610. British Home Children – A Sad History – 2016

They have been in the news recently. A February 27 story in the Toronto Star. Unmarked graves discovered in Etobicoke. An upcoming exhibition at Black Creek Pioneer Village. An entry in the Irish Film Festival on March 5 and the Toronto Short Film Festival on March 15. Look for “Forgotten”.

From 1869 to the late 1930s, British authorities sent over 100,000 indigent children to Canada. Here they lived and work as farmhands and domestics. Their hosts badly exploited many of them. At least one of them is still alive. Hockey’s Don Cherry is a descendant. Interested people are trying to raise money for a monument in the Park Lawn cemetery, the final resting place for 75 of these “Barnardo” children.

Each month since November, 2013, the British Home Children Advocacy & Research Association has created some very interesting newsletters about the children. These should be of interest especially to people of British origin but to other immigrants as well. You can read these online at:  http://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/. You can subscribe at: info@britishhomechildren.com. The Star article is at: http://on.thestar.com/21pMIyU. Ruth.