Thu, August 19, 2004
'Famous Five' aren't worth a plug nickel
Making a journalist's salary is rarely something to cheer about -- but it means there's little chance of having to handle the new $50 bill, so hip, hip, hooray.
The redesigned fifty, due out in October, will mark a gutter-level low in the history of Canada's currency. And in honouring the squad of racist, elitist bigots known as the Famous Five, it will serve as a legal-tender insult to millions of Canadians.
The Famous Five -- Nellie McClung, Judge Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parlby -- are featured on the back of the new $50, along with Quebec human-rights activist Therese Casgrain.
The Famous Five, who'd be more aptly called the Fascist Five, are Alberta feminists who won a major rights battle for Canada's women, after forcing the court to admit females were legally "persons" and could become senators.
That admirable accomplishment, which took place in 1929, certainly earns the Five a place in Canadian history -- but it shouldn't earn them a place on Canada's cash.
And it shouldn't make heroes of people who deserve as much criticism as they do applause.
The Famous Five are a rotten choice, because the country's money is public domain -- and many members of that public are people the Five wouldn't have wanted as Canadians.
Modern-day revisionists have tried to whitewash the dark doctrine of the group, but it's a well-documented truth that the Five consisted of upper-class women who promoted Canada as a racially-superior society of wealthy, educated Anglo-Saxons. No blacks, Asians or East Europeans need apply.
Judge Murphy, in her 1922 book on drug abuse, The Black Candle, claimed narcotics are a conspiracy by blacks and Asians to bring about the degeneration of the white race.
Being white wasn't good enough if your IQ wasn't up to snuff either -- the ladies, now promoted as champions of equal rights, supported a system of enforced sterilization for the "feeble-minded" known as eugenics.
Thanks to self-satisfied bigots like the Famous Five, mentally-challenged and slow-thinking Canadians were forced to undergo surgery to render them incapable of reproducing -- the goal being a superior society where the faults of lesser beings, such as poverty and crime, would no longer exist.
"We protect the public against diseased and distempered cattle. We should similarly protect them against the offal of humanity," is how Murphy put it, in 1932.
The apologists argue that such thinking, along with racism, was common-place in the 1920s and 1930s -- which, incidentally, is exactly when fascism flourished.
Forgiving the Famous Five when we still condemn other white-supremists of the era, including the Nazis, is hypocritical.
There were people of the same era who considered such views disgusting -- it wasn't a case of everybody felt the same, so you can't blame the Five for thinking that way.
It's important that Canada make a stand to show what Murphy and her cohorts promoted was wrong -- especially as the $50 is not the only place the Five will be featured this fall.
Alberta Learning has added the Famous Five to their mandatory Grade 5 history curriculum -- and if young kids are taught these women were heroes, what of the bigotry and racism?
Learning about the Famous Five is a good thing, and again, much of what they fought for was admirable and bold at a time when women were treated as second-class citizens.
But Alberta's students must also be made to learn that the Famous Five treated others as third-class citizens. Hopefully there are teachers out there who will give the kids a balanced version of this history, and not just the happy parts.
As for the $50, it's not too late for the Bank of Canada to scrap the Famous Five plan and find another, more deserving figure from Canadian history to grace the new currency (how about someone from one of the minorities the Famous Five would have kept out of Canada?).
The new fifty will probably be printed anyway, and in some ways it's a fitting bill for the Famous Five -- being rarely seen by the riff-raff.
The $50 certainly suits the group who wanted equality for all -- so long as "all" meant rich, white and intelligent.
<<END OF ITEM>>
Is it true that the new $50 bill may mark a "gutter-level" low when it gets released? If so, will they still print them thereafter? Or might they find another vignette to replace the Famous Five for the theme of "Nation Building"? Or better yet, will they scrap the idea of a new $50 bill for a few years?
Despite all the controversy, I will get my hands on the new $50's as soon as they come out (if they do come out, that is)...
Bye 4 now, Jonathan
