Incorrigible

"Demerson's spare, unadorned account of the injustice done her is moving and courageous." -- Brian Bethune -- Maclean's On the morning of May 3, 1939, a young Toronto couple, he in robe, she in pyjamas, had their morning meal stopped cold. "Police. Open up."... [In] the courthouse, the judge makes haste: "You are charged with being 'incorrigible' and I sentence you to one year in the Belmont House." The off-hand sentence cost Demerson dearly. Under the Female Refuges Act, the province of Ontario from 1896-1964 arrested and jailed, without trial or appeal, females from 16 to 35 whom magistrates suspected of undesirable social behaviour.... Demerson had two strikes against her. Her fiance was Harry Yip. At the time, the Chinese Exclusion Act forbade white women even to work in Chinese establishments, never mind have intimate relationships and subsequent mixed-race babies. The authorities were not alone in this judgement, nor were they alone the morning of the arrest. At their side was Demerson's father.... [In the book] I've underscored text for socio-historic weight, poignant emotional recall and graphic detail....It's intense and I take breaks. Rarely does a book make me cry; this one makes me sob. Angry? I'm irate.... The young mother deemed "unfit" decades earlier came back, in her 70s and 80s, ready to fight. And won. In 2002, Attorney-General David Young apologized on behalf of the government for "unfortunate and unjustified consequences for you and other women who were unjustifiably incarcerated."...Author, advocate, whistle-blower and role-model, at a sprightly 84, Demerson can not only still kick parliamentary ass but has written a provocative, informative work to resonate for generations to come. -- Maggie Mortimer -- The Globe and Mail "Canada's political leaders like to tout our country's 'well-deserved reputation for tolerance.' They are less eager to discuss whether that reputation is wholly deserved....Based on the cruel and degrading experiences of Velma Demerson and other women imprisoned for `vagrancy' or for simply being 'incorrigible,' Canada in the 1930s and 1940s was far less idyllic than what is portrayed in the history books....By bringing this disgraceful chapter of our history to light, Velma Demerson has demonstrated tremendous courage." -- Scott Piatkowski -- THIS Magazine "Velma Demerson's story remains an inspiration to tackle obstacles, and a reminder that we're not alwasy as tolerant as we think we are." -- Alexis Kienlen -- Ricepaper "Stories of rebels and outlaws have always been popular subjects for scholarly and popular histories. Those who have had their stories dramatized in plays, television shows, and on film, and even more so those who have published their memoirs, are overwhelmingly men. Here we see the memoir of a defiant woman in a moving account that could only have been a woman's life story. Historians interested in recovering the experiences of people without access to formal avenues of power typically search in vain for the sort of material presented in this book -- an insider's look at the regulation and punishment of working-class women who strayed from the moral scripts of gender and race." -- Carolyn Strange, author of Toronto's Girl Problem: The Perils and Pleasures of the City, 1880-1930 and co-author (with Tina Loo) of True Crime, True North: The Golden Age of Canadian Pulp Magazines (2004). "Velma Demerson's new memoir, Incorrigible , recounts in horrifying detail being imprisoned in 1939 under the Female Refuges Act...It's a straightforward and at times brutally graphic account of her travails." -- Andrea Baillie -- Saskatoon Star-Phoenix "Any thinking person should be outraged by the issue raised by Ms. Demerson." -- David Suzuki "A great read for those interested in legal history, and a reminder that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it." -- The Barrister (Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association), Issue #79 Read more...