Some of Canada’s most dangerous and violent offenders are back on the prowl – for love.
Founded in the early 2010s, Canadian Inmates Connect is a unique dating site offering incarcerated individuals a connection-point with pen pals and, potentially, intimate partners from the outside world.
The website functions as a dating-style directory where inmates create personal profiles featuring their name, age, location, interests, and a brief self-description.
Each profile includes a mailing address, allowing interested individuals to initiate correspondence through traditional mail.
Unlike standard dating websites, Canadian Inmates Connect does not offer direct messaging or online chat services.
Due to Canada’s privacy laws, the platform does not verify the nature of an inmate’s conviction or charges. Instead, the site explicitly advises visitors to “Google” the inmate and do their own research before writing. Some inmates disclose their convictions in their listings, however.
Among its most notable users is Tara DeSousa, a transgender inmate formerly known as Adam Laboucan.
Now 43, DeSousa was designated Canada’s youngest dangerous offender at age 15 following her conviction for the horrific sexual assault of a three-month-old infant in 1997 — an act that left the victim requiring extensive reconstructive surgery.
DeSousa underwent “gender-affirming operations” and is now living in a women’s prison. DeSousa admitted to drowning a three-year-old boy when he was 11.
The prisoner describes “herself” as “an award-winning poet (who) makes the best curry dishes ever,” and is seeking a “man who is non-judgmental, courteous, truthful and wants a sincere friend.”
Another profile, which uses only an animated smiley face for a profile picture, begins: “Hello, my name is Matthew Kosowatsky and I’m from Montreal, Quebec. I am currently serving a 2 year sentence for several child pornography charges.”
A Google search for Kosowatsky yields no results regarding his conviction or the nature of his crimes.
Several other dating profiles on the website appear to belong to individuals incarcerated in the United States. Take Derrick Stepp, for example.
A Google search for Derrick Stepp, who lists an Illinois penitentiary as his mailing address, produced an immediate result pertaining to his convictions
Stepp is a sexual offender under Florida law.
Unlike the U.S., Canada does not have a publicly available sex offenders registry.
Canadian Inmates Connect actively discourages users from sending money to inmates and says it “is not responsible for any type of relationship that is developed through (their) site.”
True North contacted the phone number listed on the Canadian Inmates Connect, Inc. website to ask whether the platform’s administrators had concerns about user safety, given that privacy laws require potential suitors to research inmates themselves and that prisoner gender and name changes are easily facilitated.
The company did not return the call prior to deadline.