Disability, Sexuality and Family in Alberta

1. Disability, Sexuality and Family in Alberta Dr. Claudia Malacrida Sociology University of Lethbridge

2. My research – controlling sexuality and disability historically • Oral History Project – “Hear My Voice” • involved interviews with survivors from Michener Centre • People spoke about two kinds of eugenics – Passive Eugenics and Active Eugenics • Oral History Project – “A Special Hell” • Interviews with institutional survivors, ex-workers and parents of Michener inmates

3. Active Eugenics – The Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act • Alberta leaders worried about immigration and poverty • The 1928 Act focused on voluntary sterilization • In 1937, an Amendment to the Act was passed that permitted involuntary sterilization, if IQ was ‘too low’. • Most of the victims of sterilization were people deemed to be ‘mentally deficient’

4. Eugenics at Michener • Michener the largest ‘supplier’ of people to the Eugenics Board • Board actually held its meetings on Michener • IQ cut-off made Michener residents easy targets • IQ testing at Michener was extremely slipshod • The average time taken to hear eugenics cases was 11 minutes from beginning to end

5. Active Eugenics – Ray’s Story • Ray Petrenko, identified as a ‘slow learner’ • Enters Michener at 8 years, sterilized at 16, only leaves the institution at 39 • Parents told him, “people in Michener Centre said that this had to be done because they didn’t want people that were living in Michener Centre to have, to make little kids.” • “all we were told was that we were going to go on a trip, but they didn’t tell me, they just told my Mom and Dad that this had to be done.”

6. Active Eugenics – Donna and Gerta’s Story • People were lied to. Donna Bodgan describes her process: • ”They said that we’re going to have an operation, “You’re going to get your appendix out” or something. I wasn’t sure, I didn’t understand. I thought, well, that was the routine. “ • GertaHarvey described a disturbing story of how sterilization was used to cover up sexual abuse: • ”This girl, she was caught and raped…I mean, from Ward 9, the boys, were bullies. That’s why she got the operation, because she got pregnant.”

7. Passive Eugenics and Michener • Institutions and asylums sprang up as forms of passive eugenic • Often positively described as schools, they became prisons • Typically far removed from their communities, isolated • Michener was also a locked facility, providing even more control of residents

8. Passive Eugenics - Institutionalization • Most of the survivors remained there for decades – never learned relationship skills • ‘Segregation Inside’ • Units inside Michener Centre were locked and segregated by sex, so there were few opportunities to encounters members of the opposite sex, or to learn how to interact with them.

9. Passive Eugenics – Mary’s Story • Mary entered at the age of 12, left at 37: • “I was on a ward for school girls. And it was a bedroom, we shared, three to a room. And then I went to a ward in Deerhome where I was for 19 years. That was a dormitory, and there was 38, and we slept side by side!” • Increased level of surveillance once residents became adults.

10. Newgenics – controlling sexuality and disability now • Interviews with disabled mothers about challenges and successes in having children and running a family • Interviews with men and women who are intellectually disabled, about their experiences • Major Common Themes – passive and active ‘newgenics’ continue

11. Disabled parents allowed to keep newborn son CBC NEWSPOSTED: MAY 04, 2012 12:56 PM ETLAST UPDATED: MAY 04, 2012 10:21 PM ET ► Eugenics – A Thing of the Past? • In 1986, Eve’s mother seeks sterilization • Supreme Court rules, no Canadian can be tampered with without their consent. • However, there are always informal ways • MaricylPalisoc and Charles Wilton had to go to court to maintain custody of their child (2013)

12. Active Newgenics – Cheryl and Debbie’s Stories • Cheryl is a 23 year old under guardianship orders • Placed on Depo at 14 years “just to be safe” • Now forced to take pill • Debbie is a 22 year old with Down Syndrome • Engaged, but has incorrect sexual and genetic information • Terrified to have sex even when she gets married

13. Passive Newgenics Today • Service and living arrangements keep disabled people isolated • day programs, for example • inappropriate housing situations • Even ’appropriate’ housing can mean: • no privacy, no locks on their doors, no capacity to entertain lovers, and no freedom to stay out overnight