Egerton Ryerson

Ryerson was a prominent educator and Methodist minister recognized for being the founder of Ontario’s public school system. However, his legacy is now more closely scrutinized for his contribution to the genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Canada as the founder of the residential school system. Ryerson believed deeply in assimilating Indigenous children into Canada’s dominant Eurocentric and Christian culture through the enforcement of religious instruction and separation from their families. Ryerson laid the groundwork for residential schools with his genocidal recommendations that Indigenous children be removed from their homes and stripped of their identity under the purview of the church. Residential schools effectively became a tool to “erase the Indian in the child.” He aimed to transform Indigenous communities by systematically eradicating their culture, language, and traditions, which he thought would successfully integrate these children into Euro-Christian society.

Despite his background as an educator and minister, the residential schools designed under his leadership became places of profound suffering rather than education. Countless Indigenous children died in residential schools, which were characterized by terrible conditions such as poor nutrition, disease outbreaks, psychological abuse, and systemic neglect. Ryerson’s advocacy for religious and cultural assimilation directly contributed to intergenerational trauma among Indigenous communities. Ryerson’s legacy manifests today through ongoing health inequities. The most striking of these inequities include mental health crises, substance use disorders, chronic health conditions, infant mortality and suicidality. The erosion of Indigenous culture also meant the erosion of traditional healing practices, and Indigenous peoples lost a crucial source of resilience.