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Constance Backhouse, Ottawa, Ontario, Recipient, 2013, Governor General Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case

Constance Backhouse, Ottawa, Ontario, Recipient, 2013, Governor General Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case

I would like very much dear friends if I could express
the confident minds, not only of the five,
but of all the people who have advanced the cause of women.
The expanded notion of equality that we now see
that it's more than just simple gender.
Constance Backhouse is not only a brilliant scholar,
she's an activist, teacher, mentor and a leader.
As Canada's pre-eminent feminist legal historian,
Professor Backhouse focuses her scholarly work
on telling stories of women and other oppressed groups
toward exposing inequalities, promoting understanding
and facilitating change.
I would like to challenge myself and all the rest of you
to commit to another ten years and more of feminist activism
that will outdistance anything that has come before.
I would like us to imagine and then to complete campaigns
that will be as memorable eighty years from now
as the famous five persons case is for us today.

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