chest area
conducted by a female guard does not imply the same concerns as the
same practice by a male guard."

There are no federal prisons with female inmates in Alberta, but some
men guard women in provincial jails.
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