Although Mendelian inheritance principles were well understood by geneticists in 1928,[1] advocates of the eugenics movement held onto the unfounded premise that "like begets like".
[4] As Canada was being populated by immigrants, the eugenics movement was emerging and gaining the support of influential sponsors,[5] such as J. S. Woodsworth, Robert Charles Wallace, and The Alberta Five[6] prominent suffragists: Emily Murphy, Helen MacMurchy, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Nellie McClung.
In Alberta, eugenics supporters had seemingly positive intentions with the goal of bettering the gene pool and society at large.
The burden put on hard-working farm mothers by mentally-disabled children with adult sex drives was a major impetus to UFA cabinet minister Irene Parlby.
[8] 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.
Reid, the Minister of Health, assured eugenics supporters that the provincial government was in favour of a sterilization program, and was only waiting for public opinion to catch up.
The United Farm Women of Alberta lobbied for sterilization laws,[12] and members used their connections with the UFA government to get legislation passed.
[13] The rationale that eugenics supporters gave was that families with "defective" offspring were a financial burden on the province,[14] especially in times of economic adversity.
On March 25, 1927, George Hoadley, Minister of Agriculture and Health in John E. Brownlee's UFA government, introduced a sexual sterilization bill.
[15] After Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservative government took power, the Alberta Eugenics Board was finally disbanded and the Sexual Sterilization Act repealed in 1972.
[17] The Act gave the Board power to review cases of patients living in or discharged from mental institutions and order their sterilization, if deemed necessary.
In addition to the appointed board members and presenters, it was not uncommon for other professionals, support staff, or visitors to attend patient interviews.
The new Minister of Health, Wallace Warren Cross, was dismayed that only hundreds of individuals had been sterilized when thousands could have been done but were not due to consent requirements.
[34] A month after this amendment a special Alberta Eugenics Board meeting was held in order to review past cases of individuals who were now eligible for sterilization.
[37] Non-psychotic individuals with syphilis, epilepsy, and Huntington's Chorea were now encompassed by the Act; however, for reasons unknown, the Board maintained that consent was still required for these cases.
[43] Patients who were age 40 and older were notably under-represented, as the Board focused its efforts on individuals in the "child-bearing years" – those who were able and most likely to reproduce.
[48] This secrecy and lack of transparency, combined with the cooperation of the provincial government and feeder institutions, resulted in the Board pursuing illicit activities not encompassed by the Act.
Sterilization procedures were also ordered for individuals who were already infertile – most notably, a group of 15 boys with Down syndrome where testicular biopsy tissue was surgically removed for the purpose of medical research.
[50] The Progressive Conservative party led by Peter Lougheed came to power in 1971 and, a year later, passed the Alberta Bill of Rights.
[53] Since Muir's precedent-setting trial, over 850 victims have filed lawsuits against the Alberta government; the majority of these have been settled out of court and C$142 million in damages have been awarded.