Alberta Legacy For Disability Rights

1800’s

The institutional period. It is generally agreed upon that it was in the late 1800s, when industrialization in Canada was rapidly growing, that public concern regarding disability emerged.

1800

1900’s-1960’s

The medical field developed substantial improvements in technology to help people with disabilities

1900

Since the original Canadian immigration legislation of 1869, iterations of the Immigration Act included entry restriction towards people lacking certain capacities, mostly regarding people who had infectious diseases

1906

1907

The act referred to people with disabilities as “insane and dangerous to the community”

1907

1911

The Alberta Hospital for the Insane opened in Ponoka

1911

1916

The Government of Alberta enacts the Lunatics’ Estates Act.

1916

A conference of Cabinet Ministers of the four western provinces led to the decision to develop a specialized hospital in each province.

1916

1921

A survey about mental health was published by the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene (CNCMH)

1921

1922

An Occupational Therapy department was established in 1922

1922

1923

The building in Red Deer that originally served as the Alberta Ladies’ College, and then as a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked soldiers, was converted into the Provincial Training School for Mental Defectives (PTS).

1923