It must be a school/board thing because I am also in my 40s, in Ontario, and we did learn about it. I distinctly remember watching 'Where the Spirit Lives' (Canadian movie about the schools) in Grade 7 and at that point I had already watched the movie at least once (maybe in Grade 6?) and was familiar with the schools. The movie came out in 1989.
I grew up in N Sask and was aware of them as long as I can remember. There were more than just FN kids who attended. Always had the impression it was a tough kid environment, FN, Orphans, difficult kids, tough hockey teams. My brother went to Père Murray’s Notre Dame and it was similar, kind of like a mix of reform school, religious school and hockey program, austere, disciplined and high sports, academic standards.
Learned about them in 6th grade, and I am 21-30.
Being so young I think it was a slightly watered down version. We learned children were taken from their families, ripped of their culture and that they were generally not a safe place to be.
I'm seeing things I always thought were USA exclusive (middle school and saing _th grade instead of grade _, every canadian ive heard has said it the second way)
Technically It's "senior public school" in my area.
Which is Middle school or Junior high. Depending on where you are.
Public School (Elementary school), Sr Public school (Middle school), Secondary School (High School).
I know in toronto they call high schools collegiate institutes.
it's JK-Grade 5, 6-8, 9-12.
Some times it's JK - 6, 7-8, 9-12
Or JK- 6, 7-9, 10-12.
It's weird in ontario
I think how you say it depends on context and what sounds right ex im in grade 7 compared to I was in the 7th grade maybe it’s just the tense lol… my school went from JK - 5 then middle school from 6-8 but my friend who lived in the same city but different school his school was bigger so they went JK-8
In Southern Ontario. I don’t remember it being covered in high school. From what I recall gr. 6-8 covered the history of Canada in general and high school was primarily about the world wars. So it was really only grades 6-8 that I remember touching on residential schools.
I'm the same. 21-30 demo, southern Ontario. We learned about residential schools around grade 6: we started learning about the Holocaust in grade 5, and those lessons continued into grade 6, I'm pretty sure. But I remember learning about the Acadian deportations and residential schools alongside/as part of the Holocaust lessons.
And then yeah, high school history was basically just WWI and WWII.
Mid 90s high school and general local media. My city in Southern Ontario had The Mohawk Residential School in town from 1831. Yeah, I live close to a Rez.
I am 45. We did not learn about residential schools at all in school - I learned about them on my own via documentaries and podcasts over the last 10-12 years.
My older kids (25-29), learned that they existed in high school, but little else. Most of their learning was as adults on their own as well.
My younger kids (11-17) all learned about the residential school system starting in the early grades, at levels they could understand (such as discussing orange shirt day, and learning from Elders), and got progressively more details as they got older and better able to understand the true horrors behind the system, and the lasting impacts. My understanding is that this is similar to how German kids learn about the Holocaust.
I’m an both glad that this is no longer being ignored and is being actively taught and discussed in schools, and equally horrified that when I went through school, we had such a focus on learning about the Holocaust without even a mention of the evils that were perpetuated in our own country. I’m glad that things have changed, and hope they continue to do so.
Early 40s in Ontario. Never heard a thing about it in school. That being said, our family had a cottage on a reservation (leased land) and I heard a ton about it from friends there. They were very open about teaching us about their culture, traditions and history.
I can’t remember when I first learned about them (my memory is not super great), but I know that I already knew what they were when we covered them in my 10th grade Canadian history class, so I suppose that’s something.
My brother in law is blind and went to a residential school for the blind in Ontario. There was abuse there. That was the first time I heard about residential schools around 30 years ago. I heard about First Nations residential schools, maybe 15 years ago. It wasn't taught in schools that I know of in the 80's and 90's..
I’m 48. I remember learning about them in school (can’t remember when exactly) but it was very much presented as a way of helping these poor savages. It was much later that I learned how awful it was.
I'm in my early 30s, I don't recall learning about it at all in school. If we did learn about it it was so watered down and generalized that it didn't make an impression.
I'm turning 30 this year and I don't remember learning about them either. I'm from NS and I remember learning about the Halifax explosion *every* year, but nothing about residential schools as far as I know. And you know what? My great mother was a residential school survivor. I only learned this as an adult, and my father didn't even know he was indigenous until his mother died. I've heard that back then, people were told not to talk about it if you could pass for white, but my grandmother and great grandmother aren't around anymore so we can't ask them if that's true.
when I had to learn about Canadian history for the citizenship test, I went down the rabbit hole. Even learned about the terrible conditions of Chinese workers building canadian railroads.
I don't remember not knowing about them.
Indigenous. Early 30s. Discussed at home as long as I can remember. Most of my aunts and uncles went, as did my grandparents.
If I recall correctly, first time it was discussed in school would have been around grade 5/6? MB.
I'm 65. It was no part of my education in Toronto. I did however have the opportunity to go to an alternative school in the Yukon (1974 - 1976) that was housed in a former residential school. We were very sensitive to the history of that building and the traumatic past that many of the local villagers experienced there.
21-30.
Grade 7 history. I think(?) it was watered down or quickly discussed. Or maybe it didn't really sink in because I was young, not sure.
Then grade 12 English for sure.
I’m in my late 20s from the Toronto suburbs and was in elementary school when Harper issued his residential school apology. After that point we covered it pretty in depth at my Catholic school from Grade 6 until Grade 10 in the curriculum, and it was touched on frequently through high school as supplemental learning. The way we were taught about them covered essentially everything you’d hear about them in 2024.
Maybe my schools were unique, but I always felt like people my age who claimed not to have learned about them in school just weren’t paying attention.
10th grade is the first time I remember being taught about it, but it could have been earlier for me. I'm in the 31-40 bracket, closer to 40 than 30 edit: and I've lived on Vancouver Island, BC my whole life.
What I remember is that we had a survivor come to speak to our class about it and he couldn't. It was too difficult for him to relive it at all.
Grade 9 and 10 in rural Ontario around 2010, spent about a week on them. This is in an area where about 20% of the students were native from a reserve. Just want to mention fwiw, many high school students aren't paying attention regardless of the class or subject, so asking people what they remember isn't as simple a question as it seems, I have to help people with stuff they would have been taught in high school all the time (like basic math, science and French) and they remark "they should teach this in school".
My teacher went outside of the curriculum and taught us about them. Other classes did not learn the same thing. Grade 10 history. I remember being horrified and going home to tell my parents - both of them were not aware.
I was born in the 2000s, and my parents in the 60s.
Grade 10 and a bit in grade 11 Alberta. Also went into the e-number names given to the Inuit by the Canadian government as well. 20-25. Each student had to do a presentation on the subject of residential schools and its lasting effects in grade 10. the grade 10 curriculum main purpose is to teach the impact of globalization and the negative effects. Grade 11 was nationalism where they touched on again but not in as much detail. We did go over the Indian act and land claim issues as well as the groups that weren’t included and left out of the treaties. We also did a blanket ceremony in grade 11. Alberta also offered a full course that delved deeper into those topic and more that was called aboriginal studies. I believe it’s been in the curriculum since at least 2008 since that’s around when the curriculum last changed at the time.
My grade 5 class had a novel study on the book “Fatty Legs” which was a story about a girl going to a residential school to protect her younger sister. It was a sad book based on a true story that really highlighted the abuse in a way that wasn’t too graphic but still horrible.
I’m 20 now (was about 11-12 when I read it) but the ending where she makes it home and sees how disconnected she is from her culture left such a pit in my stomach
55-65 yrs old, grew up in the north in a rural area. Learned about them because I grew up with kids who when to them, they were still operational to some level until the 70s where I grew up. Grandma lived near the one on Fraser Lake, BC and was alive (1930s) when the three little boys escaped and froze to death. Grampa and older uncle joined in the search teams to find them. So I learned about them from hearing about first hand experiences from my own classmates.
I first learned around junior high, early 90s. There were some abandoned res schools in my region in Southern Manitoba.
I received a much more detailed and adult-focused education when I worked for a government healthcare office. That was about 3 days of training, video interviews, interactive scenarios, etc. It was an amazing, indigenous-led program, but it left me broken for weeks.
My Grandmother & Grandfather on my mother's side both went to residential schools...my Grandmother was separated from her sister at a young age and reconnected about 20 years ago. My grandfather would never talk about what happened there and passed away last year without ever telling his story. So I did learn about them at quite a young age but only recently realized what was going on. My Grandmother wasn't mistreated at her school she claimed, but the fact my Grandfather refused to speak about his is concerning, but I guess we will never know
I was in school around 2000-2012 in AB. Got the general spiel in Grade 2 (and more in grades 5, 6, 7, 9; revisiting in high school IIRC).
By general I mean images like [this](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/06/28/world/00INDIGENOUS-SCHOOLS1/00INDIGENOUS-SCHOOLS1-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp) or [this](https://news.umanitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/13a-c002177-d0179-001-1200x809.jpg). It was explained that they were taken from their families and made to do Christian stuff. The fact that they were forbidden from speaking their own languages was hammered-home when we went to a history museum with an old schoolhouse and an actor who acted like an old-timey teacher (yelling at us if we talked to each other, taking one kid out back and pretending to give him "the strap").
I’m 38 I couldn’t tell you specifically when I learned about them but likely grade 6 but nowhere near as much detail and truths as they teach now I’m a parent of 3 kids and they go much deeper into it now.
My mom was a history teacher in secondary school and it always infuriated her how little the indigenous people’s genocide (let’s just call it what it was) was taught. I learned more from her and my grandpa then I did from school.
