British Columbia Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene report

November 18, 1925. On this date, William Sloan, Provincial Secretary in British Columbia, made bold and thorough allegations against the government for their mismanagement of the “mentally unfit” in the province. The legislative assembly responded with a motion to strike a committee on mental hygiene, and passed unanimously (Menzies, 2002, p.384-387). Ultimately, the commission endorsed eugenic measures for the "mentally unfit," demonstrating active interest in eugenics in British Columbia well before the province's Sexual Sterilization Act was passed in 1933.

The committee was appointed to investigate and report on five key items:
1) The reasons for the increase in the number of patients maintained in the Provincial Mental Hospital and branches thereof:
2) The causes and prevention of lunacy in the province generally;
3) The entry into the Province of insane, mentally deficient, and subnormal persons;
4) The care and treatment of subnormal children;
5) All such other matters and things relating to the subject of insanity , especially as they affect the Province of British Columbia, as the said committee may deem pertinent to their inquiry.

In it survey, the Committee made six recommendations, which included the promotion of sterilization for individuals in mental institutions. The Committee stated that these individuals could be removed from institutional life and returned to the community if “the danger of procreation with its attendant risk of multiplication of the evil by transmission of the disability to progeny were eliminated” (Province of British Columbia, 1927).

Full report available as a PDF download from the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia here.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Province of British Columbia. (1927). Report of the Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene. Victoria, BC: Charles F. Banfield, Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty.

  • Menzies, R. (2002). “Unfit” citizens and the B.C. Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene, 1925-28. In A. Adamoski, D.E. Chunn, & R. Menzies (Eds.), Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings. Peterborough ON: Broadview Press.

British Columbia Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene report

November 18, 1925. On this date, William Sloan, Provincial Secretary in British Columbia, made bold and thorough allegations against the government for their mismanagement of the “mentally unfit” in the province. The legislative assembly responded with a motion to strike a committee on mental hygiene, and passed unanimously (Menzies, 2002, p.384-387). Ultimately, the commission endorsed eugenic measures for the "mentally unfit," demonstrating active interest in eugenics in British Columbia well before the province's Sexual Sterilization Act was passed in 1933.

The committee was appointed to investigate and report on five key items:
1) The reasons for the increase in the number of patients maintained in the Provincial Mental Hospital and branches thereof:
2) The causes and prevention of lunacy in the province generally;
3) The entry into the Province of insane, mentally deficient, and subnormal persons;
4) The care and treatment of subnormal children;
5) All such other matters and things relating to the subject of insanity , especially as they affect the Province of British Columbia, as the said committee may deem pertinent to their inquiry.

In it survey, the Committee made six recommendations, which included the promotion of sterilization for individuals in mental institutions. The Committee stated that these individuals could be removed from institutional life and returned to the community if “the danger of procreation with its attendant risk of multiplication of the evil by transmission of the disability to progeny were eliminated” (Province of British Columbia, 1927).

Full report available as a PDF download from the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia here.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Province of British Columbia. (1927). Report of the Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene. Victoria, BC: Charles F. Banfield, Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty.

  • Menzies, R. (2002). “Unfit” citizens and the B.C. Royal Commission on Mental Hygiene, 1925-28. In A. Adamoski, D.E. Chunn, & R. Menzies (Eds.), Contesting Canadian Citizenship: Historical Readings. Peterborough ON: Broadview Press.