Two celebrated Alberta farm women, in the company of three of their fellow womens’ rights crusaders, will take their place among the prime ministerial statues that dot Ottawa’s exclusive Parliament Hill lawn.
In October 2000, a statue will be unveiled honoring the Famous Five Albertans who went to court 70 years ago to win the right of women to be regarded as “persons” under the law.
A ruling by the British Privy Council finally settled the argument in 1929, opening the door for female appointments to the Senate, which had been blocked because senators must be “persons” under the law.
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Breaking new ground
The statue of the five women reading about and celebrating their victory marks the first Albertans to be honored with Parliament Hill statues.
Farm women and political crusaders Irene Parlby and Louise McKinney will be featured with Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy and Henrietta Edwards in the circle.
They campaigned for women’s legal rights, the right to vote, the right to own property and to hold the same positions as men. Several also made their reputations as anti-alcohol crusaders.
But it was their determination to fight the Person’s Case to the highest court that left the most enduring mark on Canadian history.
As she opened debate on the proposal to put a statue on Parliament Hill, Alberta Liberal senator Joyce Fairbairn said the judgment was “a pivotal moment in our history.”
She said it changed her life, more than 50 years later, when she was appointed to the Senate after a career as a journalist and then an adviser to prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
If there had been no persons campaign, “I would not have made it through the doors of this chamber because, according to the law of the day, I would not have been recognized as a person with the right to receive the privilege of appointment to the Senate,” she said.
The Famous Five created controversy to the end. The issue of where to locate the statue caused a minor parliamentary skirmish and one last political battle.
The tradition is that dead former prime ministers and monarchs are the only eminents who qualify for the Hill statue. The exception is a handful of ancient statues of 19th Century Fathers of Confederation.
Businesswoman Frances Wright, president of the Calgary-based Famous 5 Foundation, which is raising money for statues in Ottawa and Calgary, lobbied hard to win an exemption to put the five on the Hill.
It required a unanimous vote by MPs to approve a motion.
As an active Liberal, Wright started with government MPs and soon had them on side. The other parties also eventually agreed.
But on the last day before the House of Commons rose for the Christmas recess, the motion was moved and Toronto Independent MP John Nunziata objected.
Ignorant of bill
Twice it was tried and twice he said no, arguing that he did not know enough about it to give his consent.
Late in the afternoon of Dec. 11, Nunziata thought the issue had been laid to rest and caught a flight home.
Jean Augustine, a Toronto Liberal MP and chair of the Liberal women’s caucus, moved the motion again. This time, Saskatchewan Reform MP Garry Breitkreuz nixed the motion.
Then he left, thinking the House was adjourning for the holiday.
Augustine tried one last time and with all the dissidents gone and few MPs left, it received unanimous approval.
