Sixty years ago, VelmaDemersonwas ateenager caught up in a great romance,JANW~NGreports. Then she discovered just ~

how harsh Canadian law could be. Would. "

she have been declared 'incorrigible' andjailed had her lover not heen Chinese? Tofind out, she has taken her case to court

Prisoneroflovel]

u're 1'9, living with your, fiance and presto! You're

underarres,!. Desperate,"<>c.'.'.#.u.~~'!%

pregnantiiJfhe'Iljust free Y,0)l,youpromise Ybu'llJnciny the guy. Nodice.;¥(jur sentence: one year at :

slave labour. "

jThe Taliban? Nigeria? Pakistan? i

ActuaIly,Toronto circaJ939. '."Terrible?TheFewere lots of ter-

rible things," said Velma Demer-son, who 'gave birth, whileincarcerated ,under an 1897 Onta-rio law known as the Female Ref-uges Act. Ms. Demerson, now B2, .has hazel eyes, horn-rimmedglasses and soft powdery skin. Shelaughs quietly, even when re-counting the most terriqle things.

unde,

r ~e act,

' repeal,

,ed in 1964, '

I"incorrigible" females "from IS to ,35 could be jailed up to two yearsfor everything from premarital sexto "publi~ drunkenness." For Ms.Demerson, an out-of-wedlockpregnancy was proof enough of in-corrigibility, but her fiance alsohappened to be Chinese. And soshe fell into a vortex of racism andsexual politic~ that. Canadianstoday can scarcely imagine.

In Europe, it was,springtime forHitler. In Canada, eugenics had arespectable {following. The yearshe was arrested, the Cityof Ham-ilton refused to issue mixed-racemarriage certificates. In Saskatch-ewari,.Ontarioi~Manjtobaand Brit-ish CQlm:nbia, it was illegal forChinese or Asian businesses tohire.white women.

Toronto did issue mixed-racemarriage certificates, but the pre-vailing morality defined miscege-nation as one sign ofincorrigibility. "Having sex with anon-wl,1iteperson was consideredunclean," 1\;1s.Denterson said. "Itwas worse than being a pro~stitute.Even those people at the very bot-tom:of society thought they werebe.tter than anyone that associatedwitlJ.C~ese." - - ~ '.

After she got out ofjail, she mar-ried. the father of her child, butHarty Yip never asked aboutprisQ~.And she never talked aboutit. She al~o hid it from Harry Jr.,who drowned ina swimming acci-dent 40 years ago at the age of 26.It was only last spring, after a si-,;lence of 63 years, that she filed alawsuit against the Province of On-tario seeking compensation for herirnpi\sonment. She is also seekingan apology. '

"There's some chapters in ourpast which we're. certainly notproud o~," saidJ3en Hanii)ton, aspqke~,man for the Ontario Attor-ney~Geheral, adding that govern~ment lawyers have contacted Ms.Demerson's lawyer to' see "whatcould be resolved."

. . .Velma Demerson herself is the~,~~ ,-,~

product of a mixed marriage, the "

, kind affectionately mocked in. MyBig Fat Greek Wedding. But back,

o:!hen,~b,~.f1~nwae;t:,~~I.t~~~~ ,~

warned that sb,e would have a"black" baby if she married aGreek. "She was soproudAvhenmy brother was born bef'luse hewas blond with blue eyes," saidMs. :pemerson, the second child(with qark hair).

Her father, who had anglicized.his surname from Demetrios,opened an ice cream parlour inSaint John. Alice Demersonworked there with hirnmakingcandy. But the marriage fell' apartwhen Velma was 8, after AlexDe-merson 'opened a ,restaurant andno longer needed his wife's help.

"She started going dancing. Andfather took up with the waitresses,one of whom was out tenant."

