Human Rights in Film: Sterilization of Leilani Muir Jan. 18

The Sterilization of Leilani Muir (1996)

*with special guest Leilani Muir

January 18, 2015 at 2 pm

Edmonton Public Library, Whitemud Branch

The Sterilization of Leilani Muir is the story of how a Canadian woman’s life was irreparably changed after she was institutionalized and sterilized without her knowledge at 14 years old. Learning of the sterilization only after failed attempts to conceive in her 20’s, Leilani Muir eventually became the first person to file a lawsuit against the Alberta provincial government for wrongful sterilization. This documentary follows Leilani Muir’s search for justice and explores how eugenics (improving hereditary qualities of race through the control of reproduction) became acceptable in the 1900s.