Alberta Eugenics Board - Historical Context

Historical Context

The province of Alberta was the first part of the British Empire to adopt a sterilization law, and was the only Canadian province that vigorously implemented it. The western provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, were close to the United States and highly influenced by American trends. During early debates regarding the sexual sterilization bill in Alberta, there were many references made to U.S. legislation. As Canada was rapidly being populated by immigrants, the eugenics movement was emerging and gaining the support of influential sponsors, such as J.S. Woodsworth, Emily Murphy, Helen MacMurchy, Louise McKinney, Irene Palby, Nellie McClung, and Robert Charles Wallace. In Alberta, eugenics supporters had seemingly positive intentions with the goal of bettering the gene pool and society at large.

In 1918, the Canadian National Committee on Mental Hygiene (CNCMH) was established by Dr. Clarence Hincks. The Committee's aim was "to fight crime, prostitution, and unemployment" which it claimed was strongly tied to feeble-mindedness. One of the projects that the CNCMH and Hincks took on, along with Dr. C.K. Clarke, was conducting provincial surveys of mental institutions in 1919, and making subsequent recommendations to the provincial government. Visiting several institutions, the results of their survey, published in 1921, attributed social inefficiency and corruption to mental inadequacy, and recommended sterilization as a preventative measure. They claimed to have found "scientific proof" linking feeble-mindedness to social issues.

At the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) party convention in 1922, in response to this survey, the Alberta government was called on to draft and implement legislation for the segregation of feeble-minded adults. The government was also asked to investigate the feasibility of implementing a sterilization program in Alberta. R.G. Reid, the Minister of Health, assured eugenics supporters that the provincial government was in favor of a sterilization program, and was only waiting for public opinion to catch up.

The United Farm Women of Alberta was one of the most powerful forces lobbying for sterilization laws, and members used their connections with the UFA government to get legislation passed. At a campaign in 1924, president Margaret Gunn proclaimed, “Democracy was never intended for degenerates”. The rationale that eugenics supporters gave was that families with "defective" offspring were a financial burden on the province, especially in times of economic adversity.

On March 25, 1927, Honorable George Hoadley, the new Minister of Agriculture and Health in John E. Brownlee’s UFA government, first introduced a sexual sterilization bill. The bill faced enormous opposition, primarily from the Conservative and Liberal parties, and did not pass the second reading. Hoadley promised to reintroduce it the following year and, on February 23, 1928, the bill was passed. On March 21, 1928, the provincial government adopted the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta. Brought in by the UFA, the Act remained in place under the following Social Credit governments of William Aberhart and Ernest Manning. It was not until Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative government took power that the Alberta Eugenics Board was dismantled and the Sexual Sterilization Act repealed in 1972.