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15 Windsor Y.B. Access Just. 3 (1996)
Gretta Wong Grant: Canada's First Chinese-Canadian Female Lawyer

handle is hein.journals/windyrbaj15 and id is 7 raw text is: GRETTA WONG GRANT: CANADA'S FIRST CHINESE-CANADIAN FEMALE LAWYER by Constance Backhouse This article considers the life and career of Gretta Wong Grant, the first woman of Chinese heritage to become a lawyer in Canada. Called to the bar of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1946, she came from a prominent Chinese-Canadian family in London, Ontario. The article discusses Gretta Wong Grant's family background, education, marriage to a white lawyer and legal career. It explores the social and legal context in which this woman grew up, and considers how racism was manifested against the Chinese in Canada. The author also attempts to provide a comprehensive account of the Canadian legislation and case law relevant to issues of racial discrimination against the Chinese prior to 1950. Gretta Wong Grant, la premiere avocate canadienne de descendance chinoise Cet article trace la vie et la carri~re de Gretta Wong Grant, la premiere femme de descendance chinoise a devenir avocate au Canada. Refue au barreau en 1946 par la Socigtj du barreau du Haut-Canada, elle est sortie d'une famille canadienne-chinoise bien en vue de London (Ontario). L'auteure prisente les origines de Mme Grant, son 9ducation, son mariage 6 un avocat blanc et sa carrikre juridique. Elle examine le contexte social et juridique oat cettefemme a grandi et rappelle lesformes qu'a prises, ci cette epoque, le racisme anti-chinois au Canada. Elle tente enfin de dgcrire de fa~on comprohensive la legislation et la jurisprudence canadiennes pertinen- tes 6 la question de la discrimination raciale contre les Chinois, telles qu 'elles dtaient avant 1950. At the Law Society of Upper Canada's fall Convocation in Toronto in 1946, Gretta Jean Wong stood to receive her call to the bar. In doing so, she appears to have become the first woman of Chinese descent to join the profession of law in Canada.' She did so one year after Kew Dock Yip's * Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario. I am indebted to Professor Bruce Ryder, who very generously shared his detailed research on British Columbia anti-Asian law with me, and to my research assistants, Anna Feltracco, Alexandra Hartmann, Kevin Misak, Signa Daum Shanks, Anne Eichenberg, and Jennifer Hall. Funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada is gratefully acknowledged. I Gretta Grant: A Front-Row Spectator for Changing Times, London Free Press En- counter Magazine (24 August 1986) at 3-4. Several factors make it difficult to claim certainty about this. No one purported to keep racial data on bar admission candidates in any of the provinces, so there is no way to obtain any official designation. In addition, racial designations are complex and subject to changing social and historical constructions: for a more detailed discussion, see C. Backhouse, The White Women's Labour Laws: Anti-Chinese Racism in Early Twentieth-Century Canada (forthcoming) Law and History Rev. From all we have been able to determine, Gretta Wong Grant and I currently believe she was the first female Chinese-Canadian lawyer. There may have been others who preceded Gretta Wong Grant, but to date no one has made similar claims. (1996), 15 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice

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