The fascinating case of Lizzie Cyr begins with a simple arrest for "vagrancy" in 1917 Calgary and transforms into a landmark legal battle that would permanently alter women's rights in Canada.

When Lizzie Cyr, a 29-year-old woman of First Nations and European heritage, found herself homeless and accepted temporary lodging from an acquaintance named John James Ryan, she unknowingly stepped into legal history. After Ryan paid her for sex, claimed she infected him with gonorrhea, and attempted to blackmail her for medicine money, Cyr found herself arrested and standing before one of Canada's first female magistrates, Alice Jameson.

Enter John McKinley Cameron, Cyr's eccentric lawyer known for representing society's most marginalized people. With his trademark mismatched suits and sometimes rubber boots, Cameron skillfully exposed Ryan's hypocrisy during cross-examination, revealing that Ryan regularly visited sex workers and had contracted gonorrhea before. Despite this compelling defense, Magistrate Jameson abruptly sentenced Cyr to six months hard labor without allowing her to testify.

What happened next would change Canadian legal history forever. Rather than simply appealing the verdict, Cameron pursued a bold strategy – challenging Jameson's very right to serve as a magistrate on the grounds that women couldn't legally hold such positions. This challenge reached the Alberta Supreme Court, where Justice Stewart declared "in our province and in our time there is no legal reason to disqualify women from holding public office," making Alberta the first Canadian province to officially recognize women as legal persons with the right to hold public office.

While Lizzie Cyr disappeared from historical records after serving her sentence, her case became crucial in establishing women's legal personhood – a concept that would be further developed in the "Famous Five" case detailed in next week's episode. Join us for the conclusion of this unexpected legal journey that helped secure fundamental rights for Canadian women.

The Person Behind the Persons Case Written by Sarah Burton

http://canadashistory.ca/explore/women/the-person-behind-the-persons-case

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