~ Alice Demerson moved with hertwo children to Toronto, whereshe read tea leaves and ran arooming house across from MapleLeaf Gardens. At 15, Velma wentback to Saint John. Her father'sne}\' wife, through an arrangedmarriage, was from rural Gre,eceand spoke no English. "I was veryunhappy," said Ms, Demerson,

"who soon dropped out of highschool.

Like the heroine of My Big FatGreek Wedding, she was put towork in the family restaurantWaitressing, though, was {consid-ered too risque. "Fellas would talkto you at the table, jokewith you."

So her father had her scrubbingpots and later put her behind thesoda fountain. She remembers achemist who hung around askingher for a date. Too shy to talk tohim, she asked the opinion of. awaitress, who said he was okay. I

The chemist took her out andraped her~She was 16."They neverwarned girls: Don't get in a carwith a guy." She told no one. Trau-matized and deeply unhappy at

- home, she began staying out late.Her father, shipped her back toToronto. .

She was 17when she met HarryYip.She had gone with her motherto the Commodore, a Chinese res-taurant on Yonge Street Ms. De-merson dropped her silver, andthe waiter picked it up. Shedropped it again, and he picked itup again. "We ail laughed, and hesaid, 'How 'bout a date?' I saidokay."

He took her to his roominghouse. The room,'she recaIled,was"neat as a pin.'" He won her heartwhen he put her feet in his ownslippers and sat in stocking feet.He snowed her his naturalizationpapersi he had arrived in 1919~four years before Ottawa passedthe Chinese Immigration Act, bar-ring Chinese entry and crea-tingail-bachelor Chinatowns.

"He was very good-looking,"

said Ms. Demerson, rememberinga slender man with high cheek-bones.

fD

Mr. Yip was in his 30s.Mer twodee-ades in Canada, he spoke flu-ent English. They smoked andtalked and sipped vermouth inlittle whisky glasses. "And then hesaid he had to go back to work,"Ms. Demerson said. "He asked if:be could kiss me. I said okay. Hekissed me lightly on the lips,"

Whenever they went out, ''strangers gave them dirty looks" sodates consisted of talking in hisroom. He gave her a key andbought her a pair of blue beadedChinese slippers. Once in a while,they walked to Chinatown undercover of darkness. "It was the mostromantic thing I ever did:"

A year later, she went back toNew Brunswick to visit her grand-mother. Mr. Yip wrote, proposingmarriage. She wrote back to sayyes. She was 18. All along, she hadbeen using a contraceptivesponge, but thinks she got care-less. "Or maybe I just didn't care. Iwas crazy about this guy."

When she returned to Toronto,she moved in With him. Hermother called her father, who ar-rived with two police officers. Itwas May 3, J939, and she and Mr.Yip were having breakfast.

"Is that her?" '"Yes,': her Jather said, "that's

her."

. . .According to her arrest record,

Ms. 'Demerson was 5 foot 2 and=~

weighed 102 pounds. At the court-".. house, a woman took her into an. j

J~)fficemarked,"Barri§ter.':Ms. De-Imerson answered questIOn after,'question - until the woman asked Vnow many men shehad slept with."Then I knew she wasn't alawyer.Then I knew I had to defend myboyfriend. I knew that much."

Ms. Demerson named two pre-vioqs boyfriends. But hoping tosave herself from prison, she re-vealed what she 'hadn't even toldMr. Yip: She was three monthspregn1!llt. .

She had unwittingly providedevidence ,of incorrigibility. At herhearing, the policeman testifiedthat he had found per !.n her paja-mas apd Mr. Yip in his bathrobe. "Iwas so embarrassed. I blurted out,'I'll get married if you'll just let meout of here.' I was trying to savemy honour."

Alas, a penchant for miscegena-tion was additional proof of "in-conigibility." The judge sentenced

i l}entoa year in Belmont Home" achurch-run prison for Protestantwomen. Originally known as theMagdalene Refuge after the Bible'smost famous fallen woman, it wasoperated like the infamous Maga-dalene laungnes in Ireland..

