Dirty Secret #1 - the 1928 Sexual Sterilization Act

In 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta drafted the bill to "protect the gene pool" by allowing for sterilization of mentally disabled persons in order to prevent the transmission of "undesirable traits" and to control the "abnormal population".

The list of conditions that qualified an individual for sterilization appear at first to only include mentally challenged citizens, of any sort.  However, the list was bigger than many ever realized:
- mental retardation
- epilepsy
- alcoholism
- pauperism (poverty, or someone receiving relief administered under 'poor law')
- certain criminal behaviour
- social defects (including prostitution, sexual perversion, et cetera)

Approximately 4,725 cases were proposed for sterilization in the province of Alberta over the course of which the Act was in practice, of which 2,800 actually received approval.  The major cause for concern, aside from the Act itself, was that it was disproportionately focused on socially vulnerable persons like females, children, the unemployed, rural citizens (that means greater numbers in areas of Newfoundland & Labrador, and other such provinces with large rural areas), unmarried, persons under institutionalized care, Roman/Greek Catholics, as well as persons of Ukranian, Native & Metis ethnicity who were all targeted groups.  The list of 'eligible' citizens seemed to dramatically grow as eugenicists argued more conditions to be added.

John MacEachran was the Chairman for the board which oversaw the implementation of the Sexual Sterilization Act, signing sterilization orders for the following:
- battered children who latter graduated Grade 12 (not exactly sure where logic comes in at all but especially in this one- what sense does this make?)
- native children whose families who spoke only Cree or Blackfoot
- abused girls whose complain was incest/sexual assault in their family homes
- bewildered teenagers with hearing or speech problems
- individuals with cerebral palsy, M.S and rare genetic disorders of the hands and feet.

One particularly disturbing case is that of Leilani Muir- at age 10, she was classified (after I.Q testing) as a "moron" and was sterilized; confined to the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives until 1965, when she finally learned what had been done to her.
In 1989, Leilani was found to be living in British Columbia.  Her I.Q tested as normal, and she was working as a waitress in a restaurant.  Then in 1996, she finally received $740,000 in damages and $230,000 for legal fees incurred; neither sum of money can ever fully pay back a life that has been irrevocably damaged, and a body that has been unnaturally changed by the government.  Leilani is only one of many cases from this twisted system in Alberta.

At one point, a concerned parent of one of the children being detained in this 'school' wrote Premier Ernest Manning.  The letter was  detailed account of many things that had gone on in the school, relating to her 16-year old teenage boy.  Manning sent back a two page letter that contained the following quote: "I feel that the staff of the Training School is doing everything possible within existing facilities to give proper care to the youngsters there".  He wrote this even after being told that at one point the boy was caught talking alone to another student who was female, strictly forbidden activity; he was put in a 'quiet room' and a day later they found him lying dazed, in a pool of his own blood, amid shards from a chamber pot.

Later, the training school changed the name to Michener Centre and changed classification of 'inmates' into 'trainees', into 'students'- then further, to 'clients'.  These changes also occurred as frequency of sterilization increased, spending as little as 5 minutes to rubber stamp cases that once took at least half a day to deliberate upon.  It was and is evident today that this was a system running wild on vulnerable Canadian citizens.

The scariest part of this Act is that it was not repealed until review in 1969 and finally abolished with a bill to repeal in 1972.  There is no telling how many lives, how many people, how many potential families were destroyed because of this disgusting and inhuman practice that eugenics had created.  Those involved should have been charged for each and every case of sterilization they were involved with and never allowed to be a part of government or legislative assembly ever again.

Does any of this sound familiar to you at all?  Wasn't there another group of radicals that was once obsessed with eugenics?  In case you forgot, they were called the Nazis.