Memorandum by Home Children Canada
Child Migration (CM31A)—Home Children
Canada
CONTENTS
| Section I | Profile of presenter J A David Lorente (Chair and Founder of Home Children
Canada)
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| Section II | Home Children Canada—Its raisons d'etre
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| Section III | Reasons for this brief
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| Section IV | Recommendations
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| Section V | By and about Canadian Home Children—A Potpourri of Facts and Quotes
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| Section VI | The stigma of being a Home Child; its residual effects on successive
Generations
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| Section VII | Replacing the stigma with pride—Extracts from open letters to Canadian
Home Children reunions from
Prime Minister Chretien
Governor General Hnatyshyn
Governor General Le Blanc
The Minister of Canadian Heritage
Archbishop Gervais of Ottawa
Princess Diana (not printed)
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Addenda | |
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| Addendum A | Home Children Canada Researcher's Kit
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| Addendum B | The stigma—a Home Child's daughters describe its effect
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| Addendum C | Britons never shall be slaves—"an Odiferous Ode on Juvenile Immigration"
(not printed)
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| Addendum D | Banished to Canada—by Perry Snow, Clinical Psychologist (not printed)
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1. PROFILE OF
THE PRESENTER: David
Lorente, is Chair and with his wife Kay, founder of Home Children
Canada. Both are retired teachers and university lecturers. David
is also a Major (Army Res—ret'd) and son of a Home Child.
In the last eight years, he has:
(a) responded to over 5,000 requests for help in tracing
Home Children records;
(b) travelled thousands of miles to meet Home Children
and their descendants;
(c) organised or helped organise Home Children Reunions
in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia; others are scheduled
for Manitoba and the Maritimes;
(d) worked closely with agencies abroad, especially Barnardos,
Quarriers, the Church of England and Roman Catholic agencies in
London, Purley, Birmingham and Liverpool;
(e) has invited British guest speakers from these agencies
and a British University to attend Home Children Canada Reunions
(and they have come at their own expense);
(f) has been recognised as North America's one-stop source
of information on child migrants (cf Collette Bradford of Barnardos
After Care);
(g) has been made an Honorary Old Boy (#40) by Barnardos;
(h) erected the first historical plaque in Canada to
commemorate Home Children;
(i) researched Child Migration and its effects at home
and abroad;
(j) has been awarded a 1997 Commemorative Medal by the
Federal Government for his work with Home Children and their descendants;
(k) has worked as an advocate for Home Children, e.g.
in getting "classification";
(l) has spearheaded erection of a provincial plaque commemorating
Home Children;
(m) has united families and friends; and
(n) has done this without charge and at his own expense.
2. HOME CHILDREN
CANADA: ITS
RAISONS D'ETRE Our
Researcher's Kit (attached as Addendum A) gives the historical
background of child migration to Canada. It also states our aims,
goals, and some objectives and touches on the effects of the horrible
stigma inflicted on Home Children, and how we are trying to replace
that stigma with pride. Suffice to say here our four aims are:
(a) to help Home Children locate their records;
(b) to tell the suppressed or forgotten Home Children
story;
(c) to erase the stigma so unfairly inflicted on Home
Children; and
(d) to replace that stigma with pride.
3. REASONS FOR
THIS BRIEF
1. To inform Committee members about an overlooked, forgotten
or suppressed episode in British and Canadian history.It is
our experience that Britons and Canadians—even the Members
of our Parliament and Senators to whom we have spoken, know little
or nothing about that part of our social history concerned with:
(a) child migration;
(b) its effect on Home Children; and
(c) its effect on successive generations.(It is also
our perception that what is "known" is often little
more than myth or mere pious piffle.)
2. To ensure that your Committee does not exclude from
your agenda child migrants shipped out of Britain to Canada before
1939.
3. To distinguish between Home Children and child evacuees
because both deserve your consideration but you should know what
experiences they have in common and what they do not share.
4. To further ensure that Committee members are made aware
that the vast majority (two-thirds), or 100,000 child migrants
shipped from Britain were sent to Canada before the Great Depression
and that:
(a) many are alive today and all too often...
(b) they still suffer the consequences of having "slipped
through the cracks" of the Canadian and British social nets
when the British agencies closed their "homes" in Canada
and returned with their records and bank accounts to Britain;
(c) child migration for children under school age was
stopped in Canada in 1924 for less than altruistic reasons;
(d) adherents of the pseudo-science of eugenics in Britain
and in North America imposed a terrible stigma on child migrants,
with the awesome result that to a person they were ashamed to
mention their past often even to their own spouses and families;
(see paragraph (g) for more details on this stigma); and
(e) in the last eight years they have been given a forum
to tell their story and Home Children Canada has consciously sought
to replace their stigma with pride by enlisting the aid of such
people as Princess Diana, our Prime Minister and other dignitaries.
