Allisonian Firsts: Joan (Bissett) Neiman

Maxine Joan Bissett was born on 20 September 1920 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  She was the daughter of Dr. Edgar Douglas Richmond Bissett (1889/1890-1990) and Katherine Jean Balfour (1886-1974). Dr. Bissett served as a Member of Parliament for the riding of Springfield in Manitoba between 1926 and 1930. Joan was educated in local schools in Pine Falls, Manitoba.

She entered Mount Allison University in the fall of 1937 and completed her Bachelor of Arts with honours in English in 1941.  While in attendance she served as a vice-president of the Mount Allison Players Society, directing several plays, and was manager of the Alpha Beta Society, women’s editor of The Argosy, and was vice-president of the Student Union.

Following graduation she enlisted with the Canadian Armed Forces in 1942 and served with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service as a “Wren” until 1946.  She was discharged as a Lieutenant-Commander. Thereafter, she entered Osgoode Hall Law School and completed her law degree in 1954. She subsequently started a law practice with her husband in downtown Toronto.

On 1 September 1972 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed her to the Canadian Senate for the Ontario senatorial division of Peel.  She chaired the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. In April 1979, she became the first Canadian to be elected to the Human Rights Committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which consisted of members representing over 100 countries. She was elected Vice-President in January 1989 and President in 1990. She alternated between the two positions until 1992. She served in the Senate until her mandatory retirement on 9 September 1995.  She also served as a team member of The Dalhousie Health Law Institute End of Life Project.  In 2006, she was appointed by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to the Citizens Panel on Increasing Organ Donations.

She was married in 1953 to Clemens Michael Neiman (1927-2019).  The couple had the following children: Martha, Dallis, Patti and David. She re-located to Vancouver, British Columbia following her husband's death. She died on 27 November 2022.