But the history of this case, fraught with many interesting twists and turns, is also telling. Consider one of the items of external evidence reviewed by the Privy Council, the case of Lizzie Cyr.

In 1917, Alice Jamieson, one of only two female magistrates in the British Empire at the time, heard the case of Lizzie Cyr. Jamieson convicted Cyr of vagrancy and sentenced her to six months of ...