The Famous Five and the women who brought them to Parliament Hill
On October 18, 1929, five women from Alberta: Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, won a constitutional battle that would change Canada. After the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that women were not “qualified persons” eligible for appointment to the Senate, the women took their case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain.
Nearly seven decades later, another determined group of women took up their cause, this time to ensure the Famous Five had a place in the physical heat of the nation. For Isabel Metcalfe, who helped lead the Ottawa effort to bring the Famous Five monument to Parliament Hill, the story has always been about more than bronze statues.