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It was the only story I have ever covered that made me furious.

Not just angry or frustrated, but tears-in-my-eyes outraged.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Graham Thomson: Leilani Muir helped shine light on Alberta's dark past Back to video

It was March 10, 1998, and the government of then-premier Ralph Klein introduced a bill to override the rights of Albertans forcibly sterilized by the province’s old eugenics law.

Under that law, between 1928 and 1972, Alberta sterilized more than 2,800 young Albertans after declaring them “defective” and unfit to produce children.

In the 1920s and 30s, some jurisdictions around the world — including Nazi Germany — embarked on eugenics programs to improve society by eliminating “defectives” from the gene pool through forced sterilization.

It was a disgraceful chapter in Alberta’s history, but largely forgotten until one of the victims, Leilani Muir, launched a lawsuit against the Alberta government and won a $740,000 settlement in 1996.

Muir died last weekend at age 71.