immigrantchildren.ca

2010 has been designated as Year of the British Home Child in Canada. It commemorates the child emigration scheme that brought over 100,000 children from Britain to Canada from 1826 to 1939. The plan was sold to Canadians as a way to support children who were orphaned and living in poverty. A great many of these children came to Canada and served as farm labourers and domestic servants and endured lives of abuse from the people who acquired them. immigrantchildren.ca has been vocal about the importance of Canada’s acknowledgment of the wrongs committed against these children and has called for a formal apology from the Federal government. In November, the British government apologized to the home children.

immigrantchildren.ca will maintain this page on the home children and link related items over 2010. Please send any information, news, resources or events you come across that you’d like to see included to zs dot worotynec at utoronto dot ca or leave a reply/comment.

News

Dec 7/09 ~ MP Phil McColeman’s December 7th  Private Members bill receives unanimous consent to designate 2010 as The Year of the British Home Child across Canada.

Dec 20/09 ~ Vaughntoday.ca Keep children in mind this holiday

Dec 21/09 ~ Peterborough Examiner: Peterborough’s home children go beyond Barnardo’s

Dec 26/09 ~ Toronto Star: Dear Charlie, we’re sorry: What, if anything, does Canada owe ‘home children’?

Jan 3/10 ~ The Nova Scotian: Canada’s children of the empire

Jan 15/10 ~ The National Post: Sorry isn’t always the right word

Jan 27/10 ~ Canadian Cattleman: Canada marks “Year of the British Home Child”

Feb 20/10 ~ The Globe and Mail: A burden to Britain, ‘trash’ in Canada: A stain on Colonial ties

Feb 24/10 ~ CBC: Home children to get formal apology from British PM

Feb 24/10 ~ Number10.gov.UK: From the official site of the Prime Minister’s Office “Statement on child migrants”.

Related story: Apr 13/10 ~ Polish Orphans of Tenegru. Book launch of the account of “orphaned” children, moved through Italy and Germany to Canada post WWII, despite protests of the Polish government and the International Refugee Organisaiton that the children were being used to serve as slave labour on Canadian farms and in Canadian factories.

July 1/10 ~ On Sept 1, 2010, Canada Post will issue a stamp in recognition of the British Home Child. From the Canada Post catalogue: “The stamp features an image of the SS Sardinian (a ship that carried children from Liverpool to Quebec), a map symbolizing their cross-Atlantic journey, a photograph of a child at work on a farm and one of a rewly arrived Home Child, standing beside a suitcase while en route to a distributing home in Hamilton, Ontario”.

July 28/10 ~ UK Child emigrants get now seek reunion funds. Follow up to former PM Gordon Brown’s apology; now compensation for past injustices done to UK children who were “resettled”.

Aug 30/10 ~ Hail the ‘home children’, who survived by the sweat of their innocent brows.

Resources

Library and Archives Canada Home Children (1869-1930)

Pier 21

Young Immigrants to Canada: Emigration as a Solution (University of Waterloo)

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa

Canadian Encyclopedia entry on home children

British Home Children

Intute: Should we apologize for child migrants?

The British Home Children ~ a private individual’s comprehensive site on the home children