British “Home Children” in Canada: The Untold Story

Colonization in Canada happened in large part on the backs of over 100,000 poor children sent to this country as indentured servants from the United Kingdom over a 100-year period starting in the 1830s. Supposedly orphans, many of these children were taken from their families on the pretense of giving them a better life in Canada. The boys were placed on farms as labourers and the girls in homes as domestic servants. While some were well treated, many were physically and sexually exploited and abused. The history of these Home Children remains largely unknown to the Canadian public, even though more than four million of us are descended from them. This talk will look at their history and their place in Canadian society.

Grant Charles is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and an affiliated faculty with the Division of Adolescent Health and Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics with the Faculty of Medicine. He is also affiliated with the UBC Centre for Group Counselling and Trauma. He holds an adjunct appointment with the School of Child and Youth Care at the University of Victoria. He is a member of the UBC Cluster on Research Based Theatre and also a member of the Prato International Collaborative on Family Mental Health. Full bio here.