October 18, 2004
Ottawa, Ontario

The following is a statement by the Prime Minister on the occasion of the 13th annual Women’s History Month and the 75th anniversary of the Persons Case:

"Today, we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Persons Case, a landmark moment in the advancement of women’s rights in Canada.

Canadians are taught as youngsters about the Famous Five, the group of women from Alberta who appealed to the Supreme Court for the right to be declared “persons” under the law. But today, several generations on, few of us can comprehend a Canada in which so much controversy and debate emerged over such a basic issue of fairness and equality.

This has much to do with the unflagging efforts of the Famous Five: Nellie McClung, a novelist and legislator; Louise McKinney, the first woman sworn into the Alberta legislature; Henrietta Muir Edwards, an author and activist; Emily Murphy, the first woman in the British Empire named a police magistrate; and Irene Parlby, a cabinet minister in the government of Alberta.

Theirs is an inspiring story of struggle and perseverance and devotion to the pursuit of equality. Even after the Supreme Court rejected their case, the women remained steadfast, appealing to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, then Canada’s highest court.

Seventy-five years ago today, the Lord Chancellor of the Privy Council declared the exclusion of women from public office to be “a relic of days more barbarous than ours.” The Famous Five had triumphed. Legally, constitutionally, Canadian women were “persons” under the law and could hold public offices.

Persons Day falls each year during Women’s History Month in Canada. Let us be inspired, today and always, by the determination of those who came before as we strive to achieve equality for all in our society."