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So, it's not that I've had my head in the sand for the past couple of decades. I'd learnt about the residential school abuses, mostly by RC priests and nuns (but even isolated incidents in the history of the UC as Rev. Jeff told us). However, I was only tangentially aware of what happened in Quebec under the iron grip of Premier Duplessis in the 1950s. Today, I raced through "The Home for Unwanted Girls" and was so sickened by how children were essentially stolen from unwed teen girls, placed in mostly horrible conditions in orphanages and occasionally sold to infertile couples. So, that part of the story isn't something I haven't heard before from other parts of the world.
But what was the most horrifying is that, when the province found out that the federal subsidy for mental patients was more than twice that of orphans, all the girls were reclassified as mentally ill, with their education (rudimentary at best) stopped and they were shipped to mental hospitals where they were mixed in with real patients, taking care of them and being responsible for the functioning of the hospitals (laundry, cleaning, etc.). It was also hideous to read how often they were told that this was their punishment for having been born in Sin, in Scandal.
Amazingly enough, there is hope amid the heartbreak in the book, though the scars of the primary orphan - both physical and emotional - remain. Add to that the unstable history of the province (conflict between Catholic/Protestant, French/English, rich/poor, love/lust, men/women, male dominance/emerging female independence, especially in the 60s) and it's something to experience. It'll be months before we're scheduled to discuss the book but I won't need to reread it. At all. I still wrote down a few notes.
Anyway, it's no wonder I didn't have any energy for anything else after that. Just my judge and game shows and a load of laundry. I'm surprised that my vision was on the high side today … leading me once again to consider the mental component affecting my sight. So, not just good emotions, but just being really involved.
But what was the most horrifying is that, when the province found out that the federal subsidy for mental patients was more than twice that of orphans, all the girls were reclassified as mentally ill, with their education (rudimentary at best) stopped and they were shipped to mental hospitals where they were mixed in with real patients, taking care of them and being responsible for the functioning of the hospitals (laundry, cleaning, etc.). It was also hideous to read how often they were told that this was their punishment for having been born in Sin, in Scandal.
Amazingly enough, there is hope amid the heartbreak in the book, though the scars of the primary orphan - both physical and emotional - remain. Add to that the unstable history of the province (conflict between Catholic/Protestant, French/English, rich/poor, love/lust, men/women, male dominance/emerging female independence, especially in the 60s) and it's something to experience. It'll be months before we're scheduled to discuss the book but I won't need to reread it. At all. I still wrote down a few notes.
Anyway, it's no wonder I didn't have any energy for anything else after that. Just my judge and game shows and a load of laundry. I'm surprised that my vision was on the high side today … leading me once again to consider the mental component affecting my sight. So, not just good emotions, but just being really involved.
