*2010* ~ Year of the British Home Child in Canada

According to an email received from Catherine West, "2010 declared as "The Year of The Home Child". Every MP who got up to speak was in favour of the motion - no desenters. It was passed unanimously on a single vote. Some MPs asked that an apology also be given and it was recommended that each province also declare 2010 as "The Year of The British Home Child" and that they also add or expand the information on Home Children in the schools."

To read Phil McColeman's December 7th  Private Members official report to designate 2010 as The Year of the British Home Child across Canada and what the presenters below each had to say (started 11:06 - ended 11:56 a.m.):

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Pub=hansard#OOB-3000896

PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS -  British Home Children

Mr. Phil McColeman (Brant, CPC)  (11:10)
Mr. John Cannis (Scarborough Centre, Lib.) (11:15)
Mr. Phil McColeman
Mr. Malcolm Allen (Welland, NDP)
Mr. Phil McColeman
Mr. Rick Dykstra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration, CPC)
Mr. Phil McColeman (11:20)
Hon. Maurizio Bevilacqua (Vaughan, Lib.) (11:25)
Mr. Gilles Duceppe (Laurier—Sainte-Marie, BQ) (11:30) (11:35)
Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP) (11:40)
Mr. Jim Maloway (Elmwood—Transcona, NDP) (11:45)
Mr. Malcolm Allen (Welland, NDP) (11:50)
The Deputy Speaker
Mr. Phil McColeman (Brant, CPC) (11:55)
The Deputy Speaker
(Motion agreed to)
Suspension of Sitting
The Deputy Speaker
(The sitting of the House was suspended at 11:56 a.m.)

LET THE CELEBRATIONS BEGIN! 

Oranges And Sunshine For Watson And Wenham, and Weaving.

(Information generously shared by Variety and Empireonline.com)

Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham has signed up to star in Oranges and Sunshine, the first feature from director Jim Loach and one that tells the story of a strange chapter in British and Australian history: the deportation of thousands of children in UK foster care to Australia.

Watson* will play social worker Margaret Humphreys, who in 1987 blew the whistle on the "Home Children" child migration scheme, which had gone on for well-nigh a century between 1869 and the 1960s, and had moved British foster children to countries around the Commonwealth, in particular Australia, where they could be raised more cheaply. The children with living parents were often told that their parents had died, while the parents were informed that their children had been adopted elsewhere.

Watson will play Humphreys, we're guessing, as the Ron Munro screenplay is based on Humphreys' book, with Wenham and Weaving donning their natural Aussie accents most likely. Director Loach previously handled the high drama of Holby City, Hotel Babylon and Shameless, so the story of thousands of stolen children should be a doddle after that. Filming's set to take place in Adelaide soon.

(Courtesy Edmonton Sun - http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2009/11/29/11969571-sun.html)

OTTAWA -- They told them they were going to Canada on vacation.

It wasn't long, though, before Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe's grandfather John James Rowley learned the bitter truth. Like thousands of other British Home Children, he had been sent here as cheap labour for the farms of a growing nation.

Now, Duceppe is among those calling on the Canadian government to follow Australia's example and apologize to the 100,000 British Home Children like his grandfather who were sent to Canada, as well as to their estimated four million descendants.

"What is it so tough to say we apologize?" asked Duceppe, likening the treatment of the Home Children to slavery. "I hope they won't say that they didn't know what was happening for 100 years."

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's office has no plans to apologize to the Home Children. However, he will support a private member's motion recognizing 2010 as the year of the British Home Child and commemorative measures such as a stamp.

Duceppe was very close to his grandfather, often spending time with him watching boxing or The Ed Sullivan Show. But he only learned after his grandfather died in 1971 about his past as a home child.

"When I discuss this with Jewish friends, they tell me the same thing about their parents who wouldn't speak about what they lived through during the Second World War. The same thing with him. It seems his life for him started here."

In some ways, Rowley's life in Canada was better than what he left behind in England.

"He was born in Soho in 1895 when Soho was not radical chic. It was more like Dickens than it is now," Duceppe explained. "He was an orphan because his father was an alcoholic who died of alcoholism and his mother jumped in the Thames."

Rowley was placed with a family named Leduc to work on their farm west of Montreal. Although Rowley initially spoke no French, Mrs. Leduc, a teacher, spoke English.

While Rowley was treated well by the Leducs, Duceppe said he was one of the lucky ones. "I know that it was not like that for all the home children."

ELIZABETH.THOMPSON@SUNMEDIA.CA