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Loading ...Transwoman ordered to serve time in male prison
01.07.2009 10:18am EST
(Montreal, Quebec) A transsexual Quebec inmate who hasn’t physically completed the transformation to a woman has created an incarceration quagmire for federal corrections officials after being transferred into a men’s prison.
Tania Veilleux, 43, has been detained at the federal penitentiary in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines since mid-December when she was sentenced to 40 months in prison for sexually assaulting a young girl over a four-year period.Veilleux had previously been held at the Tanguay prison for women in Montreal while awaiting sentencing, but other female inmates weren’t comfortable with her presence there.
Veilleux was formerly known as Sylvain Veilleux, but the Registrar of Civil Status of Quebec has accepted her as a female. However, federal officials have classified her as a male.
A court-appointed lawyer who assisted Veilleux at her trial says tensions boiled over at the women’s facility because while Veilleux is legally a woman, she still has male sexual organs.
At least one of female detainee didn’t appreciate sharing space with Veilleux, said lawyer Andre Boissonneault. “Legally she is a woman but she hasn’t had her operation, so she’s partly a man,” Boissonneault said.
“That caused some problems.”
Boissonneault said provincial jail officials went to great lengths to accommodate Veilleux, including keeping other inmates behind bars while she bathed and changed.
“Then she was sentenced to 40-months in prison and instead of sending her to a prison for women, they sent her to a prison for men,” Boissonneault said.
The Correctional Service of Canada was unavailable to comment on the case.
But a long-time Quebec advocate for the transgendered said it isn’t a good idea to leave Veilleux in an all-male facility.
“I don’t know how Tania will hold up in these types of facilities,” said Micheline Montreuil, a transgendered Quebec lawyer, teacher and politician who ran federally for the New Democratic Party in 2007.
“Putting her in isolation to keep her safe is probably the best – but I don’t know if that is a long-term solution.”
Montreuil said that while she herself would feel physically capable of handling herself among males, she doesn’t know how Veilleux will adjust.
Montreuil, who has visited clients in the prison where Veilleux is currently incarcerated just north of Montreal, says it is a rough institution that caters specifically to men.
“I don’t know how she’s going to react but knowing how inmates are, she could face harassment and could even be assaulted,” said Montreuil.
“So is it a good idea to put her in a male prison? No, unless of course she’s in isolation.”
Boissonneault said Veilleux has not returned his calls, but hopes to touch base with her in the coming days.
Just execute the POS and the question of which prison to use becomes moot.
No Steve! It is YOU that missed the mark!
I as well as many other law abiding transwomen in this country do not DESERVE to live in fear of rape due to government support of such policies.
No one cares to rape adult gay men outside of prison. I bet you would love to find a young boy to rape (one who you can say is bad enough to deserve it) being that you love rape supportive policies so much you sadistic John Wayne Gasey; NAMBLA like piece of shit.
The same cannot be said for transwomen.
Law abiding transwomen duo have to fear rape knowing that other men know the government will do little or nothing to protect them!
I hope the government finds justification to put all lesbians in prison with men.
Being that they are more manish than most women; it is the right thing to do according do Secy2008’s logic!
This is a policy that I think a majority of hetero America would support. I have every right to advocate for this since so many lesbians are advocating rape culture be increased towrads me.
P.S: I have heard of cases where lesbians were forced into showers and other places with men and brutally raped.
The crime that she committed was disgusting. However, I’m also digusted by all of the “he/she” comments and the repeated “he” comments when she’s is a woman, regardless of her genitalia. I know that many gay and lesbian people tend to think that they’re the barometer of so-called normalcy, but the way the gay community tends to shun and disrespect transgendered and transsexual people is absolutely ridiculous, harmful, short-sighted, closed-minded, and just plain SUCKS.
I’m also disgusted by the fact that people would hope that she gets raped in jail. When is rape ever ok? You should be ashamed of yourselves!
Melissa Gl, I believe you missed the mark. The fact that this person is a transwomen has nothing to do with the crime committed. This was not a one time crime of opportunity. This child was repeatedly molested over a long period of time. Sylvain deserves what he/she gets. He (at the time)knew to molest was wrong and that the girls life would be destroyed to satisfy his urges. Now his/her life will be destroyed because of the urges of the inmates who although they know it is wrong-will forceably rape Sylvain.
My ex used to be a prison guard. In prison they HATE child molesters. He/she will get what they deserve.
Not that I don’t feel pity for this he/she but she got herself in this situation with a sexual assualt on a girl, so sending her to a male prison was the right thing to do!
I get sick of hearing this crap about transwomen DESERVING to be put in a cage with men!
As a transwoman myself, I have to fear getting raped and killed on the street or at someone’s house every day. I have to be hypercautious about who I am with (especially in an unsecure environment)
The surest way for a woman to be raped or sexually assaulted is for the government to show the public (especially rapists in men’s prison) that it is ok to rape and even kill trans woman.
Government indifference and covert support of woman being raped makes a far greater certainty that a woman will be raped than even going around intoxicated to the point she cannot function and will not remember anything when she comes through from intoxication.
This is why a transwoman being post-op and / or law abiding misses 90 % of the point.
The purspose of putting trans female offenders in women’s prison is to avoid sending the message that it is ok to rape trans-women in general and not because offenders like the one in this story deserve better treatment!
For the women hear (Aleasha, Kate, Kerry) and everywhere else who advocate for spreading rape culture against tranwomen deserve to be raped themselves!
As sexual minorites, you bitches have a better chance than most women to get what you have coming to you (pardon the pun)!
“she was sentenced to 40 months in prison for sexually assaulting a young girl over a four-year period. ”
That is all we get to hear about the victim. The victim here is the young girl (how young by the way – again not an important issue?) Let him/her suffer all he can, molesting a child is an extremely serious crime.
The comments on the article are shocking. I, for one, do not trust the legal system to defend trans-people effectively. Maybe she did the crime, and maybe not. But the sentence is imprisonment, NOT rape or assault. If you want rape and assault to be legitimate sentences, be careful what you wish for.
I can’t believe that I’m being forced to defend a pedophile. Oh my gawd I feel like Ruby-Sachs has spiked my water!
This person should serve his/her sentence as determined by the courts. It’s not for mob rule or other inmates to determine and distribute justice as the see fit.
Now mind you, it is rather upsetting that this person only received 40 months. I shudder at the thought that a pedophile has the chance of abusing other children. But, this person needs to be put into a protective custody situation.
I have no sympathy considering the crime.Usually inmates with this kind of “beef” are put into protective custody,right away.I have known other partially sex changed inmates,who were put into the hospital,but some enjoyed the attention from all those men,by staying right in the general population.
Put her wherever her sentence will be hardest. She actually got 10 months for every 12 months she molested a child – put her with the men in the general population!
The person’s current sex should determine which prison they should end up in. If the person is currently a male, then they should spend time in a male prison. If they are currently female, then they should spend time in a female prison.
Such a shame the use of the death penalty isn’t available for crimes of this nature.
I have ZERO sympathy for this As—-e. He repeatedly sexually assulted a young girl. This girl’s life is destroyed. I hope he is violently attacked and die’s during the assult in prison.
With all due respect…look at the crime. It does not take a rocket scientest to know where the person belongs. Base it on the crime….on this one. It is not that hard.