21 More Reasons to Cancel Everything

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The day was April 6th, 1925 Twenty-one children were kidnapped from Indian day schools in Ohsweken and taken to the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario. They spent the night in an institute cottage before being shipped 900kms away to Chapleau Residential School.

The truancy officer would have had to work in conjunction with the superintendent to ensure the success of the kidnapping. Luering the children without raising the suspicions of other students and especially the parents indicates some top-level predatory behaviour. The RCMP provided security

RCMP aided in child trafficking

This RCMP involvement in the apprehension of the children from their respective schools was disgraceful and beyond conscionable. These schools were in part child labour, a fraction of academic and child sex slavery camps. 

Emily C General sounded the alarm the following day after bearing witness, and “Amid cries and screams” of the children, they were deemed “Orphaned and Destitute” and trafficked for approximately 15 hours to their final destination.

“Amid cries and screams”

The superintendent painted the scene almost poetically for his boss Duncan Campbell Scott  and  ignorantly stated, “not one cried or expressed regret at leaving their former squalid surroundings.”

RG Miller via
Residential Schools Around the World

Emily enlisted the assistance of friends of her Uncle Levi General, who carried the clan family spokesperson title of Deskaheh. One such friend was Rica Flemming-Gyll, most notable for her no-nonsense approach to calling out her shipmates

However admirable this Institution may be, I cannot but condemn very strongly the method by which these unfortunate children were suddenly taken from the Grand River Lands without any warning or time given to prepare for the change. I felt that it was nothing less than kidnapping, especially in view of the fact that the “truant officer” got so much money per head for every child he took

Rica Flemming-Gyll

Attempting to confirm the admission of the twenty-one children has proved difficult as the entire year that this took place is missing from the Chapleau archives and simply jumps from 1924-1926.

The Scream by Kent Monkman

To begin to imagine the fear and confusion these stolen children endured is more than enough to cancel everything.

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