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  • An illustration. A silhouette of a hand with broken, twisted fingers frames faces of Indigenous children in school uniforms, seated as if posing for a class picture. The background is the colour of dried blood, and between the silhouetted fingers, the background juts in in the shape of even smaller hands, covering children's eyes, ears, and mouths.

    “More Than Half a Day”: Child Labour at the St. Albert Youville Indian Residential School

    Crystal Gail Fraser

    A letter written by a lawyer in 1939 shows Indigenous families challenging the legality of forced child labour at St. Albert Youville Indian Residential School. For decades, at this school and others, Indigenous children endured exploitation, violence, and dangerous work under the “half-day” system. Parents and children resisted, despite repression. Survivors’ stories demand accountability, truth, and justice, as Canada continues failing to act on reconciliation.

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  • : A three-storey brick cell block is connected to a workshop and another large industrial building with two tall chimneys. There is a large hole in the side of one of the buildings suggesting it had started to be dismantled and/or suffered structural damage. A tilled farm field that would have been worked by prisoners is in the foreground.

    Hard Times in the Alberta Penitentiary, 1906-1920

    Matt Ormandy

    The Alberta Penitentiary operated on Edmonton’s River Lot 20 from 1906 – 1920, where Clarke Stadium is today. It was the first federal prison in Alberta. One constant in prisoners’ lives was unpaid hard labour, from mining coal to farming potatoes.

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