As a result virtually all those who have been in touch with Home
Children Canada now speak with pride of being quiet heroes who
contributed significantly to their new homeland. (see paragraph
(f)).
5. To offer a perspective on the effects of child migration
that might not otherwise be available to you if only because I
have personal experience in Canada dealing with thousands of requests.
Not just Canada, but also from the British Isles, Mexico, Australia,
New Zealand and the USA.
6. To assuage any fears that Home Children in Canada and
their descendants might constitute a legal threat (as their Australian
cousins have).NB: At a Reunion of Home Children and descendants
in Renfrew, Ontario, in 1993 a motion was made from the floor
and passed unanimously. It is the only motion ever made at a Home
Children Canada Reunion:
Whereas we are glad to be in Canada, and whereas we are proud
to call ourselves Canadians, therefore be it resolved that we
shall never ask for restitution, retribution or even an apology
for the ills that we have suffered...
All we ask is easier access to our records (in Britain).
7. To emphasise strongly, that regardless of the above
(paragraph (f)), Home Children and their families still suffer
serious legal, financial and emotional or psychological consequences
as a result of child migration and... that the British government
can help rectify the situation by acting on the recommendations
we have made.
8. To impress upon Committee members that the greatest
sin of child migration was the inflicting of a stigma upon all
Home Children—a stigma that was terrible in its consequences
and yet also built upon the fifteen emotional phases the children
had to pass through as a result of loss and separation (Kubler-Ross)
and also on the abuse that 67 per cent are known to have suffered.
10. To implore that you include in your final report a recognition
of the consequences of loss and separation, abuse and the stigma,
because by merely doing so you will greatly alleviate the heavy
burden so little immigrants and their descendants still bear.
10. To dare to advise what steps you can take in "the
old country" and in the former colonies to rectify the problems
of today that are the result of the certainties of yesterday (see
"Recommendations"). Also to advise that you could perhaps
make use of the brief on Irish Child Migrants which Dick Spring,
TD, former Minister for Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Ireland,
has already submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs, St.
Stephen's Green, Dublin.
11. To invite you as a Committee or as individuals to come
to Canada to meet Home Children and their descendants and hear
for yourself that what I say on their behalf is true, and if that
is impossible...
12. To commend PM Blair's government for taking the initiative
to form such a Committee as yours.
13. To thank you for this opportunity to have input.
14. To wish you the greatest success possible.
15. To say that my wife and I are willing to go to you
to speak to this brief if you feel what we might have to say is
challenging enough to be worthwhile.
4. SOME RECOMMENDATIONS The
first two, we feel, are critical. The others are in random order.
We are willing to go to Britain to speak to any or all of these. 1. Urgent
(a) Direct funds to those agencies in the UK or abroad
that have the child migrant (Home Children) records, viz. the
Church of England, Quarriers, the Catholic Church, the Salvation
Army, Fegans, etc and especially Barnardos (who have 50 per cent
of the 100,000 child migrant personal files; the Catholic Church
has approximately 30,000—most on cardex).
(b) Rationale:
It is well and good to direct funds to other agencies
interested in uniting families etc, but anything good that is
done relating to all Home Children hinges on easy access to personal
records. Such dossiers are the most direct and cost effective
means of accessing birth and baptismal certificates, Poor Law
Union Records, and information re siblings and parents (marriage
certificates, military records, residences, etc.). Except for
Barnardos, I fear they are currently in agencies which, for the
most part, put a low priority—if indeed any at all—on
releasing personal Home Children records. It must also be said
of Barnardos that so great is the demand for personal records
that they have a back-log of over 3,000 and a turn-around response
time of over one year. An this, in spite of more than doubling
their staff. An anguished Collette Bradford, Head of After Care
at Barnardos, can confirm that many Home Children die before their
request for personal records is answered. This should not be!
(c) Barnardos After Care should get priority in funding.
Such funds should be clearly designated to be used only for facilitating
access to Home Children information.
(d) NB: The above does not preclude continuing
to fund The Child Migrant Trust, and even increase its funding.
