Cass 150
Pamela Hachey
March 21, 2013
Alicia Erickson
Disability History
An NFB documentary titled “The Sterilization of Leilani
Muir” exposed a shameful period of Canada’s history. In 1996, the Alberta
Government compensated Leilani Muir for the unnecessary sterilization performed
on her in 1958 under the Sterilization Act. This documentary was surprising to
watch because I was previously unaware of the legislation allowing for
sterilization in Canada. Brown and Brown
identified the Industrial Revolution and the Eugenics Movement as key time
periods that influenced society’s view on human disabilities. It is important for support staff to have an
understanding of disability history in order to recognize the consequences of
past mistakes and be able to gain better knowledge of the current disabilities
they are working with. The documentary explored Ms. Muir’s lawsuit against the
Provincial Government of Alberta and the history of Eugenics in Canada, which
raised many ethical questions surrounding the practice of sterilization.
In 1996, the government of Alberta compensated Leilani
Muir for the unnecessary sterilization performed on her and thousands of others
under the Sexual Sterilization Act. The Michener Center, known then as the
Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives in Red Deer Alberta housed
children deemed mentally defective from 1922 and is open today as a
disabilities services center (See website below). Leilani’s mother dropped her
off at the PTS when she was eleven years old. Leilani thought it was an
orphanage for children not wanted by their parents. At the PTS, doctors
diagnosed Leilani as a mental defective with an IQ of 64, and then cleared her
for sterilization without her knowledge at the age of fourteen. That day Ms.
Muir and three other girls were going to get their appendix removed. At the
same time, doctors performed their sterilization. After Leilani left the school
and married, she wanted to have children but her doctor told her “it looked
like her insides had gone through the slaughter house” (The Sterilization of
Leilani Muir DVD). In Alberta, the Eugenics Board had “[2832 children and
adults sterilized] between the passing of the Sexual Sterilization Act in 1928
to its repel in 1972” (Wikipedia). The documentary project looked at Leilani’s
winning court case and the history of eugenics in Canada. On January 25 1996,
the Honorable Judge Viet ruled in favor of Leilani Muir against Alberta’s
wrongful sterilization procedures. The Courts awarded Ms. Muir $970,780 in
total, which surprised me. I felt like there was no amount of money that could
compensate for unjustly taking away a person’s reproductive rights.
Watching the film in class was astonishing for me because
until that time I was unaware of Canada’s Sterilization Laws. Many people are
able to identify how bad it is in another country yet those same people are
unaware of the shameful periods of Canadian history. I saw Leilani Muir as an
excellent spokesperson for those harmed under the Sterilization Act. As Leilani
said in the DVD, she could have “settled out of court and taken the hush
money”. Instead, Ms. Muir chose to sue the Government of Alberta for wrongful
sterilization in the Supreme Court of Canada, which gained attention from the
media. The Industrial Revolution and the Eugenics Movement directly link
situations like Leilani Muir’s to how society views people with disabilities.
The
Industrial Revolution together with the Eugenics Movement changed society’s
view on people with disabilities. “In the minds of the social industrialist,
people with disabilities needed to be separated, but could be cared for and
protected in places of asylum.” (Quote pg. 61 text). Institutions provided
custodial level care rather than rehabilitation in most cases due to lack of
scientific knowledge in the disabilities field. Society believed the morally
correct course of action was to institutionalize those with physical or
intellectual disabilities, mental illness or serious head trauma as well as
impoverished, uneducated or people in debt (pg. 62 Brown and Brown). Medical
advances allowed a number of patients to return to their families while others
remained institutionalized in overcrowded facilities. “Eugenics was the science
and practice of purposely influencing the genetic makeup of a society in ways
that seem to improve it.” (Quote pg. 64) It became public policy to prevent
socially undesirable minorities from breeding while promoting procreation in
those deemed of higher worth. An extreme example of this would be the rise of
the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War 2, which targeted the lower class
and socially undesirable especially those deemed feebleminded. Understanding
these two time-periods in terms of disability is important to my work as a
learning support worker in the future.
Understanding
disability history is important for support staff for two reasons. By looking
at past mistakes, one can see the cost of their actions. This can lead to
finding reconciliation for those harmed under unjust policies and procedures.
Learning from Disability History will allow for improvements in the field in
terms of bettering the quality of life for patients. This means researching for
cures or treatments and implementing prevention plans. Modern views on people
with disabilities have improved since the Industrial Revolution and the
Eugenics movement although it remains largely xenophobic. Sterilization
procedures still occur in developing countries (pg. 65) and some people choose
to abort a fetus with a confirmed birth defect. The modern view on people with
disabilities focuses more on the individual rather than his or her disability
while providing accessibility accommodations such as Touch-To-Speech phones or
Braille.
In
conclusion, “The Sterilization of Leilani Muir” documented a shameful part of
Canadian history. By order of the Eugenics Board of Alberta, sterilization of
both children and adults became common practice from 1928 until 1972. Leilani
Muir attended a training school for mental defectives until she was a late
teen, before being released doctors sterilized her without consent and without
her knowledge at the age of fourteen. This documentary opened my eyes to a dark
period of Canadian history. The text “Quality of Life and Disability” by Ivan
Brown and Roy I. Brown published in 2003 identified the Industrial Revolution
and the Eugenics Movement as important ages in understanding disability
history. Support staff should have a better understanding of the various
disabilities they may encounter on the job and be more understanding to the individuals
who have suffered due to unjust policies such as the Sterilization Act. When
Leilani Muir sued the Alberta Government, she became a public icon for people
living with disabilities as well as the poor or uneducated targeted by unethical
policies and beliefs.
References:
Brown and Brown
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leilani_Muir
http://humanservices.alberta.ca/disability-services/pdd-central-directly-delivered-services.html
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