Introduction
As the topic for our third week of our case study, Citizens and Nation, we covered Social Reform and Medical Science in Canada and how both the general Canadian population and minority groups, specifically the Indigenous peoples, were impacted as advancements took place. In our weekly readings, we were given the chance to explore areas such as the social surveys movement and the treatment of the Aboriginal people who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis by the health care system. In addition to these more conspicuous themes, the articles assigned in class also touched on the involvement of the Christian community in both the social survey movement and the experiences of Aboriginal people during our period of study. By examining the roles Christian pastors and missionaries played in the development of Social Reform and Medical Science in Canada, we are able to observe that their efforts had both positive and negative effects. As Alan Hunt writes in his article, “Measuring Morals: The Beginnings of the Social Survey Movement in Canada, 1913-1917,” “The Canadian social surveys can be understood through the lens of the idea of ‘pastoral power’ as a form of power focused on ensuring, sustaining, and improving the well-being of the population through attending to the lives of each and every individual” [1]. As this article suggests, the role of the Methodists and Presbyterians churches was great at this time as they sought to “target… the moral condition of the larger Anglo-Canadian cities” [2]; however, as the country became increasingly secular, the influence of the church began to decrease. In addition to attempting to implement means of controlling the moral condition of many Canadians, Christian missionaries also had an influence amongst the Aboriginal population, “establishing rudimentary hospitals in conjunction with schools in the late nineteenth century so that ill children might remain on the school rolls and eligible for government subsidies” [3]. Although the missionaries believed they were benefitting the Aboriginal peoples by attempting to Christianize them through the creation of residential schools and church-run hospitals, “children suffered from the diseases that prey on the ill-fed and poorly housed, especially tuberculosis” [4] and were forced to assimilate to a culture that was not their own, labelled as “cultural genocide” [5] by Marilyn J. Legge in her article, “Seeking ‘Right Relations’: How Should Churches Respond to Aboriginal Voices?” While there were advancements made in the area of Social Reform as a result of the efforts of the Christian community, there was great suffering and loss of culture for the Indigenous peoples with the implementation of church-run hospitals and residential schools.
[1] Alan Hunt, “Measuring Morals: The Beginnings of the Social Survey Movement in Canada, 1913-1917,” Histoire Sociale/Social History, 35 (2002): 172.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Maureen Lux, “Care for the ‘Racially Careless’: Indian Hospitals in the Canadian West, 1920s-1950s,” Canadian Historical Review, 91 (2010): 412.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Marilyn J. Legge, “Seeking ‘Right Relations’: How Should Churches Respond to Aboriginal Voices?,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 22 (2002): 30.
