As more potential graves are found on sites of former residential schools, one advocate says Canada still has work to do to show true reconciliation with First Nations and Indigenous communities.
Researchers say that TB at residential schools was no accident yorktonthisweek.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yorktonthisweek.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
But as early as 1907, chief medical officer of the Department of Indian Affairs Peter Henderson Bryce identified schools an ideal vector for TB transmission, going as far as to say it was “almost as if the prime conditions for the outbreak of epidemics had been deliberately created.” Faust and Heffernan, who are advocates for ending TB in Canada and abroad, emphasize that although there was a TB epidemic at the time, it was greatly exacerbated by conditions in residential schools. “TB is a communicable infectious disease directly shaped by inequity at the individual and population level. It is well-established that social determinants of health, including malnutrition, overcrowding and poor ventilation, contribute to the development and spread of TB, and these conditions were common in residential schools,” they write.