(“Common Walls” - Sunfish Grove) 0:00

Lauren Toy 0:09

Welcome back to Playing Godcast. We are your hosts, Lauren Toy and

Rhea Singh 0:15

Rhea Singh.

Lauren Toy 0:17

Last episode, we discussed what eugenics is and where it came from. If you missed it or need a reminder, you can find that episode on our website, playinggodcast.ca.

Rhea Singh 0:33

In this episode, we're going to be taking a look at the history of Eugenics in Canada, particularly in Alberta and British Columbia. Then we will discuss the case of Leilani Muir, a woman who is subjected to Canada's eugenic policies. We hope you find this episode insightful here on Playing Godcast.

(“Common Walls” - Sunfish Grove) 0:52

Lauren Toy 1:00

Like we mentioned in the previous episode, Canada was one of the countries that had eugenic policies. And to understand how these policies came about, we need to look back to the 19th century,

Rhea Singh 1:21

Going back to 1873, we see British Columbia open multiple insane asylums, as they were called at the time. In 1897, British Columbia enacted the Hospitals for the Insane Act. And in 1919, Alberta passed the Mental Defectives Act of Alberta, which was then amended in 1923

Lauren Toy 1:45

According to both these acts, individuals deemed mentally ill could be involuntarily committed to a hospital or institution.

Rhea Singh 1:55

If you remember from the previous episode, intellectual disability and mental illness were believed to be undesirable heritable traits. Therefore, individuals who were sent to these institutions were considered at risk of passing their disability to their children if they ever reproduced.

Lauren Toy 2:17

During this time, eugenic ideas were widespread across Canada, and these ideas influenced eugenic policies that were considered progressive among many Canadians. Canadians believed that society could be improved by encouraging reproduction among populations, particularly the Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and limiting reproduction among Eastern European immigrants, Indigenous Peoples and individuals with mental disabilities.

Rhea Singh 2:49

Before we get into the specific policies that were enacted in Alberta and British Columbia, we need to define sterilization. The Canadian Encyclopedia defines sterilization as "a permanent medical procedure that prevents pregnancy, such as tubal ligation."

Lauren Toy 3:06

Sterilization could be forced, where the individual had no choice, or coerced, where the individual was intimidated, misinformed, or incentivized to consent to the procedure.

Rhea Singh 3:20

In 1928, the Sexual Sterilization Act was passed in Alberta by the United Farmers of Alberta under Premier John Edward Brownlee. This Act established a eugenics board that had the authority to order sterilizations for certain individuals who were institutionalized under the Mental Defectives Act.

Lauren Toy 3:45

This meant patients in these institutions could be sterilized if, quote "The board is unanimously of opinion that the patient might safely be discharged if the danger of procreation with its attendant risk of multiplication of the evil by transmission of the disability to progeny were eliminated." Unquote. However, to perform these sterilizations, consent was required from the individuals themselves or their parent, guardian or spouse.

Rhea Singh 4:19

But in 1939, the Act was amended, removing the need for informed consent from individuals who were considered mentally defective.

Lauren Toy 4:31

This meant that individuals could be sterilized to prevent the transmission of the mental disability deficiency or disease to avoid the risk of mental injury to the individual or to their children.

Rhea Singh 4:46

By 1942, the Act had been revised again. It was expanded to include individuals who were not institutionalized. It wasn't until 1972 that Peter Lougheed’s Government repealed the legislation. During the 44 years in which the legislation was in effect, the Eugenics Board approved 4725 cases for sterilization, of which 2834 were carried out.

Lauren Toy 5:18

Like Alberta, British Columbia also passed its own Sexual Sterilization Act under Premier Simon Fraser Tolmie. Under the Act, a Eugenics Board could order the sterilization of any individual who was institutionalized under the Hospital for the Insane Act.

Rhea Singh 5:38

The Act stated that the Eugenics Board had authority over patients who, quote, "If discharged without being subjected to an operation for Sexual Sterilization, would be likely to beget or bear children who, by reason of inheritance, would have a tendency to serious mental disease or mental deficiency." Unquote.

Lauren Toy 6:03

Despite how discriminatory and violating these Acts were, there was strong support for them in British Columbia by the Liberal Party. The Act was finally repealed in 1973 by David Barrett's NDP Government. Over 200 British Columbians were sterilized through these programs.

Rhea Singh 6:25

Now that we have looked at British Columbia and Alberta sterilization acts, let's discuss the rest of Canada.

Lauren Toy 6:33

Although British Columbia and Alberta were the only two provinces to pass Sexual Sterilization legislation that practiced negative eugenics, many provinces considered implementing eugenic policies in the early 20th century.

Rhea Singh 6:50

Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario all drafted Sexual Sterilization legislation in the 1930s, but they were never passed due to increased resistance from the Roman Catholics.

