When, in 1916, Emily Murphy was appointed the first female magistrate in the British Empire, she had written four books, pushed for the passage of the Dower Act which awarded a wife one-third of a husband’s estate, inaugurated a movement to found the Victorian Order of Nurses in Edmonton, Alberta, paved the way for the election of women as school trustees, was the first woman member of the hospital board of Edmonton, and was President of the Canadian Women’s Press Club.

These achievements led the legal committee of the Council of Women of Edmonton to ask her advice when they [the Council] were refused admission to witness the trial of a group of prostitutes because “they might hear what was not fit for their ears.” She suggested to the provincial Attorney General that there should be a special court for cases dealing with women and children. He promptly agreed and urged her to become its magistrate. While not trained in law she had some knowledge of the profession as three of her brothers were lawyers. They urged her to take the job. A week later, June 19, 1916, she was appointed.

The third child and first daughter of the prominent Ferguson family of Cookstown, Ontario, Emily was also well-educated, having graduated from the Bishop Strachan School for girls in Toronto before marrying, at 19, Arthur Murphy, an Anglican minister, in 1887. For the next decade they lived in Forrest, Chatham, and Ingersoll, Ontario, before they went in 1898 to England where Arthur took a missionary post. This prompted her to write her first book, entitled Impressions of Janey Canuck Abroad (1901).

On their return from Great Britain, they settled in Swan River, Manitoba, where Emily began writing for the Winnipeg Telegram, until moving to Edmonton in 1907. Her second book was a collection of sketches of life at Swan River entitled Janey Canuck in the West and two more followed: Open Trails in 1910 and Seeds of Pine in 1914. That year Emily met and became a close friend of still another staunch supporter of women's rights, Nellie McClung.

Never at a loss for words whether in her writing or on the bench, Emily described her first day in court as “as pleasant an experience as running a rapids without a guide.” Her second case involved lawyer Eardley Jackson who objected to Emily as a judge since a woman, by law, was not considered a person. She noted the objection but continued the hearing and clearly won her point when the Alberta Supreme Court later ruled that “women could not be disqualified from holding public office on account of their sex.”
 

Granddaughter of Ogle R. Gowan, founder of the Orange Association of British North America, Emily Murphy was the champion leader of five Alberta women who campaigned to have women declared “persons” in 1929 and whose names appear today on a plaque near the main door of the Senate Chamber in Ottawa. [Photo, courtesy National Archives of Canada/PA-138847]

Jackson was later heard to declare in court, “To hell with women magistrates. This country is going to the dogs because of them.” He promptly received a letter from Emily: “Unless I receive from you an unqualified apology in writing, I shall regretfully be obliged to henceforth refuse you admittance to this Court in the capacity of Counsel.”

As a magistrate for 15 years, she made an exhaustive study of the drug problem and wrote a series of articles for Maclean's magazine that became her most important book when published as The Black Candle in 1922. According to Christine Mander’s 1985 biography of Emily, it caused “a profound stir nationwide among law enforcement and social welfare agencies, the medical profession, and the general public.” It also caused passage of new laws that remained in effect more than 40 years.

Emily's biggest victory for women in general began in 1927 when a brother discovered “that any five persons had the right to petition the government for ruling on a constitutional point.” Since women were not considered “persons” under the terms of the British North American Act and could not, therefore, be appointed to the Senate, Emily asked McClung and three other Alberta women to sign a petition that went to the Privy Council in England before a judgment, rendered in 1929, overturned a ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada to declare that “women are eligible to be summoned and become members of the Senate of Canada.”

Ill health caused Emily to step down as an active magistrate in 1931, by which time she was “liked and respected by the police, clerks, bailiffs, librarians, and even lawyers.” It remained, however, for her old nemesis, Eardley Jackson, to pay the final tribute when, in 1933, Emily attended a court hearing she was interested in and Jackson, now a judge, introduced and welcomed her, observing, “A feminine note missing from this building is brought back by the kindly smiling countenance of this beloved lady.” She thanked him and that night died in her sleep.

Mel James