The Persons Case: Two Articles

The 1929 “Persons Case”, in which the courts ruled that women ought to be regarded as “eligible persons” for the purposes of Senate appointments, has assumed such legendary proportions in Canada that it is commemorated by a statue on Parliament Hill. My feelings about this mythology are mixed, as I explain in the accompanying short editorial (first published as an op-ed in the National Post on October 22, 2012) and in the longer academic paper, also first published in October 2012.

• The Persons case eight decades later: Reappraising Canada’s most misunderstood court ruling (Scott Reid, October, 2012)
• The court case that changed everything (Scott Reid, National Post, October 22, 2012)

As you can see from the papers, I am a great admirer of this ruling, and I think it is justly famous. However, I am disturbed by the way in which the mythology about the ruling departs so dramatically from what the Court actually ruled back in 1929. The longer paper is my attempt to set the record straight. -Scott Reid, December 1, 2015.

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