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FAMOUS FIVE WOMEN ARE NO HEROINES

by C. Gwendolyn Landolt

National Vice President

REAL Women of Canada

The Liberal Women's (feminist) Caucus on Parliament Hill decided that a statue of the so-called "Famous Five" Women who brought the "Persons case" to court in 1929 should be placed on Parliament Hill. This location, however, by tradition has been reserved only for the Fathers of Confederation, former prime ministers and kings and queens. To place a statue on Parliament Hill to depict "heroines" representing a special-interest group is unprecedented.

Nonetheless, Minister of State for Women's Issues, Hedy Fry, Heritage Minister, Sheila Copps and Caucus Chairperson, MP Jean Augustine (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) managed to get all five parties, including the Reform Party, in the House of Commons to agree to the motion.

MP Jean Augustine first brought her motion, which required the unanimous consent of MPs, to the floor of the House of Commons at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 11, 1997 -- the final day before adjournment for the Christmas recess. MP, John Nunziata (Independent), however, raised an
objection to the motion on the grounds that the motion should be debated and discussed before consent be granted. While Mr. Nunziata was outside the Chamber doing media interviews a few hours later, Ms. Augustine introduced her motion for a second time. This time, Mr. Garry Breitkreuz (Prince Albert) of the Reform Party, breaking with his party's policy, refused consent. He did so for the 3rd time when the motion was once again introduced. (Mr. Nunziata, at that time, had left the House of Commons and was on his way to the airport.) At 5:30 p.m., a motion to adjourn the proceedings for the Christmas recess was made, at which time, Mr. Breitkreuz, along with other MPs, under the impression the sitting was over, left the Chamber. At 5:35 p.m., the motion was suddenly read again and this time, passed.

As stated in an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen, (Dec. 14, 1997):

Having asked for unanimous consent once in a day and having it refused, the Liberals knew consent was not unanimous. Having asked three times, it is shameful and shabby to ask a fourth. Indeed, it represents a deliberate subversion of the rules.

However, Mr. Marcel Beaudry, Chairman of the National Capital Commission, which is responsible for the care and maintenance of Crown lands in the National Capital Region, told a Senate Committee the following week that the Commission will honour Parliament's decision about the placement of the statue.

Reform Party Disappoints

The decision by the Reform Party to go along with the feminist motion was a disappointment. Reform took this action because it did not want to be labelled "anti-women" by the press. However, who is the Reform's constituency? Surely it is not the media, but rather, the sensible, decent people who gave the party 60 seats in the last election, enabling it to become the official opposition.

REAL Women has written to each Reform MP expressing our concern about the party's capitulation to the will of the feminists. We thought it knew better and had the backbone to stand up to such pressure. We can only hope that the Reform Party's collapse in this case is not a signal that it has lost its will to present Canadians and has, instead, joined the politically correct establishment.

Further, it is also puzzling that those MPs, who were so obliging to pass the motion, did so without any debate or research on the so-called "Famous Five". It seems that few people, including our MPs, know the facts behind the 1929 "Persons Case".

Judging from all the publicity about it, however, one would think that it was the instrument to provide Canadian women with all of their rights, heretofore denied them by men, who were apparently bent on keeping them in the kitchen. This is not the case.

Long before the so-called Famous Five women brought their case to court, Canadian women had many established rights. For example, women were declared separate as to property (women could own and manage their property) back in 1882. Women obtained the vote in 1916 in Manitoba and shortly thereafter, in all the other provinces, except Quebec, and women were granted the federal vote in 1918. Although some of the Famous Five were involved in the suffragette movement, so were thousands of other women across the country who worked just as enthusiastically and ably to reach their objectives. The election of the first woman to the House of Commons took place in 1921. Long before the Persons case, women already had the opportunity to enter the traditional male professions of law, medicine and engineering. In fact, one of the women instrumental in bringing the Persons case forward was appointed a police magistrate in Alberta in 1916.

In fact, all the "Persons Case" achieved was the acknowledgement by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England that women in Canada were "persons" for the purpose of being appointed to the Senate. Considering the low esteem in which the Senate is now held by many, this is a somewhat ironic achievement.

The push to declare the Famous Five home-grown Canadian heroines has led to more than a little revisionist history about them. For starters, three of the five were ardent supporters of eugenic sterilization policies. They believed that breeding by the "feeble-minded" and "unfit" should be curtailed. They could also be considered racist in that they regarded new immigrants to Canada, other than those from the British Isles, as falling within these categories.

Eugenic policies, of course, would have left the "elites" of the day, such as themselves, to produce "quality" off-spring for the purpose of improving our nation. These so-called heroines were, in fact, well-educated, middle class, generally financially well-off women who were able to raise funds to bank roll their case with considerable ease. They were not all that altruistic either in pushing the case, since they fully expected, as a result of their efforts, that at least one of them would be duly honoured by a summons to the Senate. This didn't happen, as another woman, Cairine Wilson, beat them out as the first woman Senator.

Canadian feminists who are keen on Canadian heroines need not despair, however, as there are still plenty from which to choose. For example, how about the widow, a former battered wife, Marguerite d'Youville, who, back in 18th century Quebec, opened up a shelter for other battered women, prostitutes and, highly unusual for those times, native women. She went on to establish hospitals and schools across Canada, even in the yet-unsettled and often dangerous western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and in the north among the Inuvik.

d'Youville's supporters, who became known as the Grey Nuns, nursed, as they still do today, the "untouchables" of their time, such as Irish immigrants trying to escape the terrible famine in their homeland. These immigrants stumbled off the floating coffin ships at Grosse Ile near Quebec City riddled with typhoid and cholera. Many of these brave Canadian women who nursed the sick died as a result of their generous labour of love in caring for others.

Other Canadian heroines are the women who, side by side with their men, settled the Canadian west. Living in absolute deprivation, giving birth and raising their children without medical attention, living in sod huts, working the land in harsh weather conditions, they are a remarkable example of courage, endurance and spirit. Their efforts did, in fact, make a genuine difference to our country.Consider the Famous Five, but not at the expense of Canadian heroines who made far greater sacrifices.

Please write to the Prime Minister requesting the statue not be placed
on Parliament Hill:

The Right Hon. Jean Chrétien
Prime Minister's Office
80 Wellington Street, 2nd Floor
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Also, please write to:

Mr. Preston Manning, MP
Reform Party Leader
Room 409-S, Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Ms. Deborah Grey
Reform Party Caucus Chairperson
Room 436-C, Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Your MP
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Express your concern that the House of Commons has given in to the will of a handful of feminists by permitting a statue to be placed on Parliament Hill which represents a special interest group.

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