Edwards v Canada (AG), also known as the Persons Case, was a Canadian constitutional case that women could sit in the Senate of Canada in 1929. It began as a reference case in the supreme court that ruled that women were not “qualified persons” and ineligible to sit in the Senate. Launching the person’s case was a group of five women activists known as the “Famous Five.” Their names were Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Edwards, and Irene Parlby.

Now, suffrage in Canada extends to at least the late nineteenth century. Initial efforts focused on entering politics at smaller levels like school and children's education. Manitoba’s own Icelandic community endorsed suffrage by the 1870s, and the province was the first in the country to grant women the right to vote and run for office in 1916. The prairies, at least compared to provinces like Ontario, were more welcoming to suffrage. A part of this was strategic; as the prairies became more colonized, the settler colonial state relied on white women to displace Indigenous people. Laws centering around monogamy were also important for the settlers to undercut people who practiced polygamy such as certain Indigenous people, Mormons, and others.

The prairies, at this point, were largely agricultural, which meant that suffragists worked with farming organizations like the United Farmers of Alberta as well as groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in Canada. These organizations believed very strongly in traditional gender roles and that women had an active role as “mothers of the race,” the Anglo race, which they believed to be in low numbers due to the First World War. These suffragists argued that “mothers of the race” should be involved in politics because of their maternal instincts, which they believed would steer Canada away from alcohol abuse, which they believed led to poverty. They also thought that eastern European immigrants and non-white immigrants were more susceptible to these things. Many believed in eugenics and advocated for compulsory sterilization of these people. For an example of this, here's a segment from Nellie McClung’s book In Times Like These:

“to bring children into the world, suffering from the handicaps caused by ignorance, poverty, or criminality of the parents, is an appalling crime against the innocent and hopeless, and yet one about which practically nothing is said. Marriage, homemaking, and the rearing of children are left entirely to chance, and so it is no wonder that humanity produces so many specimens who, if they were silk stockings or boots, would be marked ‘seconds.’”

Emily Murphy shared similar views on eugenics, claiming that “feeble minded” women having children was immoral. Murphy also vilified Chinese immigrants and African-Americans for drug use in Canada and was staunchly anti-immigration McClung and Murphy were some of the most influential supporters of compulsory sterilization in Alberta, campaigning in favor of it. In 1928, the Sexual Sterilization Act was passed in Alberta and was not repealed until 1972 ( Yes, you’re reading that right.)

Now, onto the Person’s Case: Emily Murphy and other women tried attending a trial of a women in Alberta accused of prostitution were rejected from the trial on the grounds that the testimony was "not fit for mixed company.” Murphy reached out to Charles Wilson Cross, the Attorney General of Alberta, who then appointed her as Magistrate, but her ability to preside as a judge was challenged by a male judge who said that under the British North American Act, women were not “persons.” Several years later, Murphy and the four other women signed a petition to the supreme court of Canada if they believed women were eligible to be appointed senators. The case had to go to England, since the Canadian courts and government did not support the idea of women as persons. It was after it went to the U.K. for a reassessment of the British North America Act that they supported the idea.

The “Famous Five” are important and their case was a milestone in women's rights in Canada. Yet, it is important to realize that they were not advocating on behalf of all women. They were advocating for a middle class, white, Anglo-Saxon woman, and one that would become a mother with a husband. Even after this historic court case, several groups were still not allowed to vote. Indo Canadians and Chinese Canadians did not have the right to vote in British Columbia until 1947, while First Nations people could not vote without losing their Indian Status until 1960.

Primary Source

Nellie McClung, In Times Like These. 1915.

Secondary Sources

Sarah Carter, The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915. (University of Alberta Press, 2008)

Catherine Cavanaugh, "Out of the West: History, Memory and the Persons Case, 1919-2000," in Forging Alberta's Constitutional Framework, 1670-2005, Richard Connors and John Law, eds (2005).

Erika Dyck, Facing Eugenics: Reproduction, Sterilization, and the Politics of Choice (University of Toronto Press, 2013).

Nancy Millar, The Famous Five (1999).