The Personhood Case

Women's Rights in Canada would not have been far reaching as it is today had five brave women not stood to fight the status quo in the court of law. This epic battle was fought by five women in what became known as the Personhood Case. During the 1900s, women in Canada were not considered persons because of the BNA Act of 1867 that used the word “persons” to mean more than an individual while using the word “he” to refers to a singular individual. This group of five women led by Emily Murphy challenged this unjust law in the court of law that took the fight from Canada and eventually settled in England to emerge triumphant in what eventually began the real beginning of the fight for women to gain total freedom.
This fight for Women's Rights
Earlier in Canada’s Constitution, a woman under the law was not a person. In those days women were not eligible to be appointed to Canadian Senate because they were not considered persons. In 1916, Emily Murphy became the first woman in the entire British Empire to be voted by the province of Alberta as a police magistrate, making her eligible to be appointed to the Senate. Many oppose her appointment because she was a woman and therefore not a person under the BNA Act that had the word person to mean more than one individual while “he” refers to one individual. In 1875, the British common law had reiterated that women were not persons when it came to rights and privileges. However, a woman could be considered as person only in maters related to pains and punishment. Nonetheless, the Alberta Supreme Court, in its ruling, declared women to be persons. So Emily Murphy retained her appointed position and submitted her name as a candidate for the Canadian Senate. She was soon to learn that the favorable ruling only applied to the Province of Alberta. Sir Robert Borden who was then the Canadian Prime Minister refused to accept Emily Murphy as a Senator on the grounds that, as a woman, she was not a person under the BNA Act, and therefore not qualified to seat in the Senate. Murphy was outraged by the action and by the interpretation that women were not persons. She was determined to fight to fight the unjust law. She was able to discover a Canada’s Supreme Court Act which stated that five persons have the right to petition the Supreme Court on the interpretation of the Constitution if such five people acted as a unit. So Emily Murphy made the decision of petitioning the Supreme Court by enlisting four other women from Alberta Province. The five became known in Canadian history as the “Famous Five” and their challenge was dubbed the