The Sixties Scoop - Part 02

In Part 2 of our four-part series on the Sixties Scoop, Valerie and Amanda examine the devastating conditions inside Canada's Residential School system and the decisions that allowed generations of Indigenous children to suffer.

We explore how overcrowded, poorly ventilated schools became breeding grounds for diseases like tuberculosis and the 1918 Spanish Flu, transforming institutions that claimed to educate children into places where illness spread unchecked. We also examine Dr. Peter Bryce's groundbreaking 1907 report, which warned the federal government that children were dying in staggering numbers, and the deliberate efforts to suppress his findings rather than address the crisis.

This episode also investigates the federally funded malnutrition experiments conducted on Indigenous children during the 1940s and 1950s, where starvation and poor health were exploited for scientific research instead of being treated. Finally, we discuss how the deaths of thousands of children were documented, overlooked, and, in many cases, hidden through inadequate record-keeping, unmarked burials, and decades of institutional neglect.

This episode contains discussions of disease, child mortality, medical experimentation, neglect, and the lasting impacts of Canada's Residential School system. Listener discretion is advised.

All research for this four-part series was conducted by Christine Young. Her dedication, compassion, and commitment to historical accuracy have been invaluable, and we are forever grateful for her extraordinary contribution to Canadian Creepies.

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Edited by Kyle McDonnell