Motivation In Residential Schools

Another infringement of Section B is evident in the slow death measure of starvation imposed on those residential school students. A 1944 report to the Canada’s Department of Indian Affairs by Dr. A.B Simes, a medical superintendent of the Qu’Appelle Indian Hospital, found that “28% of the girls and 69% of the boys [were] underweight. During this time, only 49 cents per day were allocated on food and at some schools even less. Of the food at the Fort Alexander school, former student, Faron Fontaine, said that all he could recall kids were starving. Kids were so hungry that they were going into the kitchen to steal food. Some children were so ravenous that they resorted to stealing food. However, if children were caught stealing, they would be punished by having their hands painted red, inflicting humiliation and ensuring everyone at the school knew about their crimes. Students were known to cry and plead to have something good to eat because much of the time the food was “rancid, full of maggots, and [stinky].” Shortly after WWII, when knowledge about nutrition was still sparse, scientists took advantage of the already malnourished Aboriginal population by using them as research subjects to investigate the effects of different diets and dietary …show more content…
Truant officers, including RCMP officers, priests, ministers, and Indian agents, could impose fines or imprisonment to those who did not comply. Strict legislation greatly increased the numbers of children attending residential schools. The Indian Act, Sections 114-22, dealt with schools for Aboriginal children; Section 119 covered “truant officers,” who were empowered to “take into custody a children whom [they believe] on reasonable grounds to be absent from school contrary to this Act and may convey the child to school, using as much force as the circumstance