Even Th()ugIlTIleinmates tppedfor free, the Belmont laundry waslosing money, and sjx weeks afterMs. Demerson arrived, it closed.She was transferred to the Andrew

i Mercer Reformatory on KingStreet West. That first day, theprison doctor performed mass pel-vic exams on 47'newly transferred

inmates, a procedure designed forimaximum humiliation.' One in-mate was pregnant - and deaf.Ms. Demerson remembered 'thedoctor, in her 50s, gouging theyoung woman's uterine canal witha speculum., .

"She started to cry and cry. Wehad to stand there and watcn.Then it was my turn." Ms. Demer-son ey,es filled0with tears. Askedwhat happened to her, she ~ouldonly shake her head. "That god-damn doctor,'? she breathed. "Shedidn't want either baby."

The former army surgeon atWomen's College Hospital alsowas a prominent member of sev-eral eugenics committees of theday. Ms. Demerson said she en-dured regular assaults, until thedoctor left after an inmate died.

That year, only her moilier vis-ited her. Mr. Yip, a non-relative,was not even permitted to write.Silence was enforced 23 hours aday. Violators were put on breadand water in punishment cells inthe basement. '

"You could neyer talk in theMercer," said Ms. Demerson, whohemmed towels in the pris!:>llfac-tory for six cents a day, six days a.week. The seventh day, she at-tended church services.

She could stand in the centre ofher pa91ocked cell and touch bothsides at once. Her toilet was abucket. There were no clocks ornewspapers, but inmates got Col-gate tooth powder and a bar ofIvory soap.

Sunday dinner was beans and

~

?

G)

b

bologpa. Weekday, suppers ,were;"cornstarch pudding. Oilier girls aSrtyoung as 14 gave Ms. Demersonthe milk from t;he bottom of theirfImorning porridge. When she went~into lapour one dawn, they rattled:iitb,eir cell doors until the matron!itcame running. , ~"

Ms. Demerson gave birth alone'Iiafter 18 hours of labour, at To-ronto General Hospital. On the"12th day, she mused her baby,,~theJ? wrapped herself in a sheet Jand escaped, She went straight to"Mr. Yip's rooming house, but if'"

~ was,m darkness. She called herl~mother, who took her back to the~hospital. Later, she discovered aY;letter in Alice Demerson's hand-~.writing, authorizing the doctors to}sterilize her daughter. \:.,

Ms. Demerson was sent back tojail with her baby. Three months,.later, he vanished from the priSOQ~nursery. It was the only time sh~1cried. "They told me. he went to ,"Ithe hospital and I had to run after:~them to get them to tell me that." ;

Freed two Iponths early when~King George IV visited Toronto",she and Mr. Yip found their son in;~the Hospital for Sick Children and .took llim home. " ",.'- ".. - .. ,~ ,',' 'I'

But their marriage was doomed'by her prison experience. It lasted~~.only three years. And white Cana~Jdian society never accepted Harri,ll-Yip Jr. In the e~ly 1950s, Ms. Dell>mersoI). took him to Hong Kong tOoTlearn Chinese, but he forgot every-:.thing when he returned to To:ronto. At that point, she said, sh~1completely lostcontaet with his~father. '

She, bec;:ame a secretary and'g:eveq,tually remarried, this time toa white man, with whom she had£tWo children. On his deathbed, herg

, '5father deemed her respectable at.last and sent her a plane ticket, to"HSaint John on condition she say~nothing about her firsfmarriage. Of

But now she is talking. Despiteeverything, her sense of humou{lremaiIls intact. She hasn't seen My5Big Fat Greek Wedding, but shenotes with a smile that she still'>1uses Colgate tooth powder. 'n

, The Mercer was closed in 1969~The Belmont is now an upscale re-tirement home. Asked if she hasINconsidered moving' into it again,nshe laughed softly. "Not likely."" J1

'7