Human Rights A Day

Alice Stebbins Wells becomes first American police woman with the power to arrest. In 1909, Alice Stebbins Wells petitioned Los Angeles Mayor George Alexandra and the city council to allow women to become police officers. Her determination paid off when, on September 12, 1910, she became the first American policewoman given the power to make arrests. On her first day of work, Wells climbed onto a city trolley in uniform, only to be accused by a conductor of falsely using her husband’s identity. (Police officers were allowed to ride free.) The police department remedied that by issuing her a badge that read, “Policewoman’s Badge No. 1.” The nation-wide publicity of Wells’ appointment prompted other American jurisdictions to hire women. Wells went on to promote women in police work. She retired in 1940 after 30 years in policing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nicole Juteau becomes Quebec’s first woman provincial constable. Nicole Juneau was born in Laval in 1954 to a father who was a fire fighter. Her desire to do police work was not easy to fulfill, as no women had yet entered a police college in Quebec. However, on September 11, 1975, Juteau broke the barrier when she was sworn in as the first woman police officer in the Quebec provincial police force. She encountered numerous obstacles, from being unable to find a uniform that fit her to being assigned administrative duties. She also found only one male constable willing to work with her. Even so, Juteau worked in organized crime and became an expert on biker gangs in Quebec before she retired in 2001. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Canada declares war on Germany. Soon after Hitler secured a non-aggression pact with Russia, he invaded Poland. The British and French governments reacted by issuing an ultimatum to Germany to withdraw from Poland, but Hitler refused, citing other countries as provocateurs. So, on September 3, 1939, Britain, France, India, Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany. Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King, wanting to assert some independence, waited another week and declared war on Germany September 10, 1939. By the time Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, more than one million Canadian men and almost 50,000 Canadian women had served in the military during the war. Of those, more than 42,000 Canadians died. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“Operation Snatch” takes Doukhobor children from their families. In 1899, Russia decided to rid itself of the Doukhobors, a pacifist religious sect that refused to serve in the Russian Army. Many Doukhobors fled to Canada, where they set up a communal life in rural areas. Even there, however, their non-conformist ways and their refusal to abide by any laws except what thy defined as God’s laws, worried the Canadian government and police. Half a century later, B.C.’s new Social Credit government and Premier W.A.C. Bennett initiated “Operation Snatch” to punish Doukhobors for refusing to send their children to public schools. Starting September 9, 1953, RCMP officers went into Doukhobor communities and took hundreds of children away from their families. For almost six years, until 1959, these children were kept in former Japanese internment camps, taught “normal” Christian ways and beaten if they spoke Russian – or if they cried from loneliness. Once the children returned to their families, the government reaso

International Literacy Day is established. Literacy does more than boost citizens’ working credentials; it benefits their personal growth and financial well-being. Hoping to persuade countries to emphasize literacy, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided in 1965 to set aside a day for businesses, governments and organizations to help promote literacy and life-long learning through a variety of programs. International Literacy Day would be observed every September 8th. Twenty-five years later, the UN’s General Assembly decided to assign an entire year to the effort, and proclaimed 1990 as International Literacy Year. Canada has put a lot of effort and resources into literacy, and Canadian governments like to think it is a world leader in the area. However, Canada’s record is still left with much to be desired. Today almost one in four Canadians have difficulty understanding every day print found in newspapers, job application forms and pesticide applications. Ano

Madam Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin is born. Beverly McLachlin was born in Pincher Creek, Alberta on September 7, 1943. Before becoming a law professor at the University of British Columbia in 1974, she practiced law in Edmonton, Alberta, and in two B.C. cities, Fort St. John and Vancouver. Her first appointment to the bench came in 1981, when she sat as a judge in Vancouver’s county court. Only a few months later, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of B.C.; by 1985, she was making decisions at the B.C. Court of Appeal. She became chief justice of B.C.’s supreme court in 1988, on her forty-fifth birthday. Just one year later, when Justice William McIntyre retired from the top bench in 1989, McLachlin became B.C.’s representative at the Supreme Court of Canada – the first woman from B.C. to do so. But her trailblazing for women in law had just begun. When Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed McLachlin chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada on January 7, 2000, she was the first woman to hold this

Louisa Ann Swain becomes first U.S. woman to vote in nearly a century. Except for a brief period of New Jersey’s history around 1807 – a constitutional loophole quickly closed, rather than a progressive decision – women could not cast a vote in the U.S. until 1870. Change came nearly a year after the governor of Wyoming Territory, John A. Campbell, signed a bill on December 13, 1869 to give women the vote. When Wyoming joined the Union the following year, it meant Wyoming women could vote. Thus, by casting her vote in a state election on September 6, 1870, Swain became the first American woman to do so in almost a century. However, it would take decades before many American women would be granted the vote with the ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution in 1920. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Palestinian terrorists raid Munich Olympics and kill 11 Israeli athletes. On September 5, 1972, 11 days into the 1972 summer Olympic Games in Munich, eight Palestinians raided the Israeli team headquarters at the Olympic village. These members of the militant group Black September immediately killed two Israeli athletes, then took nine others hostage. Olympic officials suspended the games and the world watched, horrified, as intense media coverage ensued. The terrorists demanded the release of 234 Arab prisoners in Israel, and two German terrorists in Germany. When they also demanded a plane, officials arranged for three helicopters to transport the terrorists and hostages to a military airfield outside Munich, where those officials secretly planned to rescue the athletes. In the bungled operation, all the Israeli hostages, five of the terrorists and one policeman were killed. But authorities had captured three of the terrorists. Thirty-four hours after a memorial service was held in the main stadium, the Int

