7/30/2019 Topic - The Canadian Family (Prisoner of Love)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/topic-the-canadian-family-prisoner-of-love 1/2

xtyyears ago, VelmaDemersonwas a

eenager caught up in a great romance,

W~NGeports. Then she discovered just ~

ow harsh Canadian law could be. Would"

he have been declared 'incorrigible' andiled had her lover not heen Chinese? To

nd out, she has taken her case to court

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

underarres,!. Desperate,

nantiiJfhe'Iljust free Y,0)l,youmise Ybu'llJnciny the guy. Noe.;¥(jur sentence: one year at :

e labour. "

je Taliban? Nigeria? Pakistan? i

uaIly,Toronto circaJ939. '.errible?TheFewere lots of ter-

e things," said Velma Demer-, who 'gave birth, whilercerated ,under an 1897Onta-law known as the Female Ref-Act. Ms. Demerson, now B2, .hazel eyes, horn-rimmed

ses and soft powdery skin. Shehs quietly, even when re-ting the most terriqle things.

,

r ~e act,

' repeal,

,ed in 1964, '

Irrigible" females "from IS to ,ould be jailed up to two yearseverything from premarital sexpubli~ drunkenness." For Ms.erson, an out-of-wedlock

nancy was proof enough ofin-igibility, but her fiance alsoened to be Chinese. And sofell into a vortex of racism and

al politic~ that. Canadianscan scarcely imagine.

Europe, it was,springtime forr. In Canada, eugenics had a

ectable {following. The yearas arrested, the Cityof Ham-refused to issue mixed-race

iage certificates. In Saskatch-i,.Ontarioi~Manjtobaand Brit-

CQlm:nbia,it was illegal forese or Asian businesses tohite women.

Toronto did issue mixed-race

marriage 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 ofOn-tario seeking compensation for herirnpi\sonment. She is also seekingan apology. '

"There's some chapters in our

past which we're. certainly notproud o~," saidJ3en Hanii)ton, a

spqke~,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. My

Big 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 a

Greek. "She was soproudAvhenmy brother was born bef'luse he

Her father, who had anglicized.his surname from Demetrios,opened an ice cream parlour inSaint John. Alice Demerson

worked 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 ofwhom was out tenant."

~ AliceDemerson moved with hertwo children to Toronto, whereshe read tea leaves and ran a

rooming house across from MapleLeaf Gardens. At 15, Velma wentback to Saint John. Her father's

ne}\' 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 restaurant

Waitressing, though, was {consid-ered too risque. "Fellaswould talkto you at the table,jokewith you."

Soher father had her scrubbingpots and later put her behind thesoda fountain. She remembers a

chemist who hung around askingher for a date. Too shy to talk tohim, she asked the opinion of.awaitress, who saidhe was okay. I

The chemist took her out and

raped her~Shewas 16."Theyneverwarned 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

7/30/2019 Topic - The Canadian Family (Prisoner of Love)

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/topic-the-canadian-family-prisoner-of-love 2/2

Mr. Yip was in his 30s.Mer twoee-ades in Canada, he spoke flu-t English. They smoked andlked and sipped vermouth inttle whisky glasses. "And then heid he had to go back to work,"s. Demerson said. "He asked if

e could kiss me. I said okay. Hesed me lightly on the lips,"Whenever they went out, '

rangers gave them dirty looks" sotes consisted of talking in hisom. He gave her a key andught her a pair of blue beadedhinese slippers. Once in a while,ey walked to Chinatown underver of darkness. "It was the most

mantic thing I ever did:"A year later, she went back to

ew Brunswick to visit her grand-other. Mr. Yip wrote, proposingarriage. She wrote back to says. She was 18. All along, she haden using a contraceptiveonge, but thinks she got care-ss. "Or maybe I just didn't care. Ias crazy about this guy."When she returned to Toronto,e moved in With him. Her

other called her father, who ar-

ved with two police officers. Itas May 3, J939, and she and Mr.p were having breakfast."Is that her?" '

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

. . .According to her arrest record,s. 'Demerson was 5 foot 2 and

hed 102pounds. At the court-"se, a woman took her into an

"Barri§ter.':Ms. De-son answered questIOn after,stion - until the woman asked Vmany men shehad sleptwith.n I knew she wasn't alawyer.

n I knew I had to defend myriend. I knew that much.". Demerson named two pre-

s boyfriends. But hoping toherself from prison, she re-

ed what she 'hadn't even told

Yip: She was three months.

he had unwittingly providedence ,of incorrigibility. At her

ing, the policeman testifiedhe had found per !.nher paja-apd Mr. Yip in his bathrobe. "I

so embarrassed. I blurted out,get married if you'll just let meof here.' I was trying to savehonour."las, a penchant for miscegena-was additional proof of "in-

gibility." The judge sentenced

toa year in Belmont Home" ah-run prison for Protestanten. Originally known as thedalene Refuge after the Bible'st famous fallen woman, it was

ted like the infamous Maga-ne laungnes in Ireland..

EvenTh()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, the

prison 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 the

young 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 a

day. Violators were put on breadand water in punishment cells inthe basement. '

"You could neyer talk in the

Mercer," 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 of

her pa91ocked cell and touch bothsides at once. Her toilet was abucket. There were no clocks or

newspapers, 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 aSrt

young as 14 gave Ms. Demersonthe milk from t;he bottom of theirfI

morning porridge. When she went~

into lapour one dawn, they rattled:ii

tb,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 to

jail 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 ,"I

the 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.Yipfound their son in;~the Hospital for SickChildren 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~1

completely 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"H

Saint John on condition she say~

nothing about her firsfmarriage. OfBut now she is talking. Despite

everything, her sense of humou{lremaiIls intact. She hasn't seen My5

Big Fat Greek Wedding, but shenotes with a smile that she still'>1

uses 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,n

she laughed softly. "Not likely." J1

'7