Persons Day -- Thursday October 18th

The Ottawa Council of Women will hold a gathering at the Persons Monument on Parliament Hill to mark Persons Day on Thursday October 18th at 12 noon. All are welcome. Come out and show your solidarity with Equality Seeking Women's Organizations. Women's equality issues persist in Canada and the demand for sustained advocacy has never been greater. The Famous Five were determined. We must follow their example and support the aims and objectives of those who seek equality for women.

Bring your personal tea cup - tea will be served - and toast all of those Canadian women who have made history as advocates for women's equality with a cup'a.

The Famous Five or The Valiant Five were five Canadian women who, in 1927 asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the question, "Are women persons?" in the case Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General). Canada's Supreme Court essentially said in a unanimous decision - no they were not "qualified persons" - but this was overturned by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The case came to be known as the Persons Case.

The women, all of whom were from Alberta, were:

• Emily Murphy (the British Empire's first female judge);
• Irene Marryat Parlby (farm women's leader, activist and first female Cabinet minister in Alberta);
• Nellie Mooney McClung (a famous suffragist and member of the Alberta legislature);
• Louise Crummy McKinney (the first women elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, or any legislature in Canada or the British Empire) and
• Henrietta Muir Edwards (an advocate for working women and a founding member of the Victorian Order of Nurses).