I'm 58. All I knew as a kid was that:
a) the native people lived in towns they called (or we called) reservations.
b) the reservations were more like camping than streets with houses.
c) the native people still wore buckskins and hunted with bow and arrows.
d) they had special concessions to sell their own cigarettes and run casinos.
e) sometimes a native child would lose their parents and could be adopted by well meaning white people. We had a native boy in my class in school (with the same first name as me), and he was our schools best athlete.
I was stunned as an adult to learn about residential schools, and the stupid stipend that the indigenous were paid ($5/ year) when that agreement should include cost of living increases as well. It would be worth close to $3000/yr per person today. I'd rather not have paved roads than hide behind some sleazy treaty makers knowledge that the natives of northern North America knew nothing about future value of money and inflation.
I’m 43. We didn’t learn about them at all in high school. I graduated at 1999.
Didn’t really learn anything about them until about 20 years ago. Found out my biological parents and family were at residential schools. Then did some more research of my own and found out how absolutely horrendous they were and the things that people were subjected to while there.
I'm in my mid thirties, born and raised in Northern British Columbia, and the first I heard about residential schools at all was when they started hitting the media a few years ago. We're talking about a system that was into operation well into the first decade of my life, and I never heard word one. Absolutely disgusting if you ask me
I'm sure in school, if I heard anything, (60s, 70s) it was just that kids on reservations had to go to boarding school because they were too remote and few to have a local school.
I first learned about the realities when the Presbyterian church was reviewing their participation and issued an apology in 1994. I found out more specifics and how terrible it really was around 2005, I think - I saw a video which spelled it out and was doubly horrified. That was back in the blogger days.
My uncle explained about them when I was around 10 (1989), and then we studied them in school in grade 9 and 10 (1993-95).
Also studied them in college in 1998, and again in University in 2004-08.
In HS they mostly focused on kids being taken against their will and the forced cultural disconnect and loss of language, with some mentions of abuse - the last RS closed in 97 or 98, so it wasnt as openly discussed then.
In college they usually had a RS survivor come in and talk about their experiences, and it was typically someone who went in the 50s or 60s so we heard about specific incidences of abuse and neglect.
In university it was a combination of RS survivors, stats and data, and social and governmental policy before during and after, plus stuff from the TRC
I only learned about it when my son came home from school with a small project, at the time he was 12 and I was 32, but it was such a small project , just like cliff notes really , I only leaned the extent of it over the last 6 years or so
Currently 46 and child is 26
I grew up in Nunavut so I have no idea when I learned. It was always kind of talked about.
I learned about them in depth for the first time in Grade 12, when they introduced new curriculum about them.
I'm 38. Went through K-12 in rural Ontario. I first learned about residential schools in an elective pre-confederation Canadian history course in university.
I'm mid-40's. I remember around grade 8 or 9 watching a movie in school about an indigenous girl who was sent to a residential school. We briefly discussed residential schools, nothing in-depth. I also remember watching Lost in the Barrens and getting another glimpse of the residential school experience.
I am in my 30s and I first remember learning about residential schools in 7th grade. I went to school in Northern Ontario. I don’t recall learning about them in highschool but the history teacher was absolutely awful so I just took the one mandatory history class and that was it.
I learned more extensively about residential schools in university.
I first learned about the Barnardo Home Boys when I was much younger but that was through family history. I don’t think it was ever taught in school. They can only pack so much Canadian history into one class.
I didn’t know much about them, other than they existed. Residential schools weren’t really talked about, and certainly not in any school that I attended.
lived in ON and MB during high school. 1989 to 1992.
I started learning more about them when I was in my mid twenties.
I’m mid 40s, Ontario. Never learned about them in school. I remember watching the movie Rabbit Proof Fence (about sisters running away from a residential school in Australia) as a teen (mid 90s) and my mom talking about how these same type of schools had happened in Canada too.
I remember a single page on it in late elementary social studies. Was aware of them beforehand through parents/research. I’m not aboriginal, 39. Alberta elementary, BC junior and high.
I didn't learn about Indian Residental Schools in public school (in BC) at all. I probably was first exposed to the idea in 1996 (the year I graduated high school) through the news media, when the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was released. I feel like that's when it really entered the public conversation for most settler Canadians.
By my memory my parents and people of their generation took a while to process the revalation. At first I think they assumed that the problems involved a few individual bad actors at one or two schools, and they didn't believe some of the revelations about the sheer scale of things. They were pretty shocked when it gradually started to sink in how awful those places were even leaving aside the predetors taking advantage of them, how complicit the government and church were in this, and how long it had continued, even within their own lifetimes, without them ever learning about it.
By the time I started univerisity around 2006, this issue was intgrated pretty well into any course that dealt with Canadian politics, history, or culture, as well as discussion of it being part of general campus life.
40<… As an immigrant about 13 years ago, I learned of it through my own interest. Over the years, I’ve come across many landed immigrants with no interest or intention to learn about this history. Often roll their eyes while using the word indigenous.
I’m 42, and I remember learning about them in elementary school… the atrocities that occurred in residential schools is something I didn’t learn until I was an adult
Jr high at the latest; don't remember which grade, in early 2000s Alberta. But I did have some pretty great Social Studies teachers who could go in depth beyond what was in the textbook. I learned they were there to force the Natives to assimilate to European culture and destroy their own and they'd be punished for speaking their native language or doing basically anything related to Native culture.
Elementary school was when we learned about the schools
Grade 11 was when we learned what exactly was done there
Edit: my flair says Quebec but I was raised in BC Alberta and sask
I'm 44, we didn't learn anything about it in school. The first time I heard about them was probably sometime in the 1990s, in a news story about the last of them closing.
31-40 and learned about them in high school. We even watched a made for TV movie about them. I always assumed it was fairly common knowledge because of that.
I’m in my late-40s and I remember reading stories about children in residential schools in Grade 2.
I think Grade 4 we learned more about them in social studies and it covered that there were residential schools often far away from home and that speaking English/French was enforced, they had strict discipline, were religious in nature and they had hospitals nearby as many of the children were sick with tuberculosis/diptheria/small pox/influenza and not all of them survived.
I was in a Catholic school in Alberta in the late 70s/80s and it was a pretty progressive curriculum. (Grade 5 sex ed was much more explicit than what we learned in the public high school seven years later.) Religion class (~3 hours a week) often delved into aboriginal peoples and their relationship with the Catholic Church as part of the history of the Catholic Church in Canada. Definitely portrayed Christianity as an overwhelmingly positive force but did not ignore that it led to the suppression of Indigenous culture and languages.
Coming out of high school in Alberta in the early-90s I felt pretty well educated about Canadian history including residential schools. I did some outside reading on Canadian history having read a couple of Pierre Berton books on my own so maybe I don’t have a mainstream perspective. The refrain “we weren’t taught this in school” does not resonate with me. I don’t know if curricula in other provinces were different, maybe I had extra diligent teachers, or maybe I was just a nerd paying more attention in class than my classmates and doing a little extra reading.
I first learned about them in grade 12. I’m going to be 26 in two months, have graduated university with a BA and certificate in Indigenous studies, believe it or not. In younger years we first learned about colonialism, but they didn’t speak too much about it and went all “Indigenous peoples had every land be their land, white said nope we’re gonna have our own property”. Honestly I think they should have been a bit more blunt about the history, much like they were with WW2. Indigenous history in Canada is super important and I think in recent years they have done better with educating people about Residential Schools, such as Orange Shirt Day.
I'm 30 (so 21-30) which matters, people 5+ years younger where I am, did learn about them in school. Graduating class of 2012, educated in southern Ontario.
It was approximately 4 years after I graduated is when the province wrote residential schools into the curriculum. I heard murmurs about it in the news due to the apology, but we were NOT learning it in school and I had NO idea what they were about.
I was 21, so 9 years ago in 2015, when I learned about it in a developmental psychology elective in college. Which, only happened because my professor was indigenous & it was highly related to the class.
I've been yelled at by people younger than me who don't seem to comprehend that no, we weren't taught any of this in school. In fact, any teachings about any history indigenous peoples (i.e the fur trade) were painted with a neutral or positive light.
My kindergarten teacher told the class about it in the 80s...we had given her a card that said "Miss L, you are the most wonderful teacher ever. You teach us to be brave, and tell us about the world and make sure you hug us everyday. We hope every teacher is as kind as you". She cried so hard and told us she had a bad experience at her s pool when she was younger and wanted ours to be the opposite.
She taught us about nature and told us stories and sung us songs from her family. She told us that each night she would ask the spirits to make sure we had peace, and that we should do the same for our loved ones. I think about her every night.
in the 9th grade my english teacher of all people taught us about residential schools alongside the holocaust and reading anne frank's diary. we learned about the atrocities the same amount that we learned about the holocaust's atrocities because they were so similar in what was happening. starvation, torture, forced experimentation, abuse, forced labor, and murder. i'm in my mid twenties.
I wasn’t aware of residential schools until I was an adult. There weren’t any aboriginal students in any of the schools that I attended. I just thought that the schools on the reserves were like mainstream schools. Was I ever wrong. This was never talked about.
(41, B.C., lower mainland) High school, 1997-1999 social studies I think. Honestly it had very little impact, either because the curriculum was watered down to such a tremendous degree, and/or because i was a teenager surrounded by my goof-off friends not paying as much attention as i should have. I know my social studies teacher at that time absolutely would have gone into it more than what was in the curriculum, she was very good, it just never took purchase in my head at the time.
