Feminism: The Black Candle By Emily Murphy

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people” as infamously quoted by Marie Shear, a writer for feminist magazine New Directions For Women. While feminist ideology is more widely accepted in modern society, the quest for women to be legally recognized as persons wasn't always so attainable. Emily Murphy was a Canadian women's rights activist and the leader in a group of five women who sought out legal action to answer the question of whether women were indeed considered persons in the eyes of the law. When taken to the Supreme Court of Canada, the final vote was to dismiss the motion. After the British Privy Council overturned the Supreme Courts's decision, Murphy and the other women (known as the Famous Five) were victorious in

their case and successfully allowed for women to become Senators. Since then, Emily Murphy has become known as a feminist icon and a pioneer for women's rights. Her accomplishments have been recognized and honoured with a statue of the five women, however, controversy has risen about whether Murphy actually deserves the widespread acknowledgment she's given. While admirable as a movement that caused change for white women in Canada, the first wave of feminism ultimately fell short as a force of change for women of all ethnicities. Murphy's blatant propagated racism, maltreatment of Aboriginal peoples and involvement in eugenics shows she is not the Canadian hero many believe her to be.
In 1922, Emily Murphy released a series of essays called The Black Candle which pertained to Murphy's sentiments on drug use.

However, while the book starts out as a factual piece to inform the public of the dangers of drug use, Murphy later began using the war on drugs as a platform to spread her racist views. While in parts of the book she writes “The Chinese, as a rule are a friendly people and have a fine sense of humor that puts them on an easy footing with our folk” (Murphy 81-82), she later states “But if you claim that the oriental pedlar, and opium sot are abandoned and irreclaimable--mere black-haired beasts in our human jungle--then, it is quite plain that we should insist on their exclusion from this continent.” (Murphy 47). The Black Candle played a contributory part in the spreading her racial ideology to a larger Canadian audience. Her book was highly influential, which lead to the prohibition of marijuana and more restrictive immigration control. Murphy publicly supported laws to exclude Asian immigrants, and the following year in 1923 the Chinese Immigration Act was created- with strong enforcement on her part (MacDonald and O'Keefe 9-21). Moreover, her “feminist ideology” applied only to white women as she used The Black Candle as a means to actively argue against the rights of women of colour in order to advance her own goals. She believed multiculturalism would taint the purity of the white race and wished for “exclusion of people of colour from the

continent” (Atpaka).
While Murphy had a large influence in the treatment of Asian immigrants, it was not nearly as influential as the role she played in the mistreatment of Aboriginal people. As a judge, she passed many legislations that came through her bench- including the Indian act of 1923. This law was put in place to assimilate First Nations people and pertained to who could and could not have Indian status. Neither those who had earned a university degree nor women who had married non-Indian men could keep their status and many traditional practices were prohibited. Under her jurisdiction, Murphy also passed the Residential School Act of 1925, a measure taken to further assimilate Aboriginal children into Western society and to abolish all sense of Aboriginal culture and identity. Perhaps some of the most notable and appalling events in Canadian history occurred within the parameters of these institutions. The passing of this Act signified a momentous step in the systematic discrimination of Indigenous people in Canada. Furthermore, Murphy travelled across Canada delivering more than one-hundred speeches in support of forced sterilization of mainly Aboriginal and mentally ill people (Akpata). With her active contributions, the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act was put in place in 1928. More than 2,882 sterilizations were done to women as young as fourteen to ensure they would never be able to reproduce. A study released by Health Canada shows that while Native and Metis people made up only 2.5% of Alberta's population, they accounted for 25% of Alberta's sterilization procedures.
During her life, Emily Murphy was an ardent advocate for eugenics.

Her maternal grandfather Ogle R. Gowan founded a local branch of the Orange Order, a eugenics organization that was closely related to the Ku Klux Klan (Library and Archives Canada). Because of this, Murphy herself was involved in the group and often participated in discussions on law and politics. Later on in her life, she took on a more active role in eugenics through her letters, articles and petitions. She strongly discriminated against mentally ill people and believed they were inferior. In her paper Overpopulation and Birth Control she stated “Some of the opponents to the Sterilization Act had a good deal to say about private liberty, quite forgetful of the fact that social necessity is one of infinitely greater moment. Since I know of no way of driving home a nail other than by hammering it, let me emphasize again that insane people are not entitled to progeny.” In practice of selective breeding, she enforced compulsory sterilization on mentally ill women, sometimes unknowingly. This practice fell under the Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act of 1928. Additionally, in a petition to the Ministry of Agriculture and Health she claimed mentally ill children were “A menace to society and an enormous cost to the state… science is proving that mental defectiveness is a transmittable hereditary condition” (New World Encyclopedia). Her disdain for those she believed to be inferior to her was what drove her to

write these testaments, further proving the many ways she failed to live up to her legacy as a pioneer of feminism.
While Emily Murphy is praised for her accomplishments as an influential advocate for feminism and women's rights, the Canadian public's perception of her as a hero is greatly misrepresented. The claim that her beliefs were reflective of the time she lived in is not a sufficient excuse for her actions. She actively used her novel as propaganda to argue against the rights of ethic women as a means to advance her own goals, directly contributed to Canada's systematic discrimination of Aboriginal peoples, was heavily involved in the practice of eugenics, and ultimately, went against her own movement.