In the seven decades between 1869 and 1939, more than 100,000 so-called “gutter children” from institutional care homes in the United Kingdom were shipped to Canada for better lives. But if ever there was a classic case of government-sanctioned philanthropy that went sideways, this was it. Today, we’d condemn this child emigration initiative for what it really was: human trafficking in the guise of philanthropy.
Most home children left Britain reluctantly and were sent to Canada with no say in their fate. Those deemed old enough to work were bound by contracts that turned them into indentured labourers, compelled to earn their keep in often harsh conditions.
As many as four million Canadians, roughly one in every ten of us, can trace our family roots to our home-child ancestors. Their story is one of the most shameful and consequential in our history, yet it is scarcely taught and little understood. Ken Cuthbertson’s new book fills a yawning gap, bringing this neglected past to light with the narrative drive of the best fiction. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand who Canadians were—and are.