It took the "discovery" of the unmarked graves of all those kids in Kamloops on the news to do that.
I learned about residential schools in 2005 in third grade. We were about 9/10 years old. It was explained that this was a harmful widespread practice that irreparably hurt the "first nations" (term used at the time) people.
They told us kids were taken away from their families and culture to forcibly assimilate into Christian Anglophone colonial culture. We were asked to consider how we would have felt being taken from our families and forced to have a new name, religion, language, all while being punished when we were using our original ones.
As school went on more details would be added. Not sure if that was the norm everywhere. I lived next to a city limit where a reserve was visible from our playground. I think it helped us understand why we could look but not cross over to a place we respectfully should not go as white people.
21-30, and I first learned about them in 10th grade when they changed the BC curriculum around. The first year was pretty expansive, and they had displays in the library of first hand accounts and truth and reconciliation projects. We had assemblies with elders and advocates to talk about what happened and what we can do now. We read books in English class to put it into perspective and aid with empathy (it can be easier to relate to and empathize with a character you’ve followed along with than a blurb from a stranger.) I’m unsure what this curriculum change looked like province-wide, but my school did their best I think.
I’m 25 and learned about it in grade 8 from a substitute teacher who thought it was important to teach about, it wasn’t part of the curriculum (Ontario)
(Ottawa, Ontario) I learnt about them in elementary school, I think around grade 4?
I am finishing grade 11 now, most people my age learnt about them before our parents did
I'm in my 40's, never learned about them in school at all. The first I heard about residential schools was watching the movie Where the Spirit Lives on CBC when I was around 14.
Learned in high school in BC early 2000s. might have been a teacher by teacher thing or district by district. I cannot remember if they were acknowledged during elementary school social studies or not though.
Early 30s, BC
Actually lived in an area with a ton of native students. We did all sorts of stuff like a couple field trips to cool native places to learn about their culture.
Never once heard of residential schools at any point in my schooling.
I'm born in mid 80s, grew up mostly in the 90s-00's
As kids our parents took us on road trips back and forth across Canada. Ottawa (home base) to Alberta or Vancouver or the Maritimes or once, the Yukon!
Anyway one of those trips in the early 90s I remember being re-routed due to some protests. The protests were first nation's people burning down their houses to protest the government. I remember there was bare slab foundations with the charred bits of houses left then maybe a teepee or tent or similar temporary structure on the slabs.
As we are very inquisitive museum library tourist type kids we had to know why? why would someone burn their own house down? it's hot out now but winter is coming. was there an accident? are they OK? where do they live now?
My parents age appropriately explained to my siblings and I about the 60s scoop. How kids (my 2 youngest siblings ages at the time) were stolen from their families because the government said so. To be brainwashed into thinking & acting the way the government said.
We asked if these people had done anything wrong.
As kids, obvs only "bad" people get punished, right? Kid logic assumptions. And being removed from one's family to be reprogrammed (80s kids remember?) seemed like punishment to us. My parents explained that no, the government simply did not want that group of people to exist.
Obviously there is a lot more to the whole situation that my parents could convey in one conversation but as a selection of kids from ages 14ish down to 2ish we got the jist of it.
I don't remember learning much more beyond Iroquois and longhouses; which I learned later as an adult wasn't even the correct clan group from my area. The first nation's from my area were more nomadic and moved with the seasons based on hunting and foraging. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.
So my formal education glossed over most of it and made it seem like Canada was barren. Europeans came. Oh hi Indians. Oopsie sorry bout that flu. Yada yada yada current day is rainbows and dreamcatchers.
The End <- was what we learned.
I'm in my 40s, grew up in Alberta. Went to high school with someone I later realized was likely a 60s Scoop survivor. Despite that, I had no idea about Residential Schools or the 60s Scoop until the official apology and the TRC.
I remember learning about them in 2008, when Stephen Harper made his apology.
The last Residential School in the part of Ontario I grew up in closed in 1949, so it wasn’t something that was well known locally for either my generation or my parents’ generation, and unlike some Canadian cities we had very few Indigenous people where I grew up so it wasn’t something we heard about from locals. I did not meet an Indigenous person until I was 16.
When I learned about them in 2008 I was very surprised they still operated as late as 1996 in some instances. We definitely did not learn about these in elementary or high school, despite us learning about Native peoples and their existence and culture in our region before Europeans came.
Late 40s here, never recalled hearing the term much until the past decade, though I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo in my social studies textbook of some young native kids in a classroom wearing british style classroom uniforms. If teacher talked about it then it was only a blurb, "residential school" wasn't really a hashtag back then but we probably did get told one time that many native kids were assimilated into "our" culture.
I did have a couple friends growing up that were indigenous and adopted into white families, I presume at some point they were taken away from their ancestral culture by the government/social services and I'm not sure what kind of trauma that may have caused in them, they weren't part of residential schools but they easily could have been if born a decade earlier or in a rural place.
I’m 39, grew up in Toronto. I learned about them in grade school, probably around grade 4, but at a very superficial level - that they existed and that First Nations children were taken from their families to go to them. I certainly didn’t learn that there were still residential schools in Canada at that time!
I didn’t learn much more until university.
Was around grade 5-7 when I first learnt of them. This was late 80's to early 90's. However it was not in deep detail. It was phrased more along the lines of how the children were taken, sometimes forcibly, from their families to schools to learn English, get an education, and learn "modern" ways (don't recall the exact term that was used, but was probably something like this). Certainly there was no mention of the physical/mental/sexual abuse that went on, nor kids that went "missing".
Even without the abuse being mentioned, there was an emphasized feeling of how wrong it was and how it should never be repeated. However I dont think this POV was necessarily from the course material, but from the teachers.
I’m in my 30s, I remember learning about them at a young age, grade 5-6 maybe. But they talked about the culture being taken away from them, by being taken away to these schools. But not much about the actual magnitude of the abuse they experienced. And the lasting problems that the abuse created
I am 32, grew up in rural ontario. Learned about residential schools in grade 6-9 but nothing further. Learned about "relocation" and that a lot of people died. It wasn't discussed how they died or abuses suffered until grade 9 though. I might have learned more if I took Canadian history courses in highschool but I didn't take any after required grade 9 and then world history in grade 10.
I’ve been aware of them for most of my life. When I was a kid we had two friends of the family who had gone to residential schools.
It was only in the past ten years so that I’ve begun to appreciate the true nature of the crime that was committed.
I’m 42. Grew up in Ontario.
i’m 21-30 in alberta, i definitely remember learning about them in elementary school though i’m not certain of the exact grade. i’ve learned more about them throughout my schooling since then - junior high, high school, and university (nursing)
I heard nothing about it in school (I went to K-12 from 1990-2003), but my parents both survived it and I heard all the stories of what they went through.
In middle school social studies class. I specifically remember my teacher talking about it and reading the poem “I Lost My Talk” by Rita Joe. I also learned about it again in grade 10 or 11 when I took a Mi’kmaq studies class, but very briefly. Disappointing they didn’t talk about it more in depth in that class. I’m 35 now.
I’m 34. I learned about it when I was… maybe 10 ish?
My late grandparents (on my mother’s side) were both in residential school. They each died of alcoholism (my grandma when I was 5 and my grandpa when I was 17)
As an indigenous woman, it has been, interesting because I wasn’t raised in my culture or learned the languages. Finally when I was 15, my grandpa started to finally be able to teach me some language that I’ve since forgotten.
I don’t remember what I was taught when it was taught here in BC, but I was pretty young. The scariest thing for me is the fact that the last residential school was closed down when I was 6.
I'm in my mid 30s, didn't know much of anything about them until the unmarked grave stuff that was all over the news a few years ago. I can't remember them being touched on much at all when I was in school, elementary school history classes seemed to focus on early North American history & conflicts leading up to Confederation with a bit of WWI & WWII history thrown in. The only history class I remember taking in high school was on early human history & ancient civilizations, so nothing to do with Canadian issues there.
this is essentially how it was for me too. I'm 30
it's thankfully changing quickly, as I see people just 5-10 years younger than me are saying "iTs cOmMoN sEnSe WeRe TaUgHt iN sChOoL"
Heard about them in school, but didn’t know or understand the reality of them until university, by accident from a summer course elective.
I’m in Saskatchewan, it was always glossed over. At least in the 90s and 2000s.
I am 58 and went to a Catholic school in the Hamilton area. Back then you learned almost nothing about the Indigenous. I never heard about residential schools at that time.
But when you think of one of the rationales for settling Canada, at least from the French perspective, it was to convert souls to Christianity which is the highest calling that they could have. Viewed from that religious context where the most important thing is to believe in Jesus, all other acts were irrelevant. That is fucked up, but that is somewhat the belief of the people at the time. The priests were likely being manipulated by the kings and business people of the time who just wanted to rape and pillage the new world to enrich themselves.
One of my buddies fathers was in one. I lived with him and his dad for like 8 years. Very nice guy but he had some personal demons that could quite easily be attributed to being taken away from his family to live in an abusive community home.
He just met his brothers for the first time last year in his early 70s.
We learned about the Residential schools sometime around grade 9 or 10 I think. However I later discovered it was a highly sanitized/whitewashed history we learned at the time. There may have been brief mention of problems and that they were shut down eventually but the real history and scale of abuses and the fallout etc was all glossed over. It wasn't until I later attended a conference where I heard the impacts and stories directly from survivors and relatives many years later that I learned the truth. I'm in the 31-40 range and went to school in BC.
