MAINTAINING THE ILLUSION OF DEMOCRACY - POLICY-MAKING AND ABORIGINAL EDUCATION IN CANADA, 1946-1948

Oct 15, 2026

This paper analyzes how Canada’s Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons (SJC) shaped—at least in appearance—policy on Aboriginal schooling between 1946 and 1948. After 1949 recommendations, the federal government moved from segregated to integrated schooling, yet fewer than 10% of SJC briefs supported integration. The study reviews minutes and testimony to assess who spoke, what they requested, and whether governmental policy addressed stated concerns or served broader insiders’ agendas.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Policy shift and the SJC

Historical background

Education under federal arrangements

MAINTAINING THE ILLUSION OF DEMOCRACY: 1 POLICY-MAKING AND ABORIGINAL EDUCATION IN CANADA, 1946-1948 Helen Raptis and Samantha Bowker, University of Victoria Following the 1949 recommendations of the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons (SJC), the Canadian government shifted away from a policy of segregated to integrated schooling for Aboriginal children. This paper examines the minutes and proceedings of the SJC. Fewer than 10% of the briefs presented to the SJC called for integration indicating that government’s policy shift was less reflective of the needs of the citizens who addressed the SJC than of government ―insiders‖ who had first promoted integration in the early 1940s. Nevertheless, the SJC’s open proceedings helped government to maintain the illusion of democratic processes. 2 Under the terms of Canada’s British North America Act (1867), First Nations children in Canada were educated in segregated federally-funded church-administrated schools until the mid 3 twentieth century. Where they existed, residential schools—generally off-reserve—were established for eight to 14 year olds whereas day schools were situated on reserve for six to 12 year olds (Titley, 1986) . By the early 1940s, however, the Canadian government began to reconsider their segregation policy and sought a new vision for Indian education and Indian affairs in general. Aboriginal people had long been dissatisfied with their treatment and argued that despite the 1 The authors are very grateful for the financial support received from Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2 First Nations, Native, Indian, and Aboriginal are used interchangeably throughout this paper to reflect the terminology that has been used in the era being researched as well as common usage today. 3 Small numbers of individuals were squeezed into local public schools where no federal provisions existed. See Raptis (2008)―Implementing Integrated Schooling for Aboriginal Children in British Columbia, 1933-1981‖. disproportionate representation of men who contributed to World War II, they were still not considered citizens (Sittingstone, 1944/1945; Barman, 1991) . In 1946, the government struck a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons (SJC) to receive concerns about Indian welfare (Johnson, 1984; Miller, 1996) . After the publication of the Committee’s report in 1949, the Canadian government shifted away from its policy of segregated schooling for Aboriginal children in favour of integration. In 1951, the government revised the Indian Act to enable on-reserve Aboriginal learners to be integrated into provincially-administered public or independent schools if they wished (Indian Act, S. 113 b) . Despite its significance to both educational history and policy studies, few researchers have studied this policy shift to date. Of the researchers who refer to the integration policy, most do so in passing and attribute the government’s adoption of an integration policy to the recommendations ofthe SJC (cf. Barman, 1995; Brookes, 1990). Nevertheless, attributing a causal link between the SJC recommendations and the integration policy is problematic because it restson the assumption that the briefs and testimony presented to the Committee – directly or indirectly – shaped the policy. The research of both James Miller and John Milloy casts this assumption into question. According to Miller, the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) began to favour integrated schooling as early as 1944—two years prior to the establishment of the SJC—as a way ―to reduce the cost of providing schooling‖ for Native children (Miller, 1996, p. 382). Milloy has argued that integration was already in the Department’s plans by 1943 and that ―the dynamics that moved the Department‖ toward integration,―included …as always, mundane financial considerations‖(Milloy, 1999, p. 192) . Kirkness and Selkirk Bowman maintain that integr

FAQs

What policy change is examined in the paper?

The paper examines Canada’s shift from segregated schooling for Aboriginal children to integrated schooling after the SJC’s 1949 recommendations.

How does the paper assess whether the shift reflected public needs?

It compares SJC minutes and proceedings to determine what briefs and testimony actually requested and how the government’s adoption of integration aligned with those inputs.

What evidence does the paper use to challenge a direct causal link to the SJC?

It highlights scholarship suggesting integration was already favored earlier through financial and administrative dynamics, sometimes before the SJC was established.

Oct 15, 2026

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