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/healt...217/story.html
http://leilanimuir.ca/about-leilani