Born in 1920, 18-year-old, Velma Demerson was arrested for committing one of the most scandalous crimes, an eighteen-year-old in her time was capable of; having an intimate relationship with a foreign immigrant.
On May 3rd, 1939, Demerson was arrested in a response of her parent's disapproval towards her close ties and intimacy with Chinese immigrant, Harry Yip. Demerson was convicted of being incorrigible. Under the provincial 1897 Female Refuges Act, which stated that "any parent or guardian may bring before a judge any female under the age of 21 years who proves unmanageable or incorrigible." The act enabled the government to take women between the ages of 16 and 35 into custody and discipline them for acting on behaviour such as promiscuity, pregnancy out of wedlock and public drunkenness. The act wasn't repealed until the year 1958.
A magistrate ordered for Velma to be incarcerated with a 10-month sentence at the Mercer Reformatory for Women in Toronto. While still at the reformatory centre; Demerson gave birth to her son, Harry Jr. However, he was seized away from her after he’d turned 3 months old. Demerson was subjected to involuntary medical procedures, all of which were done by reformatory doctors whose main task was to search for evidence of physical deficiencies. Promptly after Demerson was released, she …show more content…
From Henry Hudson to Louis Riel and the building of The Canadian Pacific Railway to the election of our newest Prime Minister. But even after all this, I had no knowledge of Velma Desmond up till this article was brought to my attention. It still baffles how a country who promotes the idea of acceptance and equality holds a piece of history that thought the complete opposite. I still can’t understand how we’re unable to accept people of different races or why we began discriminating against each other in the first
On May 3rd, 1939, Demerson was arrested in a response of her parent's disapproval towards her close ties and intimacy with Chinese immigrant, Harry Yip. Demerson was convicted of being incorrigible. Under the provincial 1897 Female Refuges Act, which stated that "any parent or guardian may bring before a judge any female under the age of 21 years who proves unmanageable or incorrigible." The act enabled the government to take women between the ages of 16 and 35 into custody and discipline them for acting on behaviour such as promiscuity, pregnancy out of wedlock and public drunkenness. The act wasn't repealed until the year 1958.
A magistrate ordered for Velma to be incarcerated with a 10-month sentence at the Mercer Reformatory for Women in Toronto. While still at the reformatory centre; Demerson gave birth to her son, Harry Jr. However, he was seized away from her after he’d turned 3 months old. Demerson was subjected to involuntary medical procedures, all of which were done by reformatory doctors whose main task was to search for evidence of physical deficiencies. Promptly after Demerson was released, she …show more content…
From Henry Hudson to Louis Riel and the building of The Canadian Pacific Railway to the election of our newest Prime Minister. But even after all this, I had no knowledge of Velma Desmond up till this article was brought to my attention. It still baffles how a country who promotes the idea of acceptance and equality holds a piece of history that thought the complete opposite. I still can’t understand how we’re unable to accept people of different races or why we began discriminating against each other in the first