In 1921, Canada held its first federal election in which women were allowed to vote and run for Parliament. Women’s groups began to lobby the federal government to appoint a woman to the Senate. (The members of the House of Commons are elected, the Senate is appointed.) The government argued that this was not legally permissible because the Constitution Act said that only “qualified persons” could be appointed to the Senate. The Act used “persons” when it referred to more than one person, and the word “he” when it referred to an individual. Therefore, many argued that only men could legally be “persons.”
And, finally, in 1929 a group of five women, dubbed the Famous Five, appealed the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada to the Privy Council of England, Canada’s highest court of appeal. The Privy Council rendered the decision “the exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours. And to those who would ask why the word “person” should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not.”
Parliament Hill has many sculptures scattered about. Here I am with part of the “Women is Persons” bronze sculpture commemorating the five women’s achievement. I also photographed the statue of Queen Elizabeth II astride her horse Centenial. This horse was a gift to the Queen by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to celebrate her 25th year as Canada’s monarch. It’s unique in that it’s the first equestrian figure of the Queen and she is riding astride rather than side saddle as a female monarch traditionally rides on ceremonial occasions.
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