Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being petitioned to apologise to British child migrants who suffered “shame and isolation”.
It is the latest move by campaigners demanding an official apology for the treatment endured by youngsters shipped to Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The petition, initiated by the group Home Children Canada, states child migrants were subjected to abuse and stigmatisation, and that many died “ashamed of their history and deprived of their family”.
About 115,000 youngsters, so-called British Home Children, were shipped to Canada from the UK between 1869 and 1948.
Typically, they were used as cheap labour and put to work on farms or as domestic servants and many have told stories of overwork and mistreatment.
They were transferred from orphan homes in the UK but campaigners for the Home Children say that many were only temporary residents of the orphanages and had families who were unaware they made the trip to Canada.
Read more:
The forgotten legacy of British children sent to Canada
Now, those campaigners have submitted a petition calling on Justin Trudeau to follow the example of the UK and Australia in issuing a formal apology, something the Canadian government has resisted.
Presented to Canada’s House of Commons, the petition states: “Home children/child migrants were, as a result of the system, thrust into difficult and inappropriate personal living circumstances exacerbated by a belief that they were unwanted by parents and, as a result, denied access to siblings and/or other relatives.”
“We… call upon the prime minister to sincerely apologise to Home Children/child migrants who suffered in shame and isolation, to those who died while being ashamed of their history and deprived of their family, to elderly survivors burdened by their past, and to descendants grappling with the inter-generational impacts of a system that mistreated and separated their families.”
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2023-12-26 19:12:00
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