Micheline Montreuil

Micheline Hélène Montreuil or Hélène Montreuil is a Quebec lawyer, teacher, writer, radio host, trade unionist and politician. As a transgendered person, she became known for her legal struggles to defend her LGBT rights. She has used the first name Micheline from the 80's up to September 9, 2016 when she switched for Hélène. She is now know as Hélène Montreuil.

Biography
Hélène Montreuil was born Pierre Montreuil in Quebec City, ancestral city of the family since 1637 and still Montreuil's place of residence. Born a male, Montreuil began using the first name Micheline in the 1980s. Montreuil studied law. On September 13, 2003, wearing a wedding gown, she married at the Quebec City Palais des arts the lawyer and author Michèle Morgan. This was Montreuil's first marriage. She presently works as a lawyer and teacher of ethics and law at the Université du Québec à Rimouski.

Political activism
Montreuil made herself known with her struggles for transgender rights. For example, in 1997, she began a legal challenge against the Registrar of Civil Status of Quebec as she had not been permitted to legally change her name to Micheline. Following a court ruling in her favour, her request was finally accepted in 2002. (See Legal aspects of transsexualism.)

Also, in 1998, the National Bank refused to hire Micheline Montreuil. Although the bank argued that she was not hired because she was "overqualified, condescending and self-centered", in a judgement given on February 5 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the National Bank had discriminated against her on the basis of her gender identity.

Within the New Democratic Party, a federal party, she is Co-Chair of the NDP's federal LGBT Committee, a member of the NDP Federal Council, Associate President of the NDP Quebec Section. She was elected president of Section 225 of the Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec, and has also served as a member of the administration councils of the Canadian Human Rights Trust and Egale Canada.

She was a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada nomination in 1984 in the riding of Langelier, candidate for city councillor in the Saint-Sacrement District for the Progrès civique de Québec in 1993, and candidate for the nomination Saint-Roch et Saint-Jean Baptiste District for the Renouveau municipal de Québec in 2001.

She has written many books in law and management.