A rchive Date
[ 11-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/01/07/9689-cp.html
Ontario woman jailed for living with Chinese-Canadian boyfriend gets apology
By ANDREA BAILLIE
Tue, January 7, 2003
TORONTO (CP) - A woman who was jailed more than six decades ago for living with her Chinese-Canadian boyfriend has received an apology from the Ontario government. But Velma Demerson, 82, said Tuesday she still wants financial compensation for her ordeal.
"As a first step I'm pleased with it," she said of the apology, which she said she received last month from Attorney General David Young. In May 1939, Demerson and her boyfriend, Harry Yip, were eating breakfast when two policemen showed up at the door and took her into custody.
A pregnant Demerson was imprisoned for about 10 months under the Female Refuges Act of 1897. The act stated that "any parent or guardian may bring before a judge any female under the age of 21 years who proves unmanageable or incorrigible."
Until it was repealed in 1964, the law allowed women from age 16 to 35 to be jailed for behaviour like public drunkenness, promiscuity and pregnancy out of wedlock.
Demerson's son was born during her incarceration and was later taken away from her. Demerson said the letter apologizes to her, Yip and her son.
"I'm writing to you on behalf of the government to apologize to you for your incarceration under the Female Refuges Act in the 1930s," Demerson quoted the letter as saying.
"In addition, the government wishes to apologize for the adverse effects your incarceration undoubtedly had on your son who was born to you while you were in custody, and to his father."
A spokesman for Young would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the letter Tuesday, saying lawyers are still negotiating with Demerson.
Demerson said she is still negotiating for financial compensation and other issues.
She also wants an apology for other women who went through a similar ordeal.
"Of course I accept the apology, but it doesn't mention anything about the other women," she said.
Demerson's lawyer, David Midanik, said the government's apology, as it stands, doesn't go far enough in terms of the "magnitude of the wrongs perpetrated against Velma and others under that act."
In April 2002, Demerson launched a lawsuit claiming $11 million in damages, but an Ontario Superior Court judge has since ruled that the provincial government is immune to lawsuits stemming from incidents before 1963.
That decision is currently under appeal.
Demerson ultimately reunited with her child and married Yip, but the union lasted just three years.
Her son drowned in an accident in 1966.
Demerson's story in some ways echoes the plight of the Dionne quintuplets, born in 1934 and later housed in a government-run theme park called Quintland.
Three surviving Dionne quints eventually won a $4-million settlement after suing the province for separating them from their family and putting them on display.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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