Lauren Toy 7:04

However, in the 1960s, Quebec practiced positive eugenics by encouraging certain populations to reproduce using baby bonuses and other financial incentives. As of now, there hasn't been a detailed history of Eugenics in the Maritime provinces.

Rhea Singh 7:24

Now that we've identified how these laws were created, let's go more into detail about which populations were impacted by these policies and why

Lauren Toy 7:35

We know that these policies were considered "progressive" when they came into effect. They were supported by groups who believed Western Canada could construct an ideal society by restricting fertility within certain groups of people. These groups believed that immigrant families from Eastern Europe damaged their creation of an ideal society.

Rhea Singh 7:59

A disproportionate number of Eastern Europeans were institutionalized, and some were sterilized under the eugenics program based on the results of IQ tests. As time progressed, target populations shifted from immigrants to indigenous populations, specifically Indigenous women.

Lauren Toy 8:19

Men and boys were also sterilized, although at lower rates than women. The distribution of sterilizations across these populations suggests that the motivations behind these procedures had changed.

Rhea Singh 8:35

The sterilization acts were in effect at the same time as the Canadian government assimilated indigenous populations through residential schools. The purpose of the residential schools was to erase the indigenous identity and culture. Sexual Sterilization served as a way for the government to control indigenous populations and eradicate Indigenous identity.

Lauren Toy 9:00

The impact of practicing negative eugenics through the Sexual Sterilization acts are still felt by indigenous communities today. Despite legislation being repealed in the 1970s, residential schools continued to be in place until the 1990s. Indigenous women continue to be targeted and coerced into these procedures.

Rhea Singh 9:24

Now that we have gone through some of the history of Eugenics in Canada, we're going to look at a specific case of Sexual Sterilization in Alberta. In 1996, the Alberta government awarded Leilani Muir approximately $740,000 in damages for the wrongful sterilization at the age of 14. Leilani's lawsuit opened the door for hundreds of other sterilization survivors who have since come forward and settled out of the court with the province.

Lauren Toy 9:59

On July 15, 1994, Leilani Muir was born in Calgary. She grew up in rural central Alberta and was abused by her mother throughout childhood. Her mother admitted Leilani to the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives in 1955, despite no initial IQ test being performed.

Rhea Singh 10:23

One physician even suggested that Leilani suffered from emotional abuse rather than mental deficiency. However, after an IQ test in 1957, the Eugenic Board declared Leilani a quote, "mental defective moron" unquote and ordered her sterilization.

Lauren Toy 10:44

We should note that an IQ test result could be biased and, therefore, not be an accurate or fair way to ascertain an individual's mental capacity. For a sterilization to occur, two preconditions of the Act must be followed. Firstly, the individual must be facing discharge from the institution, and secondly, they must be, quote, "at risk of passing their defects onto offspring." Unquote. Despite these two conditions, Leilani underwent a bilateral salpingectomy, which is the cutting of the fallopian tubes.

Rhea Singh 11:25

She was only told that she was having her appendix removed. Against medical advice, Leilani left the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives in 1965 and later, IQ tests showed her to have normal intelligence.

Lauren Toy 11:42

Leilani married and divorced twice, and didn't find out about the sterilization until she was in her 20s, when she struggled to have children. She was the first individual to successfully sue the Alberta government for wrongful sterilization, opening the door for other victims to take action.

Rhea Singh 12:02

By 1999, the Alberta government paid $142 million in settlement costs to over 700 victims. To claim her identity, Leilani changed her last name to O'Malley after the lawsuit.

Lauren Toy 12:18

If you would like to learn more about Leilani Muir's story. Check out our website, playinggodcast.ca, where we have an Amazon link that will bring you to her very own autobiography called A Whisper Past: Childless After Eugenic Sterilization in Alberta. We've also included a link to a documentary for the National Film Board of Canada, titled The Sterilization of Leilani Muir.

Rhea Singh 12:46

If you're interested in learning about other cases of Sexual Sterilization, we've also included a link to the eugenics archive. There you will find oral histories and personal survival stories of individuals who suffered from eugenics.

Lauren Toy 13:03

Thank you for listening to the second episode of Playing Godcast. We hope this episode has informed you about some of the history of Eugenics in Canada and sparked your curiosity to learn more about other cases of eugenics in Canadian history.

(“Them Highs and Lows” - Birds of Figment) 13:22

Lauren Toy 13:24

In the next episode, we will be discussing the history of Eugenics in the United States and looking at a specific case of coerced sterilization.

Rhea Singh 13:35

If you're interested and want to learn more, our website, playinggodcast.ca, has additional resources. That is p l a y i n g g o d c a s t .ca, with no spaces and all lowercase letters,

Lauren Toy 13:56

We hope you tune in for the next episode of Playing Godcast. And remember, like genes, ideas evolve, but it's up to us to decide which ones survive.

(“Them Highs and Lows” - Birds of Figment) 14:08