It does commendable work. But be aware that its mandate virtually
excludes Canadians. Founder Margaret Humphreys told us when we
met to discuss the Canadian Home Child situation that she had
little time or fiscal resources to devote to Canadians. She repeats
this in her book "Empty Cradles" on page 133:
"Canada was immensely sad for me because it
represented a generation of people I knew I could do little to
help; it was far too late for them. I'd do what I could, of course,
by finding their birth certificates and locating where their parents
were buried...Events in Australia were so recent and appalling,
and my resources were so limited, that I decided that I would
immediately focus my attention there."2. It is not
"too late to do something for Canadians". Fund a Foundation
in each of the former colonies to which Home Children were sent—Canada
included. Home Children Canada's founders would be glad to serve
as unpaid advisors to such a body in Canada if invited to do so.
We are also willing to turn over all our records, lists, etc to
such a Foundation in Canada and to assist in any research projects
and promotions. The Foundation in Canada could be in Ottawa (home
of National Archives and Library) and perhaps operate out of the
British High Commission.3. Employ more computer literate,
compassionate social workers to work in agencies that have records
and lack the staff to answer queries re child migrants. And pay
them to compile databases as part of their work.4. Subsidise
the cost for all agencies (for a limited number of years) of answering
Home Child inquiries. You might consider working through agencies
and universities to set up a system rather like the Irish Genealogical
Record scheme which has given a great boost to employment and
tourism.5. For a designated period of time (eg 10 years)
set up an official or office in each of the former colonies to
which the children were sent (Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
South Africa etc). (This assumes that you are not going to act
on Recommendation (2).)
(a) Ensure that that person or office has direct links
with the agencies abroad who have sent children to Canada.
(b) Advertise that the office/official is in place to
facilitate the release of information about child migrants in
that country.
(c) Have a 1-800 number so that persons far afield in
each country can communicate easily and at no cost to them. Also
have a web-page and snail and e-mail addresses.6. Subsidise
and facilitate the research relating to child migration that is
being done in the UK and especially in former colonies, eg, at
the National Archives of Canada which, with an outside group of
volunteers, is compiling a list of all juvenile migrants who came
between 1869 and 1935. This will be put on the internet when complete.
Meanwhile it can be accessed in-house at the National Archives
of Canada or by phoning.7. Use the internet to advantage:
(a) Have a web site to show the world the British Government's
concern. Post your committee's report on it... and give progress
reports to show what progress you are making in meeting your goals.
(b) Feature "hot-keys" on your web page that
connect the user immediately with any of the Home Children.8.
Require that all agencies once involved in child migration
compile a list of all holdings pertaining to Home Children records
and the history/management of their organisation.
9. Require that each agency have a web site which will
provide the aforementioned information (paragraph 8) and details
on how to access it (eg include request for information forms,
a brief history, a list of "homes", snail-mail and e-mail
addresses, phone/fax numbers etc).
(a) Should an agency once involved in child migration
choose not to participate then require that their files be turned
over to one that will ... ensure that there will be a substantial
penalty should an agency default, fail to comply or direct funds
to other projects. (There is ample precedent for an agency taking
over another's records: Barnardos has the records of Macpherson,
Sharman, The Children's Aid etc.) 10. Ensure that Home Children
information suppressed by some agencies is made available by them—(including
the "missing" records of child migrants or those falsified
to protect the agency when the child was kidnapped (or "philanthropically
abducted" by Thomas Barnardo) or abused by an agency officials,
or murdered, or involved in a scandal that the agency wished to
suppress, or whose body was never found, etc. In other words,
simply tell it like it was). 11. Admit that, if the reasons
for child migration were valid in 1869, they were not valid in
more "enlightened" times a century later. 12. National
advertising should be used abroad and in former colonies to explain
what Britain has done in the past and how it proposes to address
the problems that have arisen from child migration. Public announcements
should be made in all countries concerned by the ambassador, consulate,
and/or high commissioner. Only then will they get media attention. 13. Inasmuch
as Home Children often lack "classification" in the
country to which they were sent and inasmuch as this discovery
is made at inopportune times (e.g. when turned back on entering
the USA or when the Home Child dies and the surviving spouse cannot
inherit the estate) . . .
