Demerson, Velma, 1920-2019

Velma Demerson (September 4, 1920 – May 13, 2019) was a Canadian woman who was imprisoned in 1939 in Ontario for being in a relationship with a Chinese immigrant, Harry Yip. She wrote the book Incorrigible in her sixties about her experiences and spent the rest of her life in campaigning for an apology and restitution for all women who had been incarcerated under the Female Refuges Act, the law that imprisoned her for being "incorrigible." It provided a reason that was formulated for police to arrest women who failed to comply with the status quo in Canadian society at the time. In her nineties, she also wrote and self-published a historical fiction book "Nazis in Canada" about the doctor who performed unusual treatments on her and other women in the Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women. Demerson won an apology and compensation from the government when she was in her eighties.