Mr. Speaker, October marks the 67th anniversary of the Persons Case.
It was in 1929 that the British judicial committee of the privy council declared that women are persons under the terms of what was then called the British North America Act. The decision was delivered in response to a dispute over whether section 24 of the BNA act permitted women to be appointed to the other House.
In striking down an earlier decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, the privy council called the exclusion of women from public office "a relic of days more barbarous than ours".
This decision went a long way in combating the sentiment expressed by a British court in 1876 that "women are persons in matters of pains and penalties but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges".
Members from all parties should note that there are more women in this Parliament than in any other previous Canadian Parliament. I would ask all members to join me in commemorating the Persons Case and to recognize it as a watershed event-