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Suffer the Children: The Tragic Fate of Vulnerable Kids in Canadian Governmental Care

Khalid Elhassan December 14, 2024 13 min

Canada - Children in an Indian Residential School — Children in an Indian Residential School. Encyclopedia Britannica

15. Indian Residential Schools

Canada - Painting by Kent Monkman of the seizure of Indigenous children by Canadian Mounties for placement in Indian Residential Schools — Painting by Kent Monkman of the seizure of Indigenous children by Canadian Mounties for placement in Indian Residential Schools. Pinterest

For about a century and a half, from 1863 to 1998, over 130 Indian Residential Schools were funded by the Canadian government. Until 1969, many of those schools were administered by Christian churches. In 1894, attendance at day schools where available, or boarding schools where day schools were unavailable, was made mandatory for Indigenous children. Many Indigenous communities were too remote for day schools, so boarding schools became the only option for their children. If families refused to part with their kids, the authorities went ahead and forcibly seized them, then placed them in boarding schools.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.