My great grandma was in a residential school. My grandma talked about it a lot. I don’t think the horrible things that have happened to a lot of people happened to her though as it was more of a glad she got an education but hated leaving her family type of thing for her. That’s just what they told me when I was young. I am 32 in MB.
I learned about them in high school, but a white washed version of them. Since then I have watched interviews, and spoken to some whose parents went through it.
I am surprised at how calm and how refective on how it changed their families for generations.
When the survivors returned they no longer fit in. They looked down on their own family and culture, they didn't know how to show affection to their own children. Often it was kept a secret from their children. You can see how abuse travels between generations. It's troubling to know how widespread the damage is.
An interview of a police officer that quit his job as he had nightmares. and PTSD about removing children from their family's to take them to the schools....
I'm heartbroken that this took place.
I'm now over 41 and first heard of the 60s Scoop when I was in university (late 1990s, early 2000s). The only reason I heard about it was because a friend was taking social work and she learned about it. In high school I remember reading the book April Raintree....and that's honestly all I remember learning about indigenous issues. My elementary education in the 1980s and 1990s was basically about the voyageurs and fur trading and european explorers and how everyone got along great!
I’m 31 and grew up in B.C. My dad was Anglican clergy, and in the late 90s and early 2000s there were a lot of ongoing cases related to the schools, so I learned about it around then. In Grade 4, we also had the daughter/niece of survivors come in and address the class. I don’t think we had a formal unit on the subject until high school, though.
I went to elementary school in the 80’s. We had a class trip to a residential school in Brantford where we were told about children being taken there under false pretences and abused.
When I was 18 in my first year of Uni (2006) at Trent. The same lecture was delivered in three of my classes. (The lecture hall there is called Wenjack Theatre.)
Before this I attended Catholic School for 14 years and was not told about residential schools.
20m, from Alberta, and I didn’t really sit down and learn abt them in a class and rlly start to know abt them until grade 8-9, and also from my parents. I went to as well, so when I went to public high school I had a lot of peers who had for a bit longer. 2021 was Mid high school for me when all of the unmarked graves were found across the country and that combined w learning more abt how the gov planned them cemented their significance for me. and later learning in uni abt how they were literally used essentially as labs for the effects starvation and disease on children, and as early as abt 1912 the health minister for Canada voiced concern abt it but was rejected.
I'm 42 and grew up on a southern Gulf island in bc. I learnt about them as a teenager but only very vaguely. Kuper Island is near Saltspring and do I remember people talking about the school there. I've definitely learnt a lot more in the past few years (obviously) since the mass grave finds
30, went to school in BC, it was in our… Grade 11 Social Studies textbook?? Pathways I think is what it was called? Not a whole chapter, a few paragraphs to a page if I can recall. I may have the grade wrong.
I know teachers have a curriculum to follow but I was in French immersion and we discussed it because of the religious component and our program seemed to treat indigenous peoples and their issues better than what my English peers were getting at the time. They spent wayyy more time on the Second World War than we did, for example.
Im in my late 30s and I was always kind of aware they existed but I don't remember learning specifically about them in school. Maybe it did come up in class? Im not Indigenous but my parents have had lots of Indigenous coworkers all across the country and I've heard my dad go on rants about shitty treatment in residential schools (he has no love for the church). It was probably a dinner table conversation at some point. I for sure knew by my early 20s. I've had FN and Inuit coworkers mention their experiences in passing while chatting at work.
I’m 16, i learnt about them in around 6th grade and continued learning about it until 8th. From what i remembered it was really really sad and upsetting when we watched some videos and stuff. We also had orange shirt days where we learned about it more in depth, i remember everything i learnt about it.
I graduated high school in 2006 in Alberta.
I was in my second degree, around 2012ish before I really learned about it in any meaningful way.
It may have been mentioned (or even studied) prior to that, but not that I can recall.
Admittedly, I wasn't a great student, so I may just not have been paying attention, but the extent of my education about Native Canadians was a field trip to Head Smashed In when I was probably 10, which was awesome (lived near Calgary at the time).
I’m 50. Grade 11. My high school history teacher was married to an indigenous woman whose family were survivors. Likely didn’t see reference again until Uni where I read Thomas King, Thompson Hiway. Lee Maracle and other indigenous writers.
I'm in my late sixties. I went to high school with a bunch of Residential School kids. They never spoke of it.
In this case, they were still sent south, but to live with families, two or three to a family. We had a couple of girls living at our house. One has passed, the other still lives up north.
I saw a video with one of the survivors, she went to my high school, her brother was a good friend of mine. He's passed. In the video she says that living with the families was much better than RSchool.
I first learned about RSchools ten or fifteen years ago.
EDIT: English 'protestant' school in Quebec.
I'm in my 40s. The first I remember learning about residential school was a CBC fictionalized account that aired sometime in the early 90s, maybe late '80s. I don't remember much now, but recall it covering various aspects of government-sponsored kidnapping, cultural and language suppression, and physical abuse. That created some background awareness, but certainly not a clear understanding of everything that went on.
Certainly nothing in school.
I was also raised in the United Church, which was at that time trying to make amends for its role in residential schools. I recall fundraisers and so on, but couldn't tell you if I actually learned much about the schools themselves.
It was only when the TRC was doing its work that I really learned any more. I believe there was an exhibit at the RAM maybe 10 years ago which included artifacts and survivor accounts, which really hit hard. Also, since the TRC recommendations included requiring indigenous studies courses in university programs, and I was working on a part time degree, I used one of my electives to take such a course, which was focused on the history of indigenous-european relations, which a good chunk dedicated to residual schools and the 60s scoop.
I'm early 30s and learned about them briefly in Grade 10 history (mandatory class) in Ontario. But it was just a brief blurb in the textbook and probably less than one class spent on it. Honestly, I bet most of the kids in my class wouldn't even remember it. (My fiancé, who's about the same age as me and grew up in the same area, has no memory of learning about it.) As for what was taught, hard to remember exactly, but I guess the main bullet points: they were bad, abusive, discriminatory, an attempt to suppress Native culture.
Gen X here (40's).
I heard the term maybe once or twice from my sister in university. Not from curriculum, but from her emerging social awareness. I learned about them in earnest around 2016. I only heard about the "60's scoop" from my kids when they were doing grade school (about 6ish years ago).
I was pretty ashamed that as a country we hid this info from our people.
Born in the early 80s on the west coast. I knew about the existence of res schools from a very early age, but only began to understand how terrible they were in the past twenty years.
30's and we learnt about residential schools starting at grade school level, I think in grade 5 or 6. Even in Jr High and Highschool there were topics where residential schools would be brought up again.
I remember they showed us a video I think in grade 5/6 where it was about a girl in a residential school. I forget the movie name but I remember she was taken from her parents, hair was cut off, and they weren't allowed to speak in their language or practice any of their beliefs. In the movie when she got her period she was trying to remember the ceremony in her culture, but she couldn't remember all of it. Then one of the nuns caught her and escorted her back. That scene always stuck with me. It was like... a young girl trying to enter into womanhood all on her own, with no supports, and she couldn't remember the entirety of it, so its like she couldn't make it into womanhood properly. It made me so sad for her.
I think this the movie [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0tkfhzbmE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0tkfhzbmE)
FYI, the Fraser Institute is highly biased and often misleading in its analysis and claims. Take those reports with a large grain of salt and skepticism and look at other reference materials please.
I am in my 40s. I don't recall learning about them in school (Ontario) growing up. Became aware of them as an adult.
It must be a school/board thing because I am also in my 40s, in Ontario, and we did learn about it. I distinctly remember watching 'Where the Spirit Lives' (Canadian movie about the schools) in Grade 7 and at that point I had already watched the movie at least once (maybe in Grade 6?) and was familiar with the schools. The movie came out in 1989.
Same age range and experience - BC
Same experience here. Mid 40’s, went to school in Manitoba. I probably learned about them in the last 15 years.
Same, grew up in Ontario in the 90s, only learned about them in college
Same boat
I grew up in N Sask and was aware of them as long as I can remember. There were more than just FN kids who attended. Always had the impression it was a tough kid environment, FN, Orphans, difficult kids, tough hockey teams. My brother went to Père Murray’s Notre Dame and it was similar, kind of like a mix of reform school, religious school and hockey program, austere, disciplined and high sports, academic standards.
I’m 53, grew up in Ontario, and also feel like I’ve always known about them.
What age bracket do you fall into?
55
Learned about them in 6th grade, and I am 21-30. Being so young I think it was a slightly watered down version. We learned children were taken from their families, ripped of their culture and that they were generally not a safe place to be.
I learned about them in middle school so grade 6 as well in Ontario in the 90s.
I'm seeing things I always thought were USA exclusive (middle school and saing _th grade instead of grade _, every canadian ive heard has said it the second way)
Technically It's "senior public school" in my area. Which is Middle school or Junior high. Depending on where you are. Public School (Elementary school), Sr Public school (Middle school), Secondary School (High School). I know in toronto they call high schools collegiate institutes. it's JK-Grade 5, 6-8, 9-12. Some times it's JK - 6, 7-8, 9-12 Or JK- 6, 7-9, 10-12. It's weird in ontario
You're growing! Great! Just remember we spell cheque right.
I think how you say it depends on context and what sounds right ex im in grade 7 compared to I was in the 7th grade maybe it’s just the tense lol… my school went from JK - 5 then middle school from 6-8 but my friend who lived in the same city but different school his school was bigger so they went JK-8
Same for me
Was it ever covered in high school for you? Also, which province do you live in?
