January 28, 2010

 

Background

 

The namesake of Ryerson University, Egerton Ryerson was a leading figure of his day who is best recognized for founding and building the Ontario public school system, which revolutionized education in Canada. His legacy also includes Victoria College at the University of Toronto. Institutions he pioneered in St. James Square eventually developed into the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario College of Art and Design, Ryerson University and the University of Guelph.

 

Early in his career, Ryerson was a missionary living and working with the Ojibway of the Credit River settlement for several years. He became a travelling preacher and an influential leader among Methodists, a voice for reform, and for public education. From 1844 to 1876, he served as Superintendent of Public Education for Upper Canada, devoting himself to the building of the Ontario public school system.

 
 

Connection to Residential Schools

 

Around 2007 reports began to circulate widely on the Ryerson campus about Egerton Ryerson’s connection to the Aboriginal residential school system. The reports varied in their description of Ryerson’s involvement.  The Director of Publications at Ryerson began to gather background information in an effort to understand its scope. The origins were traced to a document in the National Archives and a copy of the document was obtained. This material appears to be the source that connects Egerton Ryerson to residential schools though the search continues for additional background. Ron Stagg, then chair of the Department of History at Ryerson, was asked by the Director to investigate further and to provide some interpretation on the issue. His comments are attached. They were also posted on RFAnet in 2008.

 

The document from the National Archives is a four-and-a-half page letter from Egerton Ryerson to George Vardon, assistant superintendent general, Indian affairs, and is dated May 26, 1847. According to Stagg, Ryerson was asked during his tenure as superintendent to comment on ‘the best method of establishing and conducting Industrial Schools for the benefit of the aboriginal Indian Tribes.’

 

Stagg says the Bagot Commission report of 1842 proposed residential schools as a tool for separating children from their parents and forcing Aboriginals away from their traditional life. John Milloy, who has been retained by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a researcher, said in his book, A National Crime, The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986, the Bagot report ‘began the reformations that brought forward the assimilative policy and eventually the residential school system.’

 

Ryerson, as an expert in education for his day, was asked on the heels of the Bagot report in 1847 to suggest the type of education that should be used in residential schools, which he did.

 

In his letter to Vardon, Ryerson indicated support for the schools saying ‘it is necessary that the pupils should reside together’ and that a religious component to Aboriginal schooling is essential, which was different from the public school system. Much of the letter, which runs about 25 paragraphs, is advice on how to staff and finance the school, the length of the school day, and the curriculum.

 

According to Milloy, Ryerson ‘seconded’ the notion that residential schools were a good idea.

 

Stagg says of the text “Ryerson was a conservative of the mid-nineteenth century and that is why one can find a patronizing comment in the report. He felt that both natives and the ‘labouring classes’ of Euro-Canadian society … had a propensity to commit sin because of their lack of ‘intellectual development’.”

 

Some additional materials on Egerton Ryerson are available through the website of the Ryerson Library Archives