Mr. Speaker, during this Women's History Month, members of this House may be surprised to know that until 1969, it was criminal in Canada for physicians to prescribe oral contraceptives for women for the purpose of contraception. However, some brave physicians who felt that every child should be a wanted child were defying this prohibition before 1969. One of them was Dr. Marion Powell.
Dr. Powell established the first municipally funded birth control clinic in Canada in 1966 when she was the country's first-ever female medical officer of health. I worked with Marion in the 1970s and 1980s when she was director of the Bay Centre for Birth Control, a clinic that is still operated by the Women's College Hospital in Toronto to this day. She was my mentor, and she encouraged me to become a medical officer of health.
As we celebrate Women's History Month, I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Powell for her pioneering work in advancing women's health in Canada.