Cautionary Heroes

Rightly revered as five of the most influential women of Canada’s 20^th century, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Henrietta Edwards sued the Attorney General to have women considered persons in August of 1927. Eight months later, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled women were not persons. This, in turn, was overruled by Britain’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1929 in what would be known as the Persons Case.

In recognition of their important contributions in spearheading equality for women in Canada, the Famous Five, as they would come to be known, are lauded throughout the country with monuments and named public spaces, as well as holding a special place in the hearts of Canadians for advancing human rights at home and abroad.

What should also be recognized about the Famous Five is that they were very much women of their time, in that they fought vehemently for the rights of white women, not all women, and that their contributions to eugenics in Alberta cannot be overshadowed by any of their successes in shattering the patriarchal stronghold in Canada.

The Alberta Eugenics Board came into being in 1928, its first meeting in January 1929, and consisted of a four member panel who conducted their business almost entirely in secret. Its establishment was the result of heavy lobbying by many who were concerned about the number of immigrants flooding into the country. Among the more vocal sponsors of eugenics were Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, and Nellie McClung.

During its 43 year existence, the Alberta Eugenics Board approved the sterilization of more than 99% of the almost 4800 cases it heard, devoting an average of 13 minutes to each case. Of the cases presented to it, the Board forcibly sterilized women, men, and children, a disproportional number being those of aboriginal heritage. Many of the subjects of these cases were unaware there was a tribunal about to make a decision about their ability to become parents, and even if they or their family were aware of such a hearing, there was no opportunity for representation or to counter the petition from the medical facility putting it forth.

The Alberta Eugenics Board lasted until 1972, when Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative party repealed the Sexual Sterilization Act and shut down the Board. Among its three primary reasons for doing so, the government acknowledged the Sexual Sterilization Act violated fundamental human rights, the science supporting eugenics was without merit, and that the Act itself was rife with legal ambiguities such as its sheltering of medical personnel from civil litigation.

The world is apparently a different place now than it was when Alberta openly embraced and legalized eugenics as a method of population control. Yet, in reading mainstream news, it is difficult to differentiate the sentiments between what is occurring now versus what transpired back then. While the term ‘eugenics’ is not often used today unless one is describing a Nazi program or a slavery theology, the definition is thinly veiled in other popular terms and phrases used by politicians and tycoons that permeate headlines worldwide.

Heroes are subjective. Even Hitler was considered a hero, as was Chairman Mao and countless other despots, sports icons, celebrities, and notables from all walks of life. Hindsight affords us the luxury of balancing their positive outcomes with those of a more dubious nature, and yet rarely are those same heroes held to account on the same symmetry that propelled them to the pedestal on which they sit.