Efforts are underway in Canada to recognize British Home Child Day nationally every September 28, starting next year, and the first debate on a private member’s bill about it takes place next Wednesday.
Ontario has officially recognized September 28 as British Home Child Day since 2011 to honour the more than 100,000 orphaned, impoverished and abandoned British children who travelled alone between 1869 and 1948 to start a new life in Canada.
Also in 2011, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter proclaimed the same date British Home Child Day in Nova Scotia. The premier said while many of the children were welcomed into homes and families across the province, others lived through great hardship, ostracization and uncertainty. He said, “These people deserve to be recognized for their strength, courage and perseverance in the face of such adversity.”
The national initiative is led by Judy Neville of the Ontario East British Home Child Family group and Guy Lauzon, member of Parliament for the Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry riding in Eastern Ontario.
Chamber of the House of Commons, Ottawa. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
The debate on MP Guy Lauzon’s motion (M-133) is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 22 in the House of Commons:
“That, in the opinion of the House, the government should recognize the contributions made by the over 100,000 British Home Children to Canadian society, their service to our armed forces throughout the twentieth century, the hardships and stigmas that many of them endured, and the importance of educating and reflecting upon the story of the British Home Children for future generations by declaring September 28 of every year, British Home Child Day in Canada.”
Several other MPs have seconded Lauzon’s motion.
Ms. Neville’s brother, then-MPP Jim Brownell, successfully spearheaded the private member’s bill in Ontario that was inspired by a family member. When thinking about an appropriate date, Mr. Brownell said he picked the date his British Home Child grandmother, Mary Scott Pearson (Brownell), stepped onto Canadian soil a couple weeks shy of her 14th birthday.
Kady O’Malley of iPolitics believes MP Lauzon has a good chance of succeeding his private member’s bill would have no binding impact and “a majority for the yeas would serve as the official expression of the will of the Commons on the matter.”
How to support the bill
If you want Canada to have a national British Home Child Day, send an email to your member of Parliament, urging him/her to support MP Lauzon’s Motion M-133, which is coming up for its first hour of debate next Wednesday, November 22. If your ancestor was a British Home Child, tell your MP about your ancestor and why this bill is important to your family and you.
On Feb. 16, 2017 a motion to apologize to British Home Children and their descendants was spearheaded by the Bloc Quebecois with the help of Gilles Duceppe, former Leader of the Opposition and the British Home Child Group International. This motion was officially and unanimously adopted by the House of Commons.
We sincerely wish this motion success and hope for a national day for British Home Children.
Good point, Sandra. Thanks.
I know there has been a motion tabled in the past that went nowhere. Perhaps the time is right to give it another go. Both of my Grandmothers were British Home Children. They were 11 year of age when they came to Canada leaving their families in England. I have written my local MP.
The NDP caucus will be voting as a block on the bill and the indication from my MP Richard Cannings (South Okanagan-West Kootenay) is that they will vote ‘yes.’ I was happy to help by providing a briefing paper on the British Home Children for them.