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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