First woman on banknote is from Nova Scotia

Viola Desmond has been chosen as the first woman to be on a Canadian banknote, replacing John A. MacDonald, on the $10 bill.

Desmond decided to sit in the whites only section of a movie theatre in New Glasgow in 1946 and was arrested. After that she went on to be a civil rights activist.

Professor Isaac Saney, a senior instructor in black studies at Dalhoiusie hopes her story will help teach people the unsanitized version of Canadian history including slavery and institutionalized racism.