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Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
File No. 341870 · Adjudicated
Viola Desmond
Entrepreneur — 1946 Roseland Theatre segregation protest, Canadian $10 bill
Born
1914
Birthplace
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
Citizenships
CA
Canadianness Score
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
5.0/ 5
Weighted across 2 scored criteria
Designation
Bleeds Maple Syrup 🍁Born, raised, and still says “out for a rip” unironically.
Scorecard
Path A — born on Canadian soilI. Origin
Born on Canadian soil — yes
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA
Canadian parentage — not scored
No Canadian parents on record
Citizenship on record — not scored
Automatic by birth
II. Residency
Formative years spent in Canada — yes
Raised — Nova Scotia
Lived in Canada by choice — not scored
Residency on record as an adult
Worked or filmed in Canada — not scored
Credits filed north of the 49th
III. Cultural evidence — not scored
Section III is recorded for the file only. Birth on Canadian soil already settles the matter.
Publicly claims to be Canadian — not scored
Says so, out loud
Canada claims them back — not scored
Claimed, enthusiastically
Fun fact
She's the first Canadian woman to appear solo on a regularly circulating Canadian banknote
The verdict
Born and raised in Halifax, she became a pioneering beautician and civil rights icon who challenged racial segregation in a New Glasgow cinema in 1946 — nine years before Rosa Parks. Canada eventually honoured her as the first woman to appear alone on a banknote, the $10 bill, in 2018.
Adjudicated by
The Standings Committee
Status
Final — appealable
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References — en.wikipedia.org