Persons case

In 1927 four women from Alberta joined the fight led by Emily Murphy for the appointment of women to Canada’s Senate. They asked whether the term “qualified persons,” in the section of the British North America Act dealing with appointment, included women. The following year the Supreme Court of Canada declared that women were not persons and hence not eligible for appointment, but in October 1929 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled favourably on the appeal of the Famous Five, as Murphy and the others became known.