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Tom Monto

Alberta Eugenics -- Blame for forced sterilizations goes on Aberhart and Manning

Updated: May 26

Alberta's forced eugenic-inspired sterilizations are a blot on Alberta,s history. Premiers William Aberhart and Ernest Manning should be blamed for them.


(From Wikipedia: "Alberta Eugenics")

In 1918, the [[Canadian Mental Health Association|Canadian National Committee on Mental Hygiene]] (CNCMH) was established by Dr. Clarence Hincks. The Committee's aim was "to fight [[crime]], [[prostitution]], and [[unemployment]]" which it claimed was strongly tied to [[feeble-minded]]ness.<ref>Grekul, Krahn, & Odynak, p. 362</ref>


One of the projects that the CNCMH and Hincks took on, along with Dr. C.K. Clarke, was conducting provincial surveys of [[mental institution]]s in 1919, and making subsequent recommendations to the provincial government.<ref>McLaren, 1990</ref>


They visited several institutions. The results of their survey, published in 1921, attributed social inefficiency and corruption to mental inadequacy, and recommended sterilization as a preventative measure.<ref>McLaren, 1990</ref>


They claimed to have found "scientific proof" linking feeble-mindedness to [[social issue]]s.<ref>Grekul, Krahn, & Odynak, p. 362</ref>


Delegates at the [[United Farmers of Alberta]] (UFA) party convention in 1922, in response to this survey, called on the newly-elected UFA government to draft and implement legislation for the segregation of feeble-minded adults.<ref>Grekul, Krahn, & Odynak, 2004</ref>


The government was also asked to investigate the feasibility of implementing a sterilization program in Alberta. R.G. Reid, the [[Minister of Health]], assured eugenics supporters that the provincial government was in favour of a sterilization program, and was only waiting for [[public opinion]] to catch up.


The United Farm Women of Alberta lobbied for sterilization laws. The burden put on hard-working farm mothers by mentally-challenged children with adult sex drives was a major impetus to former YFWA head and now sitting UFA cabinet minister [[Irene Parlby]]. Members used their connections with the UFA government to get legislation passed. At a campaign meeting in 1924, UFWA president [[Margaret Gunn]] proclaimed, "Democracy was never intended for degenerates".<ref>Cairney, 1996, p. 791</ref>


The rationale that eugenics supporters gave was that families with "defective" offspring were a financial burden on the province,<ref>Wahlsten, 1997</ref> especially in times of economic adversity.


On March 25, 1927, [[George Hoadley (Alberta politician)|George Hoadley]], Minister of Agriculture and Health in [[John Edward Brownlee|John E. Brownlee]]'s UFA government, introduced a sexual sterilization bill. The bill faced enormous opposition, primarily from the [[Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta|Conservative]] and [[Alberta Liberal Party|Liberal]] parties, and did not pass the second reading. The UFA government could have rammed it though, as it had a majority in the Legislature but did not, perhaps due to time constraints.


Hoadley promised to reintroduce the bill the following year and, on February 23, 1928, the bill was passed. On March 21, 1928, the [[Lieutenant governor (Canada)|lieutenant governor]] gave [[royal assent]] to the ''Sexual Sterilization Act''.


Brought in by the UFA, the Act remained in place under the following [[Alberta Social Credit Party|Social Credit]] governments of [[William Aberhart]] and [[Ernest Manning]]. The government of Aberhart amended the Act in 1937 to allow sterilization without consent, an unsavoury historical move that tarnished Alberta reputation for decades to come.


Thousands of Albertan men and women were sterilized without their knowledge or consent under the ''Sexual Sterilization Act'' before its repeal in 1972.


A later lawsuit exposed the sordid matter and cost the Alberta taxpayers more than $100M.


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In the mid-1990s, Leilani Muir, a victim of involuntary sterilization in 1959, sued the Alberta government for wrongful sterilization. The case went to full trial in 1995, Muir won the case in 1996, and she was awarded nearly C$1 million in damages and legal costs.

Since Muir's precedent-setting trial, over 850 victims have filed lawsuits against the Alberta government; the majority of these have been settled out of court and C$142 million in damages have been awarded


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from "Wikipedia: Alberta Eugenics"

During the early twentieth century, [[scientific knowledge]] emerged in the forefront of social importance. Advances in science and technology were thought to hold answers to current and future social problems.


