How Women Officially Became Persons in Canada Thanks to the Famous Five and “The Person’s Case”

An historic date 1929 – Canadian Women become “qualified persons:

The Famous or Alberta Five The historic legal victory is due to the persistence of five Alberta women -- Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards.

It all started in 1916 Recall, how women suffragette groups were petitioning to have more rights in Canadian society? Well in 1916, women in Mantioba, Alberta and Saskatchewan got the right to vote, after long campaigns led by women like Nellie McClung Watch video https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/heritage-minutes/nellie-mcclung?media_type=41&

Emily Murphy becomes a judge Also in 1916, Emily Murphy, of Edmonton Alberta, became first woman appointed as a judge in the British Empire BUT… Emily Murphy faced a great deal of sexism and backlash from her male peers. Since her very first day as a judge lawyers began to question the validity of her rulings because, as a woman, she was not considered a person under Canadian law, so how could she have the legitimacy to rule in a court of law?

We gotta fight for the right to… Emily Murphy began to fight to have women legally defined as persons under the law in 1917 with the help of her friends and other prominent female activists Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Lousie McKinney, and Henrietta Muir Edwards In 1919 the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada passed a resolution asking the prime minister to appoint a female senator, but first Arthur Meighan and then William Lion Mackenzie King said no because women weren’t “qualified persons”

Why weren’t they? “Prior to the mid-1800's, legal language distinguished when the law applied to male persons and female persons and when the law applied to one sex only. However, sometime between 1822 and 1878 there was a decision made to stop referring to both sexes expressly. Male terms such as "he" would be sufficient to include women when the law applied to both sexes. The language no longer made it clear when "person" meant only male persons. From 1850 on, "person" became synonymous with male person.” http://people.ucalgary.ca/~gpopconf/person.html

Getting the ball rolling October 18, 1927, the Minister of Justice submitted a report to the Governor General of Canada regarding a petition submitted by Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy and Irene Parlby. The Famous 5's petition requested the Governor General to direct the Supreme Court of Canada to consider whether women were eligible to become Senators under the British North America Act, the Act of British Parliament which governed the country at this time. 

The Question… The Minister's report to the Governor General stated that while the government was of the view that only men were eligible to become Senators, it would nevertheless be "an Act of justice to the women of Canada to obtain the opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada upon the point." The Minister put forward the following question for the Court's consideration: Does the word "Persons" in section 24 of the British North America Act 1867, include female persons?

The Answer In 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada returned the ruling that women did NOT qualify as persons and thus could not become senators But the Famous Five did not take no for an answer… Since Canada was still a colony at this point they were able to appeal the Supreme Court’s finding to the highest court of the British Empire known as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of England

The Result The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of England overturned the Supreme Courts ruling and declared that women were indeed persons and the interpretation that only men were persons was a “relic of barbarous days” The very next year in 1930, Cairine Wilson became the first female Senator