Career
Demerson, a Caucasian woman, was arrested at the home of her fiancé, Harry Yip by police acting on a tip from Demerson"s parents who disapproved of their daughter"s actions. Pregnant with Yip"s baby, she was convicted of being "incorrigible" under an 1897 law the Female Refuges Acting. lieutenant allowed the government to arrest and institutionalize women between the ages of 16 and 35 for behaviour such as promiscuity, pregnancy out of wedlock and public drunkenness.
lieutenant was not repealed until 1964.
Demerson was incarcerated at the Mercer Reformatory for Women in Toronto for a period of ten months. She was also subjected to several involuntary medical procedures by a reformatory doctor, a leading eugenics practitioner searching for evidence of physical deficiencies contributing to the moral defectives of "unmanageable women." However, an application for Chinese citizenship was denied by Chinese embassy officials and she remained officially stateless until 2004.
Under the terms of the 1947 Citizenship Acting a woman who applied to have her citizenship returned would receive lieutenant Velma Demerson applied on November 13, 1948.
She was finger-printed and given a "Declaration of Intention" to sign.
This was an incorrect form signed by at least four persons. She was denied citizenship. In 2002, she sued the Ontario Government for pain and suffering during her incarceration.
The Ontario Superior Court refused to hear the case, citing that the Ontario government is immune to lawsuits stemming from incidents prior to 1964.
In late 2002 however, she settled out of court, receiving an apology and an undisclosed financial compensation from the provincial government. Velma was one of the only survivors who, 60 years after her incarceration at the Andrew Mercer Reformatory in 1939, received compensation from the Ontario government.
She was 81 by then
