BC Trans Woman Wanted for Arson at Montreal Sex Reassignment Clinic

A sex reassignment clinic in Montreal was set on fire earlier this month, and now police are looking for a trans woman suspect who had surgery at the clinic.

Jayne Ellen Heideck of Kelowna, BC is wanted in connection to a May 2 blaze that caused about $700,000 in damage. She faces charges for arson causing danger to human life, breaking and entering, arson by negligence, assault, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. The Centre Métropolitain de Chirurgie specializes in sex reassignment or gender-affirming surgeries including vaginoplasty, phallophlasty, breast augmentation and breast removal. It's the only clinic of its kind in Canada that accepts government health insurance. The clinic's sprinkler system contained the flames, nobody was injured, and surgeries have continued on schedule. When VICE News first reported on the fire, police were treating the incident as a possible hate crime. "Our investigation has shown that it is not a hate crime," Montreal police Constable Manuel Couture told the Montreal Gazette this week. Since then, a prominent BC transgender activist has stepped forward to confirm Heideck had surgery at the clinic and wasn't happy with the results. Morgane Oger of the Trans Alliance Society told CKNW radio in Vancouver Heideck complained about the process four months after the operation. "It's devastating to the community. But it's also a heinous crime what she did, or is accused of doing," Oger told CKNW Tuesday. "There is no excuse for an arsonist attack against a hospital, whether the root cause is anger or hatred or despair." Oger asked Heideck to reach out to the trans community or police. Follow Sarah on Twitter.