“Canada wanted cheap labour, and Britain wanted rid of waifs and strays. It was a win/win situation…but not for these children,” said Glenna Smith-Walkden, president of the East British Home Child Family. On Saturday, August 31, she and many of the descendents of the nearly 100,000 children shipped to Canada and into servitude as farm labourers, gathered at the Aultsville Train Station (by arrangement with Upper Canada Village and the St. Lawrence Parks). Descendents want Canadians to understand the trials, the fears, the harsh lives, that many of these innocents faced in Canada from the 1800s until the late 1920s. Taken from poor parents, orphanages, or the London streets, these children often grew up believing they were “bad people” who somehow deserved the abuse many suffered at the hands of the farm families which “adopted” them. Today, their descendents honour them with exhibits, momentos, photographs and artifacts, on display at the Train Station, all September, on weekends. September 28, British Home Child Day, there will be a banquet at the Morrisburg Legion, open to the public (contact Nancy Edmonds).
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