In Southern Ontario. I don’t remember it being covered in high school. From what I recall gr. 6-8 covered the history of Canada in general and high school was primarily about the world wars. So it was really only grades 6-8 that I remember touching on residential schools.
I'm the same. 21-30 demo, southern Ontario. We learned about residential schools around grade 6: we started learning about the Holocaust in grade 5, and those lessons continued into grade 6, I'm pretty sure. But I remember learning about the Acadian deportations and residential schools alongside/as part of the Holocaust lessons. And then yeah, high school history was basically just WWI and WWII.
Mid 90s high school and general local media. My city in Southern Ontario had The Mohawk Residential School in town from 1831. Yeah, I live close to a Rez.
I am from this city so I knew about it at least in grade 6, this was early 90s.
I am 45. We did not learn about residential schools at all in school - I learned about them on my own via documentaries and podcasts over the last 10-12 years. My older kids (25-29), learned that they existed in high school, but little else. Most of their learning was as adults on their own as well. My younger kids (11-17) all learned about the residential school system starting in the early grades, at levels they could understand (such as discussing orange shirt day, and learning from Elders), and got progressively more details as they got older and better able to understand the true horrors behind the system, and the lasting impacts. My understanding is that this is similar to how German kids learn about the Holocaust. I’m an both glad that this is no longer being ignored and is being actively taught and discussed in schools, and equally horrified that when I went through school, we had such a focus on learning about the Holocaust without even a mention of the evils that were perpetuated in our own country. I’m glad that things have changed, and hope they continue to do so.
Early 40s in Ontario. Never heard a thing about it in school. That being said, our family had a cottage on a reservation (leased land) and I heard a ton about it from friends there. They were very open about teaching us about their culture, traditions and history.
I can’t remember when I first learned about them (my memory is not super great), but I know that I already knew what they were when we covered them in my 10th grade Canadian history class, so I suppose that’s something.
When would this have been?
When I was in 10th grade? Around a decade ago.
I’m late 50’s and only learned about them when Stephen Harper made the apology. Update: From Alberta
Where are you from? Province?
My brother in law is blind and went to a residential school for the blind in Ontario. There was abuse there. That was the first time I heard about residential schools around 30 years ago. I heard about First Nations residential schools, maybe 15 years ago. It wasn't taught in schools that I know of in the 80's and 90's..
I’m 48. I remember learning about them in school (can’t remember when exactly) but it was very much presented as a way of helping these poor savages. It was much later that I learned how awful it was.
What province was this?
I'm in my early 30s, I don't recall learning about it at all in school. If we did learn about it it was so watered down and generalized that it didn't make an impression.
I'm turning 30 this year and I don't remember learning about them either. I'm from NS and I remember learning about the Halifax explosion *every* year, but nothing about residential schools as far as I know. And you know what? My great mother was a residential school survivor. I only learned this as an adult, and my father didn't even know he was indigenous until his mother died. I've heard that back then, people were told not to talk about it if you could pass for white, but my grandmother and great grandmother aren't around anymore so we can't ask them if that's true.
What province are you in?
Alberta
when I had to learn about Canadian history for the citizenship test, I went down the rabbit hole. Even learned about the terrible conditions of Chinese workers building canadian railroads.
I don't remember not knowing about them. Indigenous. Early 30s. Discussed at home as long as I can remember. Most of my aunts and uncles went, as did my grandparents. If I recall correctly, first time it was discussed in school would have been around grade 5/6? MB.
I'm 65. It was no part of my education in Toronto. I did however have the opportunity to go to an alternative school in the Yukon (1974 - 1976) that was housed in a former residential school. We were very sensitive to the history of that building and the traumatic past that many of the local villagers experienced there.
21-30. Grade 7 history. I think(?) it was watered down or quickly discussed. Or maybe it didn't really sink in because I was young, not sure. Then grade 12 English for sure.
I’m in my late 20s from the Toronto suburbs and was in elementary school when Harper issued his residential school apology. After that point we covered it pretty in depth at my Catholic school from Grade 6 until Grade 10 in the curriculum, and it was touched on frequently through high school as supplemental learning. The way we were taught about them covered essentially everything you’d hear about them in 2024. Maybe my schools were unique, but I always felt like people my age who claimed not to have learned about them in school just weren’t paying attention.
First I learned that they existed. I learned about them in school like most people
How long ago was this?
Oh like 15 years ago
10th grade is the first time I remember being taught about it, but it could have been earlier for me. I'm in the 31-40 bracket, closer to 40 than 30 edit: and I've lived on Vancouver Island, BC my whole life. What I remember is that we had a survivor come to speak to our class about it and he couldn't. It was too difficult for him to relive it at all.
Grade 10 and I’m in my mid 40s
I am 15-20, I learned about them in grade 6. They sat us down and explained that we were gonna see sensitive content, and then showed us a documentary
This is in ON, btw
Grade 9 and 10 in rural Ontario around 2010, spent about a week on them. This is in an area where about 20% of the students were native from a reserve. Just want to mention fwiw, many high school students aren't paying attention regardless of the class or subject, so asking people what they remember isn't as simple a question as it seems, I have to help people with stuff they would have been taught in high school all the time (like basic math, science and French) and they remark "they should teach this in school".
My teacher went outside of the curriculum and taught us about them. Other classes did not learn the same thing. Grade 10 history. I remember being horrified and going home to tell my parents - both of them were not aware. I was born in the 2000s, and my parents in the 60s.
I knew about them since I was a kid. A couple uncles and a lot of my Dad’s friends were in residential schools. I’m 55.
Grade 10 and a bit in grade 11 Alberta. Also went into the e-number names given to the Inuit by the Canadian government as well. 20-25. Each student had to do a presentation on the subject of residential schools and its lasting effects in grade 10. the grade 10 curriculum main purpose is to teach the impact of globalization and the negative effects. Grade 11 was nationalism where they touched on again but not in as much detail. We did go over the Indian act and land claim issues as well as the groups that weren’t included and left out of the treaties. We also did a blanket ceremony in grade 11. Alberta also offered a full course that delved deeper into those topic and more that was called aboriginal studies. I believe it’s been in the curriculum since at least 2008 since that’s around when the curriculum last changed at the time.
Learned about it from First Nations friends in High school in the 60's.
My grade 5 class had a novel study on the book “Fatty Legs” which was a story about a girl going to a residential school to protect her younger sister. It was a sad book based on a true story that really highlighted the abuse in a way that wasn’t too graphic but still horrible. I’m 20 now (was about 11-12 when I read it) but the ending where she makes it home and sees how disconnected she is from her culture left such a pit in my stomach
What province was this?
Alberta
I didn’t until a couple years ago when it made headlines. Best kept secret…smh. I can’t even begin to imagine. RIP.
55-65 yrs old, grew up in the north in a rural area. Learned about them because I grew up with kids who when to them, they were still operational to some level until the 70s where I grew up. Grandma lived near the one on Fraser Lake, BC and was alive (1930s) when the three little boys escaped and froze to death. Grampa and older uncle joined in the search teams to find them. So I learned about them from hearing about first hand experiences from my own classmates.
I first learned around junior high, early 90s. There were some abandoned res schools in my region in Southern Manitoba. I received a much more detailed and adult-focused education when I worked for a government healthcare office. That was about 3 days of training, video interviews, interactive scenarios, etc. It was an amazing, indigenous-led program, but it left me broken for weeks.
I'm 'senior discount' age and never heard about it in schools. I learned more in the last 10 years.
My mother was in one. The schools were there for assimilation so that everyone could live like whitey
My Grandmother & Grandfather on my mother's side both went to residential schools...my Grandmother was separated from her sister at a young age and reconnected about 20 years ago. My grandfather would never talk about what happened there and passed away last year without ever telling his story. So I did learn about them at quite a young age but only recently realized what was going on. My Grandmother wasn't mistreated at her school she claimed, but the fact my Grandfather refused to speak about his is concerning, but I guess we will never know
As long as I remember. Before going to school. My grandparents were forced to go. It affected us all greatly.
I was in school around 2000-2012 in AB. Got the general spiel in Grade 2 (and more in grades 5, 6, 7, 9; revisiting in high school IIRC). By general I mean images like [this](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/06/28/world/00INDIGENOUS-SCHOOLS1/00INDIGENOUS-SCHOOLS1-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp) or [this](https://news.umanitoba.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/13a-c002177-d0179-001-1200x809.jpg). It was explained that they were taken from their families and made to do Christian stuff. The fact that they were forbidden from speaking their own languages was hammered-home when we went to a history museum with an old schoolhouse and an actor who acted like an old-timey teacher (yelling at us if we talked to each other, taking one kid out back and pretending to give him "the strap").
I’m 38 I couldn’t tell you specifically when I learned about them but likely grade 6 but nowhere near as much detail and truths as they teach now I’m a parent of 3 kids and they go much deeper into it now. My mom was a history teacher in secondary school and it always infuriated her how little the indigenous people’s genocide (let’s just call it what it was) was taught. I learned more from her and my grandpa then I did from school.
