Emily Murphy (1868 - 1933) was a Canadian women's rights activist, who in 1916, became the first woman magistrate in Canada, and in the British Empire. However, she is best known for her contributions to Canadian feminism, specifically to the question of whether women were "persons" under Canadian law.
When her children were grown, Emily became increasingly aware of the plight of farm wives, and began to actively organize women’s groups where isolated housewives could meet, discuss ideas
and plan group projects. In addition she began to speak openly and frankly about the disadvantaged and the poor living conditions that surrounded their society.
This intensified when Murphy learned of an Albertan woman whose husband sold the family farm and abandoned his wife and children who were left homeless and penniless. At that time, property laws did not leave the wife with any legal recourse. This motivated her to create a campaign that assured the property rights of married women. She began to pressure the Alberta government to allow women to retain the rights of their land and in 1911, the Dower Act was passed which gave them legal rights to one third of her husband’s property. and Murphy’s reputation as a women’s rights activist was established.
Emily would stir things up again in 1916, when she and a group of women, attempted to observe a trial for women who were labelled prostitutes. They were asked to leave the courtroom on the claims that the evidence of the trial was not “fit for mixed company”. This was unacceptable to Murphy and she protested to the provincial Attorney General. "If the evidence is not fit to be heard in mixed company," she argued, "then the government must set up a special court presided over by women, to try other women.” With some reluctance, Murphy’s request was approved and she became the first woman police magistrate for the British Empire. However, this sparked debate and lawyer, Eardley Jackson, challenged her position as judge because women were not considered “persons” under the British North America Act of 1867, and further, the British Common Law ruling of
1876, which stated, "women were eligible for pains and penalties, but not rights and privileges." But instead of simply changing his mind, she was determined to change the law. She and four others, who became known as the "The Famous Five", did just that.
Murphy was also a journalist and author. Under her pen name, Janey Canuck, she wrote a
number of articles about drugs and their social problems, which were published in The Black Candle. Her writings contributed to a push for legislation dealing with narcotics, particularly opium and marijuana, in Canada, leading to changes in legislation.
Unfortunately, as most of the drug users that Murphy wrote about were "Chinese, Assyrians, Blacks, and Greeks", her writings also reinforced racial biases that were already widespread in this country. she refers to the Chinese man as a “visitor” and that “it might be wise to put him out” if it turns out that this visitor carries “poisoned lollipops in his pocket and feeds them to our children.” Murphy also maintained the view that the white race was facing degradation through miscegenation, while the more prolific “black and yellow races may yet obtain the ascendancy” and therefore, threatened to “wrest the leadership of the world from the British.”
Murphy was also among those who thought that the problems that were plaguing their society, such as alcoholism, drug abuse and crime were caused because of mental deficiencies. In a 1932 article titled “ Overpopulation and Birth Control”, she states: "... over-population is a basic problem of all…none of our troubles can even be allayed until this is remedied." Murphy, was also a pacifist and theorised 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 and without the constant need for more land, war would cease to exist.
Her solution was eugenics, or 'selective breeding' and supported the sterilisation 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 or eugenic sterilisation. 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 Minister of Agriculture and Health, George Hoadley that two female “feeble-minded” mental patients already bred several offspring. She called it: “a neglect amounting to a crime to permit these two women to go on bearing children. They are both young women and likely to have numerous offspring before leaving the hospital”.
Sadly, her racial remarks, which were common in her day, may have smeared her legacy; but we do need to remember her tireless efforts to gain equal rights for women.