School board required to pay costs for French language dispute. The two daughters of Jacques Marchand attended French language schools in Penetanguishene, Ontario. Four primary schools served the town, but only one secondary school: L'ecole Secondaire Le Caron. Even that had been built only when the Ontario government required the Simcoe County School Board to do so in 1980. Marchand took issue with the secondary’s school absence of industrial arts and shop courses. His eldest daughter could take these subjects only if she bussed to an English school. English-speaking children, he pointed out to a court, did not have to do the same. On behalf of other French-speaking parents, Marchand felt he was asserting his rights under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In July 1986, a judge agreed; the province and school board lost to Marchand in court. The judge said French-speaking children were entitled to “a full and complete education – not a limited, partial or truncated one, which necessarily would be an i

Mukhtar Mai uses compensation money after vicious attack to establish schools. On June 22, 2002, a 13-year-old boy named Abdul Shakoor was abducted from his home in Pakistan due to allegations from members of the Mastoi tribe that he had had sex with one of their girls. As punishment, three of the men sodomized Shakoor. When his family came to his rescue, they agreed to settle the matter by having Shakoor marry the girl and by his sister Mukhtar Mai apologizing to the family of the girls. But that night, Abdul Khaliq and three other men raped Shakoor’s sister Mai as a form of justice. A week later, her local Muslim imam, Abdul Razzaq, condemned the rape and urged the family to file charges, which they did on June 30. Not only did her story get headlines in Pakistan, but BBC and Time magazine covered it as well. Pakistan’s chief justice called the rape heinous and in early July, the Pakistan government awarded Mai 500,000 rupees. On September 2, the four rapists and two council members of the tribe were convic

Rwandan mayor takes brunt of international tribunal’s first genocide conviction. Although the United Nations Genocide Convention was established in 1948, not until 1998 did an international tribunal identify a criminal genocide. That finding stemmed from an April 1994 massacre of 800,000 mostly Tutsi Rwandans. Seven months after that atrocity, the UN Security Council responded by establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, whose purpose was to prosecute people responsible. The first round of prosecutions, held between 1995 and 1999, put seven people on trial and handed down the first conviction on September 2, 1998 – against the former bourgmestre (mayor) of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu. Akayesu claimed he was powerless to stop the massacre, but Judge Laity Kama ruled that he was "individually and criminally responsible for the deaths” of the 2,000 Tutsis killed in his town. His conviction of nine counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes marked the tribunal’s first genocide findi

Pioneer Canadian suffragist Nellie McClung dies. One of Canada’s most famous champions of women’s rights, Nellie McClung died in Victoria, B.C. on September 1, 1951. McClung was born Nellie Letitia Mooney in 1873 near Owen Sound, Ontario, before her family moved to rural Manitoba. After a career that spanned teaching and writing (she was a well-respected novelist and essayist), McClung got involved in the women’s movement. Her efforts on behalf of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1914 and 1915 led Manitoba to become the first Canadian province to grant women the vote in 1916. A strong Methodist and an active member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance, McClung not only campaigned tirelessly for women to get the vote, but she fought hard for better working conditions, government-supported family allowance and better pensions. After moving to Alberta with her husband, Wesley McClung, she became a Liberal MLA in Edmonton. There, she also became one of the “famous five” activists who fought a successful battle all th

Pledge to end white rule wins Rhodesia Prime Minister Ian Smith a landslide victory. White rule of Rhodesia started in 1889 with British colonization by businessman Cecil John Rhodes. Eventually, internal struggles and international pressure caught up with the country’s racist system. White citizens finally became open to change, and when Prime Minister Ian Smith pledged to end white rule in what is now called Zimbabwe, he won a landslide victory on August 31, 1977. The 85,000 white voters elected 50 members of parliament and Smith’s Rhodesian Front party took all 50. The six million black voters were only given eight MPs to represent them. Smith agreed to end white rule and in 1979 he honoured his pledge. In 1980 Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union Party (ZANU) won a large majority of the seats in parliament, making him their first black Prime Minister. Years later he took on the role of Executive President, abolishing the role of Prime Minister and concentrating more powers into his hands.

