Unnatural Selection — The Alberta Eugenics Act

Episode 424: Between 1928 and 1972, the Alberta government authorized the forced sterilization of nearly 3,000 Albertans deemed "unfit" to reproduce. They were told they were having their appendix removed. Many were children. Most had no idea what was being done to them. The targets were the poor, the mentally ill, Indigenous people, immigrants — anyone who didn't fit the province's vision of a productive society. This wasn't a fringe movement. It was backed by doctors, politicians, newspapers, and some of the most celebrated figures in Canadian history.

Sources:

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Eugenics
• History of Rights Canada — Eugenics
• Prairie History Journal, University of Alberta
• Gladue / University of Saskatchewan — Eugenics Resource
• Eugenics Archive Canada — Timeline
• Eugenics Archive Canada — Our Stories
• City Museum Edmonton — Leilani Muir and Eugenics in Alberta
• National Post — When Canada Lost Its Mind Over Eugenics
• CBC News — Leilani Muir, Advocate for Alberta's Sterilization Victims, Dies
• CBC News — Cash Settlement for Sterilized Women (BC)
• Alberta Law Review — Mikkel Dack
• Toronto Sun — The Controversial Beliefs of Canada's Famous Five
• Wired — CRISPR Babies and Human Genome Editing
• Scientific American — The Dark Side of CRISPR
• NFB — The Sterilization of Leilani Muir
• The Guardian — What Is Pronatalism?
  

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