{"id":309,"date":"2021-12-15T04:35:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T04:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/?p=309"},"modified":"2021-12-15T04:40:26","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T04:40:26","slug":"are-women-intellectual-equals-to-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/2021\/12\/15\/are-women-intellectual-equals-to-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Women Intellectual Equals to Men? Survey #9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Retelling of the Chilling “Persons” Case in Canada<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Unveiling of a plaque commemorating the Famous Five, June 11, 1938. “Thus decision marks the abolition of sex in politics… Personally I do not care whether or not women ever sit in the Senate, but we fought for the privilege for them to do so. We sought to establish the personal individuality of women and this decision is the announcement of our Victory” – Henrietta Muir Edwards (one of the five) Source: https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatoday.in%2Feducation-today%2Fgk-current-affairs%2Fstory%2Fpersons-day-famous-five-canada-1370415-2018-10-18&psig=AOvVaw1uolEa4h1_upaolxmjvlHe&ust=1639608042730000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjhxqFwoTCLDLmIuu5PQCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAQ
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92 years ago in Canada women were not considered “persons”- at least according to the fullest legal sense of the word. Canada’s constitution at the time , which was referred to as the British North America Act, stated that only “qualified persons” could be appointed to the Canadian Senate. Up until this point the Canadian government had unfailingly treated this phrase as meaning men only. <\/em>This interpretation emerged from the historical precedent that when a law was written it was intended to mean men and only<\/em> refer to men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A newspaper clipping from October 18th, 1929. The title of the article almost feels a bit mocking to me, as if the five are mocking the fact that they would have to fight to legally make themselves “Persons”. Now that we are actually<\/em> considered persons…. Also notice how Mrs. R. W. McClung shares the same last name as the article’s author! I wonder if they’re related? Source: https:\/\/www.indiatoday.in\/education-today\/gk-current-affairs\/story\/persons-day-famous-five-canada-1370415-2018-10-18<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This blatant misogyny rallied outraged suffragists throughout Canada. But little changed, until a suffragist by the name Emily Murphy found a way to challenge this law. Murphy found a section in the Supreme Court of Canada Act that stated any five persons acting as a unit could petition against the supreme Court for an interpretation of any part of the constitution. Murphy then realized this clause by gathering four other women activists to her Edmonton home to meet on August 27, 1927. This group of five women would later be known as The Famous Five, as they signed a letter petitioning the supreme court to look into the matter of refusing to appoint female senators. The matter was finally debated on March 14, 1928 and quickly became known as the “Persons Case”. This initial confrontation with the court ended with the ruling that women were not <\/em>“qualified persons” as related to section of the British North America Act The Five were challenging. The Famous Five were not disheartened by this decision for long, but instead petitioned an authority even higher than the Supreme Court of Canada itself; They petitioned the Privy Council in England. On October 18, 1929 the Privy Council released their judgement. To the absolute delight of The Five and the women in Canada, the Privy Council agreed that women were indeed persons and could be appointed senators. A representative of the Privy Council even went to state “The Exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more babarous than ours”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Statues of The Famous Five at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. This monument was created in 2000 as a tribute to The Famous Five. It depicts Parbly, McKinney, McCLung, Murphy, and Edwards bringing their case before the highest court in the British Empire. I wonder why it took 71 years for the monument to be created? Regardless, a meaning full reminder of the Persons Case. I particularly like how two of the women are sitting down for tea while chiming in to discuss the case. Source: https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Famous_Five_(Canada)&psig=AOvVaw1uolEa4h1_upaolxmjvlHe&ust=1639608042730000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAwQjhxqFwoTCLDLmIuu5PQCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe \u2018Persons\u2019 Case.\u201d\u00a0Famou5<\/em>, www.famous5.ca\/the-persons-case. Accessed 15 Dec. 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPersons Case.\u201d\u00a0The Canadian Encyclopedia<\/em>, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca\/en\/article\/persons-case. Accessed 15 Dec. 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSenate of Canada – Why the Persons Case Matters.\u201d\u00a0Senate of Canada<\/em>, sencanada.ca\/en\/sencaplus\/how-why\/why-the-persons-case-matters. Accessed 15 Dec. 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Retelling of the Chilling “Persons” Case in Canada 92 years ago in Canada women were not considered “persons”- at least according to the fullest legal sense of the word. Canada’s constitution at the time , which was referred to as the British North America Act, stated that only “qualified persons” could be appointed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eportfolios.capilanou.ca\/yohahnahloker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}