Dianna Boileau was one of the first Canadians to receive gender-affirming surgery over a half-century ago and wrote about her journey to living her true life in her memoir Behold, I Am Woman.

Now, Boileau and Dr. Harold Challis, who was based in Fort Frances and counselled Boileau and her family on the path to her transition, are being honoured with a new plaque near La Verendrye Hospital in the northwestern Ontario town on Friday.

Boileau, who died in 2014, was born in Winnipeg, and at various times lived in Fort Frances and other parts of northern Ontario, as well as Toronto and Alberta. Challis, who emigrated to Canada from Britain in 1950, died