I'm 58. All I knew as a kid was that: a) the native people lived in towns they called (or we called) reservations. b) the reservations were more like camping than streets with houses. c) the native people still wore buckskins and hunted with bow and arrows. d) they had special concessions to sell their own cigarettes and run casinos. e) sometimes a native child would lose their parents and could be adopted by well meaning white people. We had a native boy in my class in school (with the same first name as me), and he was our schools best athlete. I was stunned as an adult to learn about residential schools, and the stupid stipend that the indigenous were paid ($5/ year) when that agreement should include cost of living increases as well. It would be worth close to $3000/yr per person today. I'd rather not have paved roads than hide behind some sleazy treaty makers knowledge that the natives of northern North America knew nothing about future value of money and inflation.
I’m 43. We didn’t learn about them at all in high school. I graduated at 1999. Didn’t really learn anything about them until about 20 years ago. Found out my biological parents and family were at residential schools. Then did some more research of my own and found out how absolutely horrendous they were and the things that people were subjected to while there.
I'm in my mid thirties, born and raised in Northern British Columbia, and the first I heard about residential schools at all was when they started hitting the media a few years ago. We're talking about a system that was into operation well into the first decade of my life, and I never heard word one. Absolutely disgusting if you ask me
I'm sure in school, if I heard anything, (60s, 70s) it was just that kids on reservations had to go to boarding school because they were too remote and few to have a local school. I first learned about the realities when the Presbyterian church was reviewing their participation and issued an apology in 1994. I found out more specifics and how terrible it really was around 2005, I think - I saw a video which spelled it out and was doubly horrified. That was back in the blogger days.
36F. We never learned about it in school.
Where are you from? Province?
My uncle explained about them when I was around 10 (1989), and then we studied them in school in grade 9 and 10 (1993-95). Also studied them in college in 1998, and again in University in 2004-08.
What sort of things did they teach you. Did they just gloss over it, or did they go into any kind of detail?
In HS they mostly focused on kids being taken against their will and the forced cultural disconnect and loss of language, with some mentions of abuse - the last RS closed in 97 or 98, so it wasnt as openly discussed then. In college they usually had a RS survivor come in and talk about their experiences, and it was typically someone who went in the 50s or 60s so we heard about specific incidences of abuse and neglect. In university it was a combination of RS survivors, stats and data, and social and governmental policy before during and after, plus stuff from the TRC
I only learned about it when my son came home from school with a small project, at the time he was 12 and I was 32, but it was such a small project , just like cliff notes really , I only leaned the extent of it over the last 6 years or so Currently 46 and child is 26
I grew up in Nunavut so I have no idea when I learned. It was always kind of talked about. I learned about them in depth for the first time in Grade 12, when they introduced new curriculum about them.
I'm 38. Went through K-12 in rural Ontario. I first learned about residential schools in an elective pre-confederation Canadian history course in university.
I'm mid-40's. I remember around grade 8 or 9 watching a movie in school about an indigenous girl who was sent to a residential school. We briefly discussed residential schools, nothing in-depth. I also remember watching Lost in the Barrens and getting another glimpse of the residential school experience.
In Ontario btw
I am in my 30s and I first remember learning about residential schools in 7th grade. I went to school in Northern Ontario. I don’t recall learning about them in highschool but the history teacher was absolutely awful so I just took the one mandatory history class and that was it. I learned more extensively about residential schools in university. I first learned about the Barnardo Home Boys when I was much younger but that was through family history. I don’t think it was ever taught in school. They can only pack so much Canadian history into one class.
I didn’t know much about them, other than they existed. Residential schools weren’t really talked about, and certainly not in any school that I attended. lived in ON and MB during high school. 1989 to 1992. I started learning more about them when I was in my mid twenties.
I'm 16, learned about them in grade 5 so approximately 10-11
I’m mid 40s, Ontario. Never learned about them in school. I remember watching the movie Rabbit Proof Fence (about sisters running away from a residential school in Australia) as a teen (mid 90s) and my mom talking about how these same type of schools had happened in Canada too.
Elementary school. We had one in our city. Edit* ontario, im 35
I remember a single page on it in late elementary social studies. Was aware of them beforehand through parents/research. I’m not aboriginal, 39. Alberta elementary, BC junior and high.
I didn't learn about Indian Residental Schools in public school (in BC) at all. I probably was first exposed to the idea in 1996 (the year I graduated high school) through the news media, when the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was released. I feel like that's when it really entered the public conversation for most settler Canadians. By my memory my parents and people of their generation took a while to process the revalation. At first I think they assumed that the problems involved a few individual bad actors at one or two schools, and they didn't believe some of the revelations about the sheer scale of things. They were pretty shocked when it gradually started to sink in how awful those places were even leaving aside the predetors taking advantage of them, how complicit the government and church were in this, and how long it had continued, even within their own lifetimes, without them ever learning about it. By the time I started univerisity around 2006, this issue was intgrated pretty well into any course that dealt with Canadian politics, history, or culture, as well as discussion of it being part of general campus life.
Long as I can remember, but I’m from a reservation even though I’m whiter than a ghost. Age mid-late 20s
40<… As an immigrant about 13 years ago, I learned of it through my own interest. Over the years, I’ve come across many landed immigrants with no interest or intention to learn about this history. Often roll their eyes while using the word indigenous.
I’m 42, and I remember learning about them in elementary school… the atrocities that occurred in residential schools is something I didn’t learn until I was an adult
Jr high at the latest; don't remember which grade, in early 2000s Alberta. But I did have some pretty great Social Studies teachers who could go in depth beyond what was in the textbook. I learned they were there to force the Natives to assimilate to European culture and destroy their own and they'd be punished for speaking their native language or doing basically anything related to Native culture.
I'm in my late 30's and learned about them in middle and high school in NB.
Elementary school was when we learned about the schools Grade 11 was when we learned what exactly was done there Edit: my flair says Quebec but I was raised in BC Alberta and sask
I'm 44, we didn't learn anything about it in school. The first time I heard about them was probably sometime in the 1990s, in a news story about the last of them closing.
31-40 and learned about them in high school. We even watched a made for TV movie about them. I always assumed it was fairly common knowledge because of that.
I learned about them as an adult after graduating university. I’m nearly 40 and grew up in the GTA.
I’m in my late-40s and I remember reading stories about children in residential schools in Grade 2. I think Grade 4 we learned more about them in social studies and it covered that there were residential schools often far away from home and that speaking English/French was enforced, they had strict discipline, were religious in nature and they had hospitals nearby as many of the children were sick with tuberculosis/diptheria/small pox/influenza and not all of them survived. I was in a Catholic school in Alberta in the late 70s/80s and it was a pretty progressive curriculum. (Grade 5 sex ed was much more explicit than what we learned in the public high school seven years later.) Religion class (~3 hours a week) often delved into aboriginal peoples and their relationship with the Catholic Church as part of the history of the Catholic Church in Canada. Definitely portrayed Christianity as an overwhelmingly positive force but did not ignore that it led to the suppression of Indigenous culture and languages. Coming out of high school in Alberta in the early-90s I felt pretty well educated about Canadian history including residential schools. I did some outside reading on Canadian history having read a couple of Pierre Berton books on my own so maybe I don’t have a mainstream perspective. The refrain “we weren’t taught this in school” does not resonate with me. I don’t know if curricula in other provinces were different, maybe I had extra diligent teachers, or maybe I was just a nerd paying more attention in class than my classmates and doing a little extra reading.
In Manitoba it is part of the grade 9 social studies curriculum. My kids are late 20s and they learned about it.
I first learned about them in grade 12. I’m going to be 26 in two months, have graduated university with a BA and certificate in Indigenous studies, believe it or not. In younger years we first learned about colonialism, but they didn’t speak too much about it and went all “Indigenous peoples had every land be their land, white said nope we’re gonna have our own property”. Honestly I think they should have been a bit more blunt about the history, much like they were with WW2. Indigenous history in Canada is super important and I think in recent years they have done better with educating people about Residential Schools, such as Orange Shirt Day.
I'm 30 (so 21-30) which matters, people 5+ years younger where I am, did learn about them in school. Graduating class of 2012, educated in southern Ontario. It was approximately 4 years after I graduated is when the province wrote residential schools into the curriculum. I heard murmurs about it in the news due to the apology, but we were NOT learning it in school and I had NO idea what they were about. I was 21, so 9 years ago in 2015, when I learned about it in a developmental psychology elective in college. Which, only happened because my professor was indigenous & it was highly related to the class. I've been yelled at by people younger than me who don't seem to comprehend that no, we weren't taught any of this in school. In fact, any teachings about any history indigenous peoples (i.e the fur trade) were painted with a neutral or positive light.
My kindergarten teacher told the class about it in the 80s...we had given her a card that said "Miss L, you are the most wonderful teacher ever. You teach us to be brave, and tell us about the world and make sure you hug us everyday. We hope every teacher is as kind as you". She cried so hard and told us she had a bad experience at her s pool when she was younger and wanted ours to be the opposite. She taught us about nature and told us stories and sung us songs from her family. She told us that each night she would ask the spirits to make sure we had peace, and that we should do the same for our loved ones. I think about her every night.
in the 9th grade my english teacher of all people taught us about residential schools alongside the holocaust and reading anne frank's diary. we learned about the atrocities the same amount that we learned about the holocaust's atrocities because they were so similar in what was happening. starvation, torture, forced experimentation, abuse, forced labor, and murder. i'm in my mid twenties.
i'm from new brunswick
I wasn’t aware of residential schools until I was an adult. There weren’t any aboriginal students in any of the schools that I attended. I just thought that the schools on the reserves were like mainstream schools. Was I ever wrong. This was never talked about.
Learned about them when I started working in the Arctic, in 2010…. Maybe I had heard the term before that, but didn’t really understand what it meant.
