Civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond will be immortalized on a Canadian banknote. She will be the first woman other than Queen Elizabeth II to grace Canadian currency.
The announcement was made Thursday morning by Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu and Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz.
Desmond, who has been called the “Rosa Parks of Canada,” is known for defying the colour barrier at a New Glasgow, Nova Scotia movie theatre in 1946. She was a beautician and owner of Vi’s Studio of Beauty Culture, a Halifax beauty parlour serving the city’s black community. In 1946, while trying to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre, Desmond was told that, because she was black, she would only be allowed to sit in the balcony. The 32-year-old Desmond took a seat on the main floor of the theatre, refusing to bow to segregation. She was arrested at the theatre and spent the night in jail. The following day she was charged with attempting to defraud the provincial government and fined $26.
Months later, Desmond began her fight to have the charge reversed. Her case was taken as high as the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and, ultimately, her appeal was dismissed in 1947.
She died in 1965 at age 50.
Desmond was one of five Canadian women shortlisted for the honour. The runners up were: Mohawk artist and poet E. Pauline Johnson; Olympic gold medalist Bobbie Rosenfeld; journalist, feminist and suffragette Idola Saint-Jean; and Canada’s first practicing female engineer, Elsie MacGill, who also became the world’s first female aircraft designer.
