Leilani Muir-O'Malley passes away (Alberta Eugenics Survivor)

[killer_carlson]

For those who do not know, Leilani Muir-O'Malley was the person who took on the province over the forced sterilization under the province's eugenics movement. The short version is that she was abused as a child, starved by negligent parents and abandoned at the age of 10 to the "Provincial Training School". the province took people they considered to have low intelligence and sterilized them with the idea of weeding out the gene pool. The policy went further and targeted immigrants and metis as well. It was a policy based on terrible science, abdication of morals and simply plain wrong. (interestingly the case cites 3 of the Famous 5 women who got women to be deemed "Persons" in Canadian law supported the eugenics movement in the province out of a fear of immigration)

But it was this lady who stood up and brought a case forward and rightfully won. Tremendous political pressure was brought against her and her supporters, but ultimately the Courts agreed.

This would have taken a lot of courage as the legal system and process can be confusing or stressful for even the most sophisticated people. But she knew the difference between right and wrong and stood her ground.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/woman+made+history+with+lawsuit+against+alberta+go vernment+dies/11787217/story.html

http://leilanimuir.ca/about-leilani

[Northendzone]

i never knew the province had a forced sterilization program

[FlamesAddiction]

i never knew the province had a forced sterilization program

Yep, brought in by John Brownlee and supported for a long time by Ernest Manning (Preston Manning's father).

Some of those early premiers of Alberta were completely nuts.

There is a wiki page on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Sterilization_Act_of_Alberta

During the time the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act was in effect, 4,800 cases were proposed for sterilization in the Province of Alberta, of which 99% received approval. Examination of sterilization records demonstrates that legislation did not apply equally to all members of society. Specifically, the Act was disproportionately applied to those in socially vulnerable positions, including females, children, unemployed persons, domestics, rural citizens, unmarried, institutionalized persons, Roman and Greek Catholics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholics), persons of Ukrainian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainians), Native (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Peoples_of_the_Americas) and Métis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_people_(Canada)) ethnicity.[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Sterilization_Act_of_Alberta#cite_note-1)

[killer_carlson]

In the intake reports of children who were dropped off, the factors determining whether they should be accepted to the program included an assessment of the clothes they were wearing.

For example, the 10 year old child abuse victim Leilani Muir had an assessment that included that her clothes were "shabby".

A definite low point in the province's history.

[Swift]

Heard this on the radio this morning. I had no idea. Utterly shameful.

[CliffFletcher]

Yeah, people get tetchy when this is brought up in commemorations and statue-unveilings of the Famous Five.

[afc wimbledon]

i never knew the province had a forced sterilization program

Most places did, it grew out of the eugenics movement of the 19 century.

[FlamesAddiction]

Most places did, it grew out of the eugenics movement of the 19 century.

I think most places ended them after WW2 as they became associated with Nazis. Alberta held on to it until the 1970s and targeted mainly non-Anglos and non-Protestants.