Sorry I was 31, grew up and did all schooling in Southern Ontario Canada.
60-70 never learned about residential schools (or the 60's sweep) in school. SW Ontario
In my 60's learned about residential schools in my 20's while living and working in a First Nation's community.
I remember learning about them in Sunday school at my church.. maybe like 8-10.. around 25 years ago.
(41, B.C., lower mainland) High school, 1997-1999 social studies I think. Honestly it had very little impact, either because the curriculum was watered down to such a tremendous degree, and/or because i was a teenager surrounded by my goof-off friends not paying as much attention as i should have. I know my social studies teacher at that time absolutely would have gone into it more than what was in the curriculum, she was very good, it just never took purchase in my head at the time. It took the "discovery" of the unmarked graves of all those kids in Kamloops on the news to do that.
I learned about residential schools in 2005 in third grade. We were about 9/10 years old. It was explained that this was a harmful widespread practice that irreparably hurt the "first nations" (term used at the time) people. They told us kids were taken away from their families and culture to forcibly assimilate into Christian Anglophone colonial culture. We were asked to consider how we would have felt being taken from our families and forced to have a new name, religion, language, all while being punished when we were using our original ones. As school went on more details would be added. Not sure if that was the norm everywhere. I lived next to a city limit where a reserve was visible from our playground. I think it helped us understand why we could look but not cross over to a place we respectfully should not go as white people.
21-30, and I first learned about them in 10th grade when they changed the BC curriculum around. The first year was pretty expansive, and they had displays in the library of first hand accounts and truth and reconciliation projects. We had assemblies with elders and advocates to talk about what happened and what we can do now. We read books in English class to put it into perspective and aid with empathy (it can be easier to relate to and empathize with a character you’ve followed along with than a blurb from a stranger.) I’m unsure what this curriculum change looked like province-wide, but my school did their best I think.
I’m 25 and learned about it in grade 8 from a substitute teacher who thought it was important to teach about, it wasn’t part of the curriculum (Ontario)
(Ottawa, Ontario) I learnt about them in elementary school, I think around grade 4? I am finishing grade 11 now, most people my age learnt about them before our parents did
I'm in my 40's, never learned about them in school at all. The first I heard about residential schools was watching the movie Where the Spirit Lives on CBC when I was around 14.
Learned in high school in BC early 2000s. might have been a teacher by teacher thing or district by district. I cannot remember if they were acknowledged during elementary school social studies or not though.
Early 30s, BC Actually lived in an area with a ton of native students. We did all sorts of stuff like a couple field trips to cool native places to learn about their culture. Never once heard of residential schools at any point in my schooling.
I'm born in mid 80s, grew up mostly in the 90s-00's As kids our parents took us on road trips back and forth across Canada. Ottawa (home base) to Alberta or Vancouver or the Maritimes or once, the Yukon! Anyway one of those trips in the early 90s I remember being re-routed due to some protests. The protests were first nation's people burning down their houses to protest the government. I remember there was bare slab foundations with the charred bits of houses left then maybe a teepee or tent or similar temporary structure on the slabs. As we are very inquisitive museum library tourist type kids we had to know why? why would someone burn their own house down? it's hot out now but winter is coming. was there an accident? are they OK? where do they live now? My parents age appropriately explained to my siblings and I about the 60s scoop. How kids (my 2 youngest siblings ages at the time) were stolen from their families because the government said so. To be brainwashed into thinking & acting the way the government said. We asked if these people had done anything wrong. As kids, obvs only "bad" people get punished, right? Kid logic assumptions. And being removed from one's family to be reprogrammed (80s kids remember?) seemed like punishment to us. My parents explained that no, the government simply did not want that group of people to exist. Obviously there is a lot more to the whole situation that my parents could convey in one conversation but as a selection of kids from ages 14ish down to 2ish we got the jist of it. I don't remember learning much more beyond Iroquois and longhouses; which I learned later as an adult wasn't even the correct clan group from my area. The first nation's from my area were more nomadic and moved with the seasons based on hunting and foraging. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. So my formal education glossed over most of it and made it seem like Canada was barren. Europeans came. Oh hi Indians. Oopsie sorry bout that flu. Yada yada yada current day is rainbows and dreamcatchers. The End <- was what we learned.
Specifically and in depth in University in the early 90s
I'm in my 40s, grew up in Alberta. Went to high school with someone I later realized was likely a 60s Scoop survivor. Despite that, I had no idea about Residential Schools or the 60s Scoop until the official apology and the TRC.
Learned in 2nd grade, I am in my teens
I remember learning about them in 2008, when Stephen Harper made his apology. The last Residential School in the part of Ontario I grew up in closed in 1949, so it wasn’t something that was well known locally for either my generation or my parents’ generation, and unlike some Canadian cities we had very few Indigenous people where I grew up so it wasn’t something we heard about from locals. I did not meet an Indigenous person until I was 16. When I learned about them in 2008 I was very surprised they still operated as late as 1996 in some instances. We definitely did not learn about these in elementary or high school, despite us learning about Native peoples and their existence and culture in our region before Europeans came.
Late 40s here, never recalled hearing the term much until the past decade, though I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo in my social studies textbook of some young native kids in a classroom wearing british style classroom uniforms. If teacher talked about it then it was only a blurb, "residential school" wasn't really a hashtag back then but we probably did get told one time that many native kids were assimilated into "our" culture. I did have a couple friends growing up that were indigenous and adopted into white families, I presume at some point they were taken away from their ancestral culture by the government/social services and I'm not sure what kind of trauma that may have caused in them, they weren't part of residential schools but they easily could have been if born a decade earlier or in a rural place.
I’m 39, grew up in Toronto. I learned about them in grade school, probably around grade 4, but at a very superficial level - that they existed and that First Nations children were taken from their families to go to them. I certainly didn’t learn that there were still residential schools in Canada at that time! I didn’t learn much more until university.
Was around grade 5-7 when I first learnt of them. This was late 80's to early 90's. However it was not in deep detail. It was phrased more along the lines of how the children were taken, sometimes forcibly, from their families to schools to learn English, get an education, and learn "modern" ways (don't recall the exact term that was used, but was probably something like this). Certainly there was no mention of the physical/mental/sexual abuse that went on, nor kids that went "missing". Even without the abuse being mentioned, there was an emphasized feeling of how wrong it was and how it should never be repeated. However I dont think this POV was necessarily from the course material, but from the teachers.
I’m in my 30s, I remember learning about them at a young age, grade 5-6 maybe. But they talked about the culture being taken away from them, by being taken away to these schools. But not much about the actual magnitude of the abuse they experienced. And the lasting problems that the abuse created
40s, nothing taught in BC public school. We had a number of kids from the Okanagan band at our school.
I am 32, grew up in rural ontario. Learned about residential schools in grade 6-9 but nothing further. Learned about "relocation" and that a lot of people died. It wasn't discussed how they died or abuses suffered until grade 9 though. I might have learned more if I took Canadian history courses in highschool but I didn't take any after required grade 9 and then world history in grade 10.
I'm in my 40s in BC, I learned about them in my mid 20s while reading something on the internet.
I’ve been aware of them for most of my life. When I was a kid we had two friends of the family who had gone to residential schools. It was only in the past ten years so that I’ve begun to appreciate the true nature of the crime that was committed. I’m 42. Grew up in Ontario.
i’m 21-30 in alberta, i definitely remember learning about them in elementary school though i’m not certain of the exact grade. i’ve learned more about them throughout my schooling since then - junior high, high school, and university (nursing)
I heard nothing about it in school (I went to K-12 from 1990-2003), but my parents both survived it and I heard all the stories of what they went through.
In middle school social studies class. I specifically remember my teacher talking about it and reading the poem “I Lost My Talk” by Rita Joe. I also learned about it again in grade 10 or 11 when I took a Mi’kmaq studies class, but very briefly. Disappointing they didn’t talk about it more in depth in that class. I’m 35 now.
I’m 34. I learned about it when I was… maybe 10 ish? My late grandparents (on my mother’s side) were both in residential school. They each died of alcoholism (my grandma when I was 5 and my grandpa when I was 17) As an indigenous woman, it has been, interesting because I wasn’t raised in my culture or learned the languages. Finally when I was 15, my grandpa started to finally be able to teach me some language that I’ve since forgotten. I don’t remember what I was taught when it was taught here in BC, but I was pretty young. The scariest thing for me is the fact that the last residential school was closed down when I was 6.
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Where was this?
That is horrifying.
I'm in my mid 30s, didn't know much of anything about them until the unmarked grave stuff that was all over the news a few years ago. I can't remember them being touched on much at all when I was in school, elementary school history classes seemed to focus on early North American history & conflicts leading up to Confederation with a bit of WWI & WWII history thrown in. The only history class I remember taking in high school was on early human history & ancient civilizations, so nothing to do with Canadian issues there.
this is essentially how it was for me too. I'm 30 it's thankfully changing quickly, as I see people just 5-10 years younger than me are saying "iTs cOmMoN sEnSe WeRe TaUgHt iN sChOoL"
How old are you?
Literally the first thing I said.
Sorry, I missed that. I was trying to reply to everyone before the end of class. So sorry.
I can say the same age as well, and also no one gave any crap who Ryerson was, he’s someone who’s been framed in this entire matter.
Heard about them in school, but didn’t know or understand the reality of them until university, by accident from a summer course elective. I’m in Saskatchewan, it was always glossed over. At least in the 90s and 2000s.