(a) put in place machinery to ensure that a British passport
is issued as expeditiously as possible to the Home Child who still
remains a British subject;
(b) set up a special liaison with the proper Canadian
authorities to facilitate the issuing of Canadian citizenship
and passports (should they be requested by the Home Children);
and
(c) prevail upon the governments of the former colonies
to grant unequivocal citizenship "classification" to
Home Children as was done to War Brides who married Canadians
in the 1940s. 14. A chair in child migration should be set
up in at at least one university in Britain (preferably at Liverpool
where records exist) and in each of the countries to which Home
Children were sent. 15. Explode the myths about the whole child
migration story:
Accept the truth of what happened The children were
not all orphans (67 per cent were not) ... reasons for exporting
children were less than altrustic ... agencies and the motherland
did make a handsome profit on each child sent abroad . . . the
Canadian Department of Agriculture offered a bounty for every
child accepted into the country ... women (Rye and Macpherson)
were the true founders of the movement that started in 1869; they
did something when the government did little or nothing ... they
probably modelled their system on the American Orphan Train model
... the children were not all destitute; lists show many were
"non-paupers" ... the "Homes" in England did
not pay for the keep of ALL the children in their care; many children
had their way paid by parents or relatives and friends and in
many cases, when that benevolent person died the child was shipped
overseas almost immediately (so much for altruism!) ... Barnardo
was not a Doctor (his certificate was faked) nor was he founder,
as many suppose, of the Child Migrant Movement ... belief in the
pseudo-science of eugenics (Hitler later became an adherent) was
a factor in getting rid of the children and, in 1924, stopping
the entry of children under age 14, into Canada ... the movement
did not perhaps start in 1869 as generally supposed; Britain began
exporting children as cheap plantation workers to Richmond, Virginia
in 1618 ... the movement also grew out of the abolition of slavery
and the practice of sending people to penal colonies, etc. 16. Help
erase the stigma still felt by many and replace it with pride.
A person can only feel legitimate self-worth and pride if others
feel the same way about her/him. This is why Home Children Canada
has enlisted the support of our Prime Minister, Governors General,
Minister of Canadian Heritage and even Princess Diana to write
open letters to our Reunions. Britain can do no less ... (we have
already asked Prime Minister Tony Blair to write a letter to our
Reunion in Ottawa on 14 June, 1998) . . . An official British
recognition now and then would help too.
(a) issue postage stamps commemorating Home Children. The
themes need not be chilling. Children could be depicted in the
Homes and Children's Villages in the UK . . . boarding ships .
. . being welcomed at the "Homes" in Canada . . .being
picked up by a Canadian farmer at the railway station . . . ploughing,
feeding chicks, bathing young children on the farm . . . even
enlisting in World Wars or re-visiting "the old country"
. . . and meeting long lost relatives.
(b) Enlist the support of former colonies (even Australia)
to do likewise as a Commonwealth project. 17. Co-ordinate
and pay the cost for all agencies with Home Children records to
purchase compatible updated computer systems with scanners so
that extant records can be fed into the same systems to facilitate
retrieval/exchange of information. 18. Waive closure on personal
Home Children files at Kew Gardens so that Home Children or a
person they designate can access such records. Ironically, this
information is available now, in many cases, only to Doctoral
degree candidates who may have no personal connection with Home
Children. (Cf Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys) 19. Convene
a symposium in the UK of all agencies once involved in child migration
and newer ones (e.g. Child Migrant Trust and Home Children Canada)
to ensure that all have a comparable agenda and recognise the
problems involved. 20. Subsidise that symposium (#19). 21. Ensure
that Canadian Home Children are included on your agenda. They
have not been well done by. The recent attention on Australia
is not a valid reason for minimising their situation now. 22. Permit
the National Archives of Canada to end closure on the microfilmed
copies they have of Home Children records in the UK. Permit other
national archives to do the same thing so that Home Children and
their descendants can research their roots in their own country. 23. Require
that agencies which sent children abroad account for what happened
to the children's records is they are missing, incomplete, damaged,
etc. 24. Initiate a cathartic process by making available videos
showing what was done—good and bad— and what the British
Government has done, is doing, and proposes to do about it. In
doing so the British Government would not merely be patting itself
on the back; it would be initiating the first official step in
the cathartic process for Home Children—official recognition
of their worth, and important step in changing stigma to pride. 25. Make
these videos available on the BBC, and to former colonies, institutes,
universities etc. through high commissions, embassies, consulates
(and perhaps even tourist bureaux). 26. Prepare a citation
of sorts for Home Children and, yes, their descendants (the latter
can pay for them). 27. Consider issuing metal pins to the surviving
Home Children and make available plastic copies for descendants
to purchase. The purpose in doing so is simple: to create a recognisable
symbol that can be worn on a lapel or dress or coat that indicates
the person is proud of her/his Home Children roots and is willing
to talk about child migration (and in so doing, change stigma
to pride.) 28. Educate social workers, archivists and agencies
in the UK that queries about Home Children records should be given
priority . . . that they are not just another request for generalogical
records. 29. Initiate the compilation of a common database
of all juvenile migrants. Require that all agencies make available
the names and some specific data about all the children they sent
out of the country. The initiative has already been taken: (A
few years ago Home Children Canada contacted the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Cardinal Hume, and Barnardos about such a project
and we understand that some steps have already been taken by them.
Other agencies might simply be told to be part of the project
and this might require special funding.)
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