The legacy of the Famous 5 is a complicated one. I tried to explore it in a video essay, which felt particularly timely, against the background of the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings in the United States, and the debate there over constitutional originalism. https://twitter.com/Paulatics/status/1317830421246177281

I wanted to confront the racism of the Famous 5 and their ugly embrace of eugenics, while at the same time acknowledging their legacy in fighting for the rights of women - and in provoking the Living Tree precedent, which allows our constitution to evolve.

I'm grateful to the the National Portrait Gallery in London, to the City of Edmonton Archives, to the Edmonton Journal, and to Vancouver photographer Peter Taylor for providing me with some of the still images included in our little mini-doc.

The video footage was shot on location in Ottawa by @ameyayeg and in Edmonton by yours truly. (That's why the Ottawa footage is better. Ameya knows what he's doing. Plus he has a tripod. He also did all the editing.)

In 1929, women weren't persons. They couldn't serve in the Senate. Today, we're almost at parity - 48 per cent of sitting senators are women - which I hope would make Murphy, McClung, McKinney, Parlby and Edwards happy. The irony?

Many many of us come from "ethnic" or "racial" backgrounds that the Famous 5 (particularly Murphy) thought were unfit to be "real" Canadians! We're Jewish, South Asian, East Asian, Indigenous, Slavic, Black - not at all the sorts of women they fought for!

And yet - despite themselves - they made it possible for all of us to be sitting in the Senate today. I'm so grateful for the chance to serve Canada alongside such an array of remarkable women, who come from across the political spectrum and from diverse backgrounds.

Whatever our politics, we are all persons, and all proud Canadians. And while I think it's vital that we are clear-eyed about the failings of the Famous 5 - I'm glad they were the sorts of fighters whose courage and pigheadedness made equality reality.