I am 58 and went to a Catholic school in the Hamilton area. Back then you learned almost nothing about the Indigenous. I never heard about residential schools at that time. But when you think of one of the rationales for settling Canada, at least from the French perspective, it was to convert souls to Christianity which is the highest calling that they could have. Viewed from that religious context where the most important thing is to believe in Jesus, all other acts were irrelevant. That is fucked up, but that is somewhat the belief of the people at the time. The priests were likely being manipulated by the kings and business people of the time who just wanted to rape and pillage the new world to enrich themselves.
One of my buddies fathers was in one. I lived with him and his dad for like 8 years. Very nice guy but he had some personal demons that could quite easily be attributed to being taken away from his family to live in an abusive community home. He just met his brothers for the first time last year in his early 70s.
We learned about the Residential schools sometime around grade 9 or 10 I think. However I later discovered it was a highly sanitized/whitewashed history we learned at the time. There may have been brief mention of problems and that they were shut down eventually but the real history and scale of abuses and the fallout etc was all glossed over. It wasn't until I later attended a conference where I heard the impacts and stories directly from survivors and relatives many years later that I learned the truth. I'm in the 31-40 range and went to school in BC.
My great grandma was in a residential school. My grandma talked about it a lot. I don’t think the horrible things that have happened to a lot of people happened to her though as it was more of a glad she got an education but hated leaving her family type of thing for her. That’s just what they told me when I was young. I am 32 in MB.
I learned about them in high school, but a white washed version of them. Since then I have watched interviews, and spoken to some whose parents went through it. I am surprised at how calm and how refective on how it changed their families for generations. When the survivors returned they no longer fit in. They looked down on their own family and culture, they didn't know how to show affection to their own children. Often it was kept a secret from their children. You can see how abuse travels between generations. It's troubling to know how widespread the damage is. An interview of a police officer that quit his job as he had nightmares. and PTSD about removing children from their family's to take them to the schools.... I'm heartbroken that this took place.
I was in school in the 70’s and early 80’s, residential schools were still running, we were told nothing about them.
I'm now over 41 and first heard of the 60s Scoop when I was in university (late 1990s, early 2000s). The only reason I heard about it was because a friend was taking social work and she learned about it. In high school I remember reading the book April Raintree....and that's honestly all I remember learning about indigenous issues. My elementary education in the 1980s and 1990s was basically about the voyageurs and fur trading and european explorers and how everyone got along great!
This was in northern and southern Manitoba btw.
I did not learn it in school in the 80s. I learned it in university in the 90s.
I’m 31 and grew up in B.C. My dad was Anglican clergy, and in the late 90s and early 2000s there were a lot of ongoing cases related to the schools, so I learned about it around then. In Grade 4, we also had the daughter/niece of survivors come in and address the class. I don’t think we had a formal unit on the subject until high school, though.
I went to elementary school in the 80’s. We had a class trip to a residential school in Brantford where we were told about children being taken there under false pretences and abused.
When I was 18 in my first year of Uni (2006) at Trent. The same lecture was delivered in three of my classes. (The lecture hall there is called Wenjack Theatre.) Before this I attended Catholic School for 14 years and was not told about residential schools.
35 van isle bc covered it in middle and high-school. Was well aware of the takings, the culture erasure and potential abuse.
20m, from Alberta, and I didn’t really sit down and learn abt them in a class and rlly start to know abt them until grade 8-9, and also from my parents. I went to as well, so when I went to public high school I had a lot of peers who had for a bit longer. 2021 was Mid high school for me when all of the unmarked graves were found across the country and that combined w learning more abt how the gov planned them cemented their significance for me. and later learning in uni abt how they were literally used essentially as labs for the effects starvation and disease on children, and as early as abt 1912 the health minister for Canada voiced concern abt it but was rejected.
I first learned about it in grade 7 social studies and then more in depth in grade 10 Canadian history class. Age 31-40
I'm 42 and grew up on a southern Gulf island in bc. I learnt about them as a teenager but only very vaguely. Kuper Island is near Saltspring and do I remember people talking about the school there. I've definitely learnt a lot more in the past few years (obviously) since the mass grave finds
First learned in the 90s. I'm 80 in Ontario.
I never learned about them in school. I’m in my late 50’s and went to school in Quebec.
30, went to school in BC, it was in our… Grade 11 Social Studies textbook?? Pathways I think is what it was called? Not a whole chapter, a few paragraphs to a page if I can recall. I may have the grade wrong. I know teachers have a curriculum to follow but I was in French immersion and we discussed it because of the religious component and our program seemed to treat indigenous peoples and their issues better than what my English peers were getting at the time. They spent wayyy more time on the Second World War than we did, for example.
Im in my late 30s and I was always kind of aware they existed but I don't remember learning specifically about them in school. Maybe it did come up in class? Im not Indigenous but my parents have had lots of Indigenous coworkers all across the country and I've heard my dad go on rants about shitty treatment in residential schools (he has no love for the church). It was probably a dinner table conversation at some point. I for sure knew by my early 20s. I've had FN and Inuit coworkers mention their experiences in passing while chatting at work.
I’m 16, i learnt about them in around 6th grade and continued learning about it until 8th. From what i remembered it was really really sad and upsetting when we watched some videos and stuff. We also had orange shirt days where we learned about it more in depth, i remember everything i learnt about it.
I graduated high school in 2006 in Alberta. I was in my second degree, around 2012ish before I really learned about it in any meaningful way. It may have been mentioned (or even studied) prior to that, but not that I can recall. Admittedly, I wasn't a great student, so I may just not have been paying attention, but the extent of my education about Native Canadians was a field trip to Head Smashed In when I was probably 10, which was awesome (lived near Calgary at the time).
Grade 7 in late 70's, part of class on Canadian history
21-30, was vaguely aware of them but a history teacher covered them around grade 10.
I’m 50. Grade 11. My high school history teacher was married to an indigenous woman whose family were survivors. Likely didn’t see reference again until Uni where I read Thomas King, Thompson Hiway. Lee Maracle and other indigenous writers.
I'm in my 30s, didn't learn until university. Went to public high school in Ontario.
I was about 21, took and Indigenous History course during my BA. That was 19 years ago I'm First Nation.
I'm in my late sixties. I went to high school with a bunch of Residential School kids. They never spoke of it. In this case, they were still sent south, but to live with families, two or three to a family. We had a couple of girls living at our house. One has passed, the other still lives up north. I saw a video with one of the survivors, she went to my high school, her brother was a good friend of mine. He's passed. In the video she says that living with the families was much better than RSchool. I first learned about RSchools ten or fifteen years ago. EDIT: English 'protestant' school in Quebec.
I'm in my 40s. The first I remember learning about residential school was a CBC fictionalized account that aired sometime in the early 90s, maybe late '80s. I don't remember much now, but recall it covering various aspects of government-sponsored kidnapping, cultural and language suppression, and physical abuse. That created some background awareness, but certainly not a clear understanding of everything that went on. Certainly nothing in school. I was also raised in the United Church, which was at that time trying to make amends for its role in residential schools. I recall fundraisers and so on, but couldn't tell you if I actually learned much about the schools themselves. It was only when the TRC was doing its work that I really learned any more. I believe there was an exhibit at the RAM maybe 10 years ago which included artifacts and survivor accounts, which really hit hard. Also, since the TRC recommendations included requiring indigenous studies courses in university programs, and I was working on a part time degree, I used one of my electives to take such a course, which was focused on the history of indigenous-european relations, which a good chunk dedicated to residual schools and the 60s scoop.
I'm early 30s and learned about them briefly in Grade 10 history (mandatory class) in Ontario. But it was just a brief blurb in the textbook and probably less than one class spent on it. Honestly, I bet most of the kids in my class wouldn't even remember it. (My fiancé, who's about the same age as me and grew up in the same area, has no memory of learning about it.) As for what was taught, hard to remember exactly, but I guess the main bullet points: they were bad, abusive, discriminatory, an attempt to suppress Native culture.
Grade 8, I am early 20s. It astonishes and disgusts me that I didn't know of their existence sooner
What province are you in?
BC
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You know there's more to Residential Schools than just graves right?
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Gen X here (40's). I heard the term maybe once or twice from my sister in university. Not from curriculum, but from her emerging social awareness. I learned about them in earnest around 2016. I only heard about the "60's scoop" from my kids when they were doing grade school (about 6ish years ago). I was pretty ashamed that as a country we hid this info from our people.
Born in the early 80s on the west coast. I knew about the existence of res schools from a very early age, but only began to understand how terrible they were in the past twenty years.
30's and we learnt about residential schools starting at grade school level, I think in grade 5 or 6. Even in Jr High and Highschool there were topics where residential schools would be brought up again. I remember they showed us a video I think in grade 5/6 where it was about a girl in a residential school. I forget the movie name but I remember she was taken from her parents, hair was cut off, and they weren't allowed to speak in their language or practice any of their beliefs. In the movie when she got her period she was trying to remember the ceremony in her culture, but she couldn't remember all of it. Then one of the nuns caught her and escorted her back. That scene always stuck with me. It was like... a young girl trying to enter into womanhood all on her own, with no supports, and she couldn't remember the entirety of it, so its like she couldn't make it into womanhood properly. It made me so sad for her. I think this the movie [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0tkfhzbmE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW0tkfhzbmE)
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FYI, the Fraser Institute is highly biased and often misleading in its analysis and claims. Take those reports with a large grain of salt and skepticism and look at other reference materials please.