CLARA MARTIN BECOMES FIRST FEMALE LAWYER IN BRITISH EMPIRE

Clara Brett Martin was not, in legal terms, a “person.” So said the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1891 when the daughter of a superintendent of education from Toronto applied to study law. Men in the 19th century had a “stranglehold” on the justice system, legal historian Constance Backhouse says; women did not even serve on juries (including coroners’ juries). But Ms. Martin persisted, and Ontario premier and attorney-general Oliver Mowat personally addressed the law society in 1892 to advocate for her admission. In law school, her fellow students hissed as she entered the lecture room. On Feb. 2, 1897, she became the first female barrister and solicitor in the British Empire. She went on to practise family law, wills and real estate, and to publish articles about double standards in law. Decades after her death from a heart attack at the age of 49, the Ontario attorneygeneral’s headquarters at 720 Bay St. in Toronto was named after her. But then, an antisemitic legal letter she had written in 1915 denouncing Jewish realtors came to light. Today, it is the McMurtry-Scott Building, named after two male attorneys-general, Roy McMurtry and Ian Scott.