Viola Desmond Becomes First Canadian Woman to be Featured on Banknote

Viola-Desmond-Becomes-First-Canadian-Woman- to-be Featured on Banknote . Civil rights activist Viola Desmond has emerged as the first Canadian Woman to be featured on the nations $ 10 Currency note. Canada’s Governor Stephen S. Poloz, Minister of Finance Bill Morneau and Minister of Status of Women Patty Hajdu on December 8, 2016, made the announcement at the

Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.First Women picture in Note. She would replace Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald, on the $10 bill coming into effect in 2018. Desmond, an icon of the human rights and freedoms movement in Canada, was selected from a  list of five iconic Canadian women by Finance Minister Morneau, in accordance with the Bank of Canada Act. The choice of Viola Desmond was felt as she led Canada to become a diverse country where everyone deserves equality and respect. In 1946, Desmond was arrested and jailed for sitting in the whites-only section of a local cinema. The case triggered the civil rights movement in Canada. She was jailed, convicted and fined.

 Her court case was the first legal challenge against racial discrimination by a Black woman in Canada.