Maggie Jane Kerr 27 Sept, 1899 when she was taken away from her father
at the age of 10.
British home children
Over
1000,000 children age 4 - 15
were sent to Canada between 1870 and the early 1930s by
British child care
agencies. The alleged goal was to give these 'orphans' a
better life in
Canada than the one they had in Brittan. What really happened to
thousands of
children is they were pulled from their home often without their
parents’
consent or knowledge, put in an orphanage and then sent to Canada to
work on
the farms and in the homes of Canadians as domestics. They
received
little or no money, many had no education and most never saw their
family in
Britain again. Many siblings, like my grandmother and her sister, were
separated when they reached Canada.
It is sad part of Canadian history. Too many were abused and neglected.
The
British government first opened the home children files to surviving
relatives
and just in February 2010 the British Prime
Minister apologized to all the
home children. (See side bar for a quote).
The Canadian Government however has never apologized for its
role in this
migrant scheme.
After
Australia's apology, Canadian Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney said the Conservative government had no
plans to
apologize. "This is not something that has really
been on the
radar screen," said Kenney. "Obviously, this is a British
policy and the British government is going to take its own decision in
that
respect."
There
are over 3 million descendants of home children living in Canada.
That is about 10% of our population. That includes you if you are
related to
William and Margaret, and me. I applied to receive
documents from
the British government about both Margaret and William's experience.
Theirs is a sad story