Viola Irene Desmond (July 6, 1914 – February 7, 1965) was a Canadian civil and women's rights activist and businesswoman of Black Nova Scotian descent.

Desmond's case is one of the most publicized incidents of racial discrimination in Canadian history and helped start the modern civil rights movement in Canada.

[6] However, it was not until 2021 that the government repaid the $26 (worth $368 CAD as of 2021) fine to her estate in the form of a $1,000 scholarship that adjusted the amount to reflect the time value of money.

[13][14] Growing up, Desmond noted the absence of professional hair and skin-care products for black women and set her sights on addressing this need.

When she requested to exchange her balcony ticket to the main floor for an additional cost, she was refused and forcefully removed from the theatre which caused an injury to her hip.

Following the decision to fight the charge, Carrie Best broke the story of Desmond in the first edition of The Clarion, the first black-owned and published Nova Scotia newspaper.

[22] With the help of her church and the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP), Desmond hired a lawyer, Frederick William Bissett, who represented her in the criminal trials and attempted, unsuccessfully, to file a lawsuit against the Roseland Theatre.

Since the theatre would only agree to sell Desmond a cheaper balcony ticket, but she had insisted upon sitting in the much more expensive main floor seat, she was only one cent short on tax.

Several months later, a Canadian Bar Review article pointed out that Bissett could have instead argued that the courts had no right to enforce racial segregation, which would have forced a decision on the legitimacy of such an argument.

[24] When dismissing the case, Justice William Lorimer Hall said: Had the matter reached the court by some other method than certiorari there might have been an opportunity to right the wrong done this unfortunate woman.

One wonders if the manager of the theatre who laid the complaint was so zealous because of a bona fide belief that there had been an attempt to defraud the province of Nova Scotia of the sum of one cent, or was it a surreptitious endeavour to enforce a Jim Crow rule by misuse of a public statute.Her lawyer, Bissett, refused to bill Desmond, and the money was used to support William Pearly Oliver's newly established NSAACP.

It is my conviction that much of the positive action that has since taken place stemmed from this ...Desmond is often compared to Rosa Parks, given they both challenged racism by refusing to vacate seats in "Whites Only" sections and contributed to the rise of the Civil Rights Movement, despite there having been no law specifically enforcing segregation in theatres.

[28] Viola Desmond has been widely commemorated across Canada in recognition of her role in the civil rights movement and her contributions to the advancement of racial equality.

Prompted by a request from Ontario high school student Varishini Deochand in 2021, the government of Nova Scotia offered a symbolic repayment of Desmond's original court fees to her only surviving family member, Robson.

When Robson said she would use the money to make a one-time donation for a scholarship at Cape Breton University, the Crown-in-Council increased the repayment from the current valuation of $368.29 to $1,000.