Cairine Wilson
Cairine Reay Mackay Wilson (born February 4, 1885 in Montreal , † March 3, 1962 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian politician . She was the first woman to serve on the Senate .
biography
She was the daughter of Jane Mackay and Robert Mackay , a Liberal Senator and personal friend of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier . In 1909 she married Norman Frank Wilson , a liberal deputies of the lower house , with whom she had eight children. In 1918 the family moved to Ottawa , where Cairine Wilson was active in numerous organizations.
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King named Wilson the country's first female senator on February 15, 1930, just four months after the Privy Council Judiciary Committee passed the final judgment in the Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General) had spoken. Previously, women were not allowed to be members of the Senate because they were not fully qualified by law.
Wilson subsequently sat for 32 years, until her death, as the representative of the Province of Ontario in the Senate. As President of the Canadian League of Nations, she spoke out publicly against the Munich Agreement in 1938 . During World War II , King's government was extremely reluctant to recognize Jewish refugees, but Wilson managed to take in 100 orphans.
At the request of King's successor, Louis Saint-Laurent , Wilson was Canada's first female delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 . She chaired the national refugee committee and was the first woman to head a standing committee (immigration and labor) in the Senate. In 1950 she was accepted into the French Legion of Honor for her services to refugee children .
literature
- Valerie Knowles: First Person: A Biography of Cairine Wilson, Canada's First Women Senator. Dundrum Press, Toronto 1987. ISBN 1-55002-030-7 .
Web links
- Cairine Wilson - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
- Short biography , Library and Archives Canada
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wilson, Cairine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wilson, Cairine Reay Mackay (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 4, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Montreal |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 3, 1962 |
| Place of death | Ottawa |