Viola Desmond will be the first ever Canadain female on a Canadian bill. When the bank rolls out the new batch of bills, Viola Desmond will be on the $10 bill.

‘She represented courage, strength, determination and dignity,” said Finance Minister Bill Morneau this morning.

Viola Desmond was arrested in 1946 for sitting in the whites-only section of a movie theater. She vocally expressed that is was wrong and the case ignited the civil rights movement in Canada.

canada-rights

 

Thanks to all the amazing women like Viola, and others who were candidates to be on the bill like poet Emily Pauline Johnson, engineer Elizabeth (Elsie) MacGill, athlete Fanny (Bobbie) Rosenfeld and suffragette Idola Saint-Jean, strong women have and will continue to change this country.

 

 

The announcement was made this morning by by Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu and Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz.

 

 

Filed under: Canada, female, viola-desmond, women