Transcript The Persons Case  The Famous Five refers to five women from Alberta: Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parley.  Together,

The Persons Case
 The Famous Five refers to
five women from Alberta:
Emily Murphy, Nellie
McClung, Louise
McKinney, Henrietta Muir
Edwards and Irene Parley.
 Together, they helped
initiate a lawsuit in 1927, to
determine whether women
were “persons” under
section 24 of the BNA Act
and therefore eligible to
serve in the Senate.
The Persons Case
 This case made it all the way to the Privy Council, who
on October 28th, 1929, unanimously declared that
women were indeed “persons” under the BNA Act.
 As a result of the Persons Case, the Famous Five have
been described as heroes.
 More recently, however, it has been suggested that they
were not heroes at all.
 This presentation examines the question of their status
as heroes.
What is a Hero?
 The Oxford English dictionary describes as “hero” as:
“… a person, typically a man, who is admired for their
courage or outstanding achievements”.
 In my view, the real test under this definition is
whether a person is “admired” for their efforts. An
individual can be courageous and they can make
outstanding achievements, but it is the sum total of
their actions that will determine whether they are, in
fact, admirable.
 I think that the Famous Five are not heroes because of
the social prejudices of some of their members and
because their achievements have been overstated.
The Famous Five Revealed
 Although the Famous Five are often discussed
together, it is worth considering each woman
individually and their contribution to society.
 In fact, the Famous Five were really different in many
ways: coming from different social backgrounds, with
different social beliefs and different religions.
 Each one of the Famous Five were very active in their
community and worked hard to bring about changes
which they thought would improve society. Prior to
the Persons Case, however, they had each gone about
this in very different ways.
Emily Murphy
 Emily Murphy was a women’s rights
activist, jurist and author.
 She worked to protect the poor and
disadvantaged and was particularly
interested in the rights of both women
and children.
 In 1916, she pressed the Alberta
Legislature to pass the Dower Act,
which gave women a one-third interest
in their husband’s property.
Nellie McClung
 Nellie McClung was a teacher, a
politician, a suffragist and a
writer.
 Her great causes were women’s
rights and temperance. She
actively campaigned for school
children's dental and medical
care.
 It was largely through her efforts
that, in 1916, Manitoba gave
women the right to vote.
Louise McKinney
 Louise McKinney was the
first women elected into the
Legislative Assembly of
Alberta .
 She supported temperance,
education, the Dower Act,
women's rights and stronger
liquor control.
 Louise McKinney strongly
believed that government
was responsible for looking
after the health of the people
and she pressed hard to ban
alcohol and restrict tobacco
sales.
Irene Parlby
 Irene Parlby was elected to the
Alberta Legislature in 1921 and
introduced many bills to help women
and children.
 She was named to cabinet in the
Provincial Government in 1921, and
was the second woman cabinet
minister in the British Empire.
 Irene was the leader of the United
Farm Women of Alberta and was a
strong supporter of women’s and
children’s rights.
Henrietta Muir Edwards
 Henrietta Muir Edwards was a social
activist and magazine publisher.
 She believed that Canada’s prisons were
too cruel and became active in prison
reform.
 She also worked to help provide training
for poor working women, and published
the first Canadian magazine for working
women.
 She helped establish the National
Council of Women to help address
women’s social issues.
The Whole Truth
 Although many of the contributions of each of the
Famous Five are impressive, the value of the Persons
Case and their involvement in that case must be closely
considered.
 As well, it is clear that each one of these women did a
lot to protect and improve the rights of women and
children, however, some of their attitudes and behavior
was objectionable and inexcusable, regardless of what
was seemingly acceptable at the time.
Racism and
Prejudice

There is strong evidence that many of the Famous Five were
racist and prejudiced against certain minorities.
 Emily Murphy, for example, in writing about the need for more
restrictive drug laws, was particularly critical of the Chinese,
whom she referred to as a “visitor” in this country. In 1922,
Murphy published her first book, “The Black Candle”, which
contained articles which attacked Asians, Jews and American
Blacks. Murphy’s writings contributed to making a difficult racial
issue, even more problematic.
 In addition to her racist attitudes towards non-whites, Murphy
was a strong supporter of the eugenics movement and the resident
schools for aboriginals.
Racism and
Prejudice

Emily Murphy supported the eugenics movement, the belief that certain
men and women should be sterilized so that they cannot have children.

In 1932 Murphy wrote an article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper in
which she argued that it was proper for the government to sterilize
mentally handicapped men and women so that they would not have
mentally handicapped children. In it she described the handicapped as
“… human wreckage which has been dumped [in Alberta] from foreign
lands …”
 Later she described the operation on males as taking only five minutes
“… just about the same time as it takes to execute unhappy degenerates
who are not answerable to law because of their imperfect orientation”.
Racism and Prejudice
 Nellie McClung also believed in eugenics. In one case,
Nellie tried to convince a father that he should have his
daughter sterilized.
Racism and Prejudice
 Louise McKinney thought that Blacks, Asian
immigrants and eastern Europeans were to blame for
the drug problems in Canada and she wanted to restrict
immigration of these groups.
Racism and Prejudice
 Although Irene Parlby did
work hard to get the vote
for woman, it was only
white women. Non-white
women didn’t get the vote
for at least another twenty
years.
Too Much Credit
 Although Emily Murphy initiated the Persons Case, it seems that the main
contribution made by the other four women was to sign the petition.
 Although the Famous Five are given all of the credit for the success of the
Persons Case, it seems very clear that there were many other people who
were very instrumental in the success of this lawsuit.
 For example, we now know that Prime Minister MacKenzie King lent both
his support and financial assistance in order for the case to be heard by the
Privy Council.
The “Over Sell”
In my view, the importance of the Persons Case has been overstated.
Although the success of this lawsuit allowed for women to be appointed to
the Senate, the Senate doesn’t really have very much power in Canada.
Finally, this case was not groundbreaking in the sense that it forged the
way for women in politics. Well before the Persons Case had ever begun,
there had already been a woman elected to Parliament.
The $50 bill
 To honor the 75th anniversary of women becoming “persons” in the eyes
of the law, the Canadian government put an image of the Famous Five
on the back of the $50 bill. This was very controversial as some people
felt that the Famous Five did not demonstrate proper Canadian values of
tolerance and multi-culturism.
Conclusions
In my view, the Famous Five, as a group, are not heroes.
First, although these women had a role in the Persons Case, it
seems to me that they have been given far too much credit for
the success of the lawsuit.
Secondly, although the Persons Case was significant, I think
that its importance has been overstated.
Conclusions
Lastly, to be a true hero, you must
be admirable and many of the racist
and intolerant attitudes held by
members of the Famous Five, are not
to be admired.
.
Sources
 www.famous5.ca
 http://www.ottwaexpress.ca/news/nes.aspx?illDArticle=5796
 http://abheritige.ca/famous5/context/imperial_racism.html
 Miller, Nancy; “The Famous Five”, (Heritage Press), 1999.
 http://www2.canada.com/calgaryhearld/feature/story.html/i
d=fa14
 http://www.collectioncanada.gc.ca/famous5/index-ehtml
 Reconceving the West Though Women's History
Patricia A. Rome