Famous Five Take Their Place on Parliament Hill

Famous Five Women Take Their Place
on Parliament Hill

The Rural Womyn Zone Rural Women in Canada

by Valery Puetz, British Columbia

On the 71st anniversary of the landmark ruling in the ‘Person’s Case’ a monument to the five women who fought for women to be given legal status as ‘persons’was unveiled.

The work of Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung and Irene Parlby is honoured by the monument of bronze, larger-than-life statues that depict the scene of the five women celebrating their court victory in 1929.

In 1917, a lawyer objected to appearing in Judge Murphy’s court. He pointed out a clause in the British North America Act that said that only “qualified persons” were eligible for the Senate. Such persons, he argued, had always been male. If a woman wasn’t eligible for the Senate how could she sit as a judge, he stated.

The Alberta government ruled that as far as it was concerned, women were indeed persons. But in Ottawa, five successive governments had refused to change the law, despite the fact that women won the right to vote in 1918.

The issue continued unsolved until 1927, when Emily Murphy found a way to get the Supreme Court of Canada to rule on the question. However, in April 1928 the court ruled against the women. The court ruled that “qualified persons” meant men, and that since these words appeared in the Constitution, they superceded any laws passed since.

These five women did not give up at that point but then took the case to the British Privy Council, at that time the highest court in the British Empire.

On October 18, 1929 the ruling came down: Women are persons.

Finally, after 71 years a public monument to honour these courageous and forward-thinking women. Does this mean that the primarily male government finally sees these women and their work as worthy of public accolade or have women gained enough political power to make this happen?