to repeal the Sexual Sterilization Act. Background Canadian National Committee for Mental Health In 1918, psychiatrists C.K. Clarke and C. Hincks established the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene (CNCMH). The CNCMH was a self-appointed body of experts available for consultation regarding mental health issues. The Committee claimed that institutionalization of mental degenerates was both expensive and ineffective and promoted the use of preventative measures. The group was active in working for the testing of students and construction of training schools for mental defectives. In addition, they advocated tougher inspection and restriction of immigrants. Mental health survey Perhaps the most influential resource for rationalizing sterilization in the Province of Alberta came in the form of a mental health survey. In 1919, Dr. Hincks, professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and specialist on mental diseases, conducted a survey of the province. His goal was to formulate a treatment and training plan for the mentally deficient that would best serve society. The survey involved a review of facilities for the mentally abnormal. The results were published in the 1921 report entitled Mental Hygiene Survey of the Province of Alberta. The report notes that those who suffer from a mental defect or mental disorder are rightly regarded as social liability and recommends careful screening of immigrants and the use of sexual sterilization to control the abnormal population. Dr. Hincks's committee describes a causal link between mental abnormality and immorality (illegitimacy, criminality, prostitution, dependency). The suggestion that bad behaviour and sexual immorality were directly related to mental deficiency gave rise to concern by the public and politicians that these individuals posed a threat to society. In addition, the committee assumed that mental abnormality could be detected early in life with various test instruments. In the course of their examination, they also reviewed student behaviour at the elementary level by administering intelligence quotient tests to children who had been described by their teachers as “troublesome, mischief-makers or general disturbers.” According to the committee, the tests revealed that such troublesome children were more prone to possess low I.Q. Further, the children were interviewed and a conclusion was reached that these same troublesome children also possessed less sound moral values. It wasn't until much later that the I.Q. tests would be recognized as culturally biased. United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta, an agricultural lobbying group, responded quickly to the survey and called