Murphy was among those who thought that societal problems like alcoholism, drug abuse and crime resulted from mental deficiencies. In a 1932 article titled "Overpopulation and Birth Control", she states: "over-population [is a] basic problem of all&nbsp;... none of our troubles can even be allayed until this is remedied". As the politics behind the [[Second World War]] continued to develop, Murphy, who was a [[Pacifism|pacifist]], theorized that the only reason for war was that nations needed to fight for land to accommodate their growing populations. Her argument was that: if there was population control, people would not need as much land. Without the constant need for more land, war would cease to exist.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Murphy, Emily|url=http://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/tree/512fa1bd34c5399e2c000007|access-date=2020-10-27|website=The Eugenics Archives|language=en}}</ref>


Her solution to these social issues was [[eugenics]]. Murphy supported selective breeding and the compulsory sterilization of those individuals who were considered mentally deficient. She believed that the mentally and socially inferior reproduced more than the "human thoroughbreds" and appealed to the [[Alberta Legislative Assembly]] for forced sterilization.


In a petition, she wrote that mentally defective children were "a menace to society and an enormous cost to the state;... science is proving that mental defectiveness is a transmittable hereditary condition".


She wrote to the UFA government's Minister of Agriculture and Health, [[George Hoadley (Alberta politician)|George Hoadley]] that two female "feeble-minded" mental patients had already bred several offspring. She called it "a neglect amounting to a crime to permit these two women to go on bearing children".


The UFA government brought in a [[eugenics]] law in 1928, requiring parents' or guardians' approval of the operation. Later, after Murphy's death, [[William Aberhart]]'s Social Credit government amended the law to allow forced sterilization.<ref>Wikipedia: Alberta Eugenics</ref>


Due in part to Murphy's heavy advocacy of compulsory sterilization, thousands of Albertan men and women were sterilized without their knowledge or consent under the ''Sexual Sterilization Act'' before its repeal in 1972. But these sterilizations occurred after Murphy's death.


There is no doubt that Murphy supported forced sterilization of “mentally deficient” people. But the original UFA government law on eugenics only permitted sterilizations authorized by parents or guardians, not sterilizations performed without consent or knowledge.


But it was only after Murphy's death that forced sterilization of “mentally deficient” people was put into law by the Alberta government under Premier William Aberhart and continued in use under Premier Ernest Manning. There are many places named after those two men, such as Manning Freeway and the Aberhart Centre at the UofA.


If we question whether Emily Murphy Park should carry Murphy's name, shouldn't we also question why the names of Manning and Aberhart should be honoured?


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Not all Famous Five should be tarred with the same brush of belief in racial superiority and eugenic sterilizations as Murphy.


Henrietta Muir Edwards

Edward’s husband was doctor to Natives. 

Canadian Encyclopedia: Dr. Edwards returned to Alberta and was struggling to make a living until he was appointed doctor to the Kainai (Blood) and Piikani (Peigan) in 1901.

[I have seen no evidence that he operated in racist fashion in his daily practice treating illness and injury among Natives.]


Louise McKinney

Canadian Encyclopedia: Though her personal views on compulsory eugenic sterilization are not known, McKinney did support the eugenics movement in Alberta in other ways. She promoted stricter immigration laws as a means to keep out unwanted, often racialized, individuals. She also lobbied for the creation of institutions for “mental defectives” — seen as a means to prevent institutionalized persons from reproducing.

[I think it is a stretch to say everyone who wants to see government-supported institutions for “mental defectives” necessarily has dark motives.] 


While Murphy’s racism is clear, it is not clear that all members of the Famous Five were as eugenically-minded.


During the active period/lifetimes of the Famous Five, any of the sterilizations were done with permission of parent or guardian.

In 1937 under Social Credit governments of Aberhart, Manning and Strome was the policy extended to allow doctors to order forced sterilization without consent of patients or family.


By then the Famous Five were out of the picture:

Murphy died in 1933,

McKinney died in 1931,

Edwards died in 1931),

McClung moved to BC in 1933,

Parlby was out of politics in 1935.

Don't blame them for what Aberhart and Manning did!


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