View this photo Today is the 27th anniversary of the first woman, Bertha Wilson, being appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Bertha was an amazing woman. She was a feminist, out-spoken judge who greatly impacted women’s rights in Canada.
She handed down rulings that let unmarried women claim an equal share of their partner’s property, and considered self-defence from a battered woman’s perspective. She backed a woman’s right to chose in her 1988 decision when the Morgentaler ruling struck down Canada’s ban on abortion. Wilson also chaired a Canadian Bar Association task force on gender equality in the legal profession in 1994.
When she passes away almost two years ago, there was some great coverage of her pioneering career.
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