Thurgood Marshall becomes first African American Supreme Court justice. Thurgood Marshall wanted to be a dentist but ended up a U.S. Supreme Court judge. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2, 1908, Thurgood attended public schools before studying law. After a short time in private practice, he joined the legal team of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), soon winning some of the most important anti-discrimination decisions at the high court. Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals by President Kennedy, and given the post of solicitor general under President Johnson, Marshall was eventually elevated to Supreme Court justice. When President Johnson nominated Marshall, he said it was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." On August 30, 1967, the Senate approved Marshall’s appointment 69 to 11, making him the first African American to sit on the top bench. Of the 11 senators who opposed his appointment, 10 were from the South. Marsha

Aboriginals need separate justice system, says Manitoba inquiry. Questionable circumstances surrounding the 1971 murder of Betty Osborne, a First Nations woman in The Pas, Manitoba, prompted concern among Manitobans about whether racism lurked within the justice system where it was applied to aboriginals. When aboriginal leader J.J. Harper died while in police custody in 1988, that concern grew. In response, the Manitoba government created an inquiry into aboriginal justice in 1988. On August 29, 1991 the inquiry tabled its report, which encouraged the government to come up with a judicial and corrections system more responsive to the needs of its growing aboriginal population. In fact, the inquiry suggested that aboriginal people have their own justice system, a proposal that aboriginal leaders instantly supported, but non-aboriginal political leaders criticized. In 1999, the government set up a commission assigned to find ways to implement some of the recommendations from the 1991 report. In 2001 the term o

Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. When U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the Civil Rights Bill to Congress, Southern representatives blocked it. To build political pressure for the bill, civil rights leaders staged a march on Washington on August 28, 1963 that drew over 250,000 people. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the key speakers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Although it is hard to discern from the film, one account states that after delivering his prepared speech, King was about to sit down when gospel singer Mahalia Jackson called out, “Tell them about your dream, Martin!” What is certain is that King then delivered his “I have a dream” speech, which became so famous that many say it still defines the civil rights movement. “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” King said. He ended with his wish to

When Indian women marry non-Indians, they lose band rights, Supreme Court rules. Jeannette Lavell and Yvonne Bedard were both deprived of their Indian status when they married non-Indian men. The Indian Act of Canada allowed their bands to remove them from band registries and block their rights to land or property on their own reserves where they lived. Both women took separate legal action, but on August 27, 1973, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the decision, five to four. The Canadian Bill of Rights, the court ruled, did not protect the women in these circumstances. In 1977, knowing Canadian courts would not restore the status to Indian women Sandra Lovelace Nicholas took her case to the United Nations Human Rights Commission which ruled in her favour in 1981. After the Charter of Rights and Freedoms became part of Canada’s constitution a year later, and after further years of lobbying and negotiations, the parliament of Canada repealed section 12 of the Indian Act in 1985 and reinstated the rights of Fi

The 19th amendment gives American women the vote. In July 1848, approximately 260 women and 40 men met in Seneca Falls, New York “to discuss the social, civil and religious condition and rights of woman.” Prior to this convention, a few women had been drafting declarations and resolutions. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton proposed the right to vote, fellow rights supporter Lucretia Mott said, “Why Lizzie, thee will make us ridiculous.” Stanton later explained, “I persisted, for I saw clearly that the power to make the laws was the right through which all other rights could be secured.” After the convention, the women were ridiculed, but so began decades of struggle to secure American women the vote. Wyoming became the first state to give women the vote in 1890 and progress continued state by state, but slowly. On the national front, the vote for women was first introduced to the U.S. Congress in 1878, but it would be another 42 years before it came to pass through the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution. When

Allies liberate Paris from Nazis. On June 6, 1944 – later known as D-Day – British, American and Canadian soldiers stormed five beaches along Normandy, France. Initially, Canadian soldiers encountered little resistance at Juno Beach, but their losses rapidly escalated to 18,444 Canadian casualties including 5,021 deaths before the offensive ended in August. The Nazis, on the other hand, lost over 300,000 soldiers during this French invasion. Meanwhile, Allied troops worked with the French resistance to liberate France, one battle at a time, until they reached Paris. Finally, on August 23, 1944, U.S. General George Patton and the French 2nd Armored Division reached the city, officially freeing it from the Nazis on August 25, 1944. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

McCarthyism era. The United States’ short-lived alliance with the Soviet Union to defeat the Nazis chilled once World War II ended. And that chill turned into fears of communism throughout the world as the “Cold War” began and the Soviets asserted their control over Eastern European countries. Many Americans were concerned not only about communism abroad, but also about communism within their own borders. This post-war period, starting in the 1940s and continuing until the late 1950s, was also characterized as McCarthyism, for the communist witch-hunting carried out by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Un-American Activities committee. People became familiar with the line, “Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” For a country that prided itself on freedoms, and for a government that only years before had been an ally of the communist regime, many people were caught off-guard. In order to deal with communism at home more forcefully, Republican Senator John Marshal Butler and Democratic