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Running Head: HISTORY0 History Student Details:
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HISTORY1 Canadian government has always tried to uplift Canadian citizens during 19th and 20th Century. However, there were many policies that resulted in failure because they harmed the interest of Canadian citizens rather than uplifting their lives.The thesis will argue that the laws introduced by the Canadian government for betterment of lifestyle and education of Canadian citizens have substantial negative impact on their well-being.A key argument is that these laws which were implemented with good intentions caused many negative impacts on individuals which caused some Everlasting harm to Canadian families due to decisions such as 60's scoop and compulsory education that was forced on Canadian children and their future. Compulsory education was introduced in Ontario in 1871; it was focused on improving education of Canadian students. I believe that the government felt the need of this law to create good educated and skilled future generation for Canada which would also uplift innovation and economy of Canada. These policies increased burden on parents who were not learning to live a better life in urban cities. Children used to help parents by contributing in household work and some used to work to support their families financially. Poor families would have suffered a lot as parents now have to work less hours, earn less, and sacrifice their learning time to monitor children and to do household work which would also cause imbalance in families’ professional and personal life. The government also increased age of working in mines through series of amendments in the Mine's Act of Nova Scotia which raised minimum age required to work in mines from 10 to 16 in order to prevent exploitation of children. These children were paid poorly and used to work in poor conditions. I think the government believed that providing education will not only prevent these children from being exploited but also education will develop their necessary skills. Stopping children from working increased economic pressure on parents; people living in urban areas faced many challenges because urban areas were expensive to live. Canadian government also focussed on health of Canadian families. 60's scoop and Eugenics law are example where Canadian government focussed on building healthy Canadian families. 60's scoop was practiced during 1950s to 1980s, indigenous children were taken away from their parents and set up for adoption by white families or were send to foster care child welfare system. I think government was worried about indigenous family because most of the indigenous families suffered poverty and high death rates. The government would have
HISTORY2 sent these children to a better place where they could have lived a better life. Around 20,000 children were taken away from their families. I wonder how many of these children would have actually lived a "normal" life as they went to a totally new culture, environment and language. It would be difficult for them to blend with their new families with all those Indian memories. Most of these children would have faced bullying, and many of them would have felt inferior towards their new white family. Some children would have remembered their parents and some would not but I'm sure every mother would have remembered her child till her last breath. It is really hard for a mother to live life after her child it's taken away from her without her consent. No one could understand the pain except separated parents, children and siblings. Canadian government was also focused on the health of Canadian families during 1950s to 1980s. Canadian government introduced the Eugenics law which controlled reproductive qualities of good and defective Canadian citizens. It was believed that controlled breeding in humans will produce a better human race. After plants and animals, this theory was applied in human race based on which only good citizens allowed meeting where defectives were sterilized. I believe that the government and citizens were worried about transmission of mental illness in the future generation. I think government believed that defectives could not become godparents also they may transmit bad genes to their children. On the basis of IQ, many children were taken away from their home to provincial training school without any choice where they lived a jail-like life for years. These people were sterilized without telling. This practice give them permanent physical and mental harm and I am sure this practice also affected their current families who knew that their child needs love, care and support instead of the life which they are forced to live. I am sure that many affected people would have faced problem in their marital life as everyone wants a family, maybe they have faced rejection because of their incompetency to give birth to a child. People have also got permanent anxiety and depression because of what happened with them.