Yukon who is who

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Madeleine Anita Marie “Madeleine” Gould, nee Lavigueur (1921 – 2010)
	
Madeleine Gould was born in Saint-Chrysostome, Quebec to a family of seven children. The family moved to Ontario when Madeleine was four. In 1942, Madeleine was working at a small-arms plant that manufactured Sten guns. She attended the company’s monthly dance and met her future husband, Canadian Air Force pilot John Gould. They were married in October 1945, and the next summer Madeleine joined John at his family’s placer mine on Nugget Hill near Dawson.((Kathy Jones-Gates, “Farewell to a true pioneer.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 19 March 2010.))
Madeleine was a tour guide at the Dawson Museum in the 1970s, and for eleven years she and John were owners-operators of the campground/RV park at York Street and Fifth Avenue in Dawson. Madeleine was a busy volunteer and a very active part of the community. She was a founding member of the //Klondike Sun// where she found advertising to keep the community paper going. She was a long-time member of the Community Library Board and volunteered at Robert Service School. In 2000, Madeleine Gould was awarded the Yukon Commissioner’s Award for Volunteer Service.((Kathy Jones-Gates, “Farewell to a true pioneer.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 19 March 2010.))
	
Madeleine was famous outside of her community because of her unsuccessful attempt in 1987 to become a member of the fraternal Yukon Order of Pioneers. Four women applied for membership that year: Madeleine, Margie Fry, Vi Campbell, and Madeleine’s daughter Susan Herrmann. The Yukon Supreme Court rejected the women’s complaint of discrimination. Nine years later the case went to the Supreme Court of Canada but it upheld the Yukon Supreme Court’s decision. The case gained national attention when the //Front Page Challenge// television show was filmed in Dawson and Yukon-born Pierre Berton took off his Yukon Order of Pioneer sash to support Madeleine.((Kathy Jones-Gates, “Farewell to a true pioneer.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 19 March 2010.))
	
Some interesting points were discussed as a result of this case. Did the actions of the Pioneers in excluding Madeleine Gould from membership in the Pioneers on the basis of her gender constitute discrimination within the meaning of the Yukon Human Rights Act? Two points were considered: 1) was the Pioneers’ membership policy discriminatory and 2) was the stated mission of the Pioneers to collect and preserve history distorted because there were no women members. The Act protects minorities and at the time the Yukon population was 46% female. Not all differential treatment is necessarily discriminatory, and the Act confers the right of individuals to form with others associations of any character. The Pioneers’ collection and preservation of history had to be a significant element in the organization’s activities before it could be considered a public service and subject to scrutiny under the Human Rights Act. The Pioneers “historian” kept records, but the major objective of the association was the mutual protection of its members and the uniting of those members in a strong tie of brotherhood. Compelling the Pioneers to alter their conduct would cause an action that the human rights legislation was designed to eradicate.((Court Appeal for the Yukon Territory, docket YU00165. Between Yukon Human Rights Commission and Madeleine Gould and Yukon Order of Pioneers, Dawson Lodge #1 and Walter Groner, 9 March 1993. 2024 website: Gould-v-Yukon-Order-of-Pioneers-Dawson-Lodge-1-and-Groner-and-Yukon-Status-of-Women-Council-1993-Court-of-Appeal-decision.pdf (yukonhumanrights.ca) )) Of course, Pierre Burton’s act of shedding his Pioneer sash was in support of Madeleine being a pioneer – the definition of which was not considered by the courts.