From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
OPP no longer identifying gender of victims and accused involved in crimes
The OPP [Ontario Provincial Police] says the Police Services Act, freedom of information laws and respect for gender are behind the move
Kate Dubinski · CBC News · Posted: Sep 23, 2019Ontario’s provincial police service will no longer release the gender of people who are charged with crimes and those who are victims of crimes. The policy change comes following a review of legislation and the need to be more progressive, a spokesperson said. …
“It doesn’t matter if it was a male or a female who was an impaired driver or speeding down the highway, what matters is that we pulled them over and laid a charge.” …
“We have a lot of individuals who identify as male but actually are female, or vice versa. That’s one of the reasons. Also, we want to respect the wishes of individuals,” Dionne said.
Often, a name in a media release is gender-specific. However, in cases where someone’s gender is not immediately apparent, the OPP used to clarify gender when asked.
“We will now say “the individual” or “the accused,” and not use gender-specific pronouns,” Dionne said. “In the case of a suspect where we need to be more specific, we will say “appears to be a female” or “appears to be a male.”
The OPP will still keep gender-specific statistics, she said.
Police will still release other information such as the name, age, or hometown of an individual.
Similarly, Foucault complained that the police were always trying to categorize bodies as male or female, adult or child, molester or molestee. To Foucault, this took all the fun away. Foucault died of AIDS 35 years ago, but his soul (not that he wanted to have one) goes marching on.
