Tremendous expose on widespread racism towards indigenous People in Canada. In this case, the area around Thunder Bay. The fact that this situation continues even after the reports on the atrocities committed in the residential schools and the investigations into the missing and murdered indigenous women is a disgrace. Great book for discussion groups.

I had never heard anything about these seven teens that were from a reservation in Canada. But, once I started reading, I could not stop. This book was well researched and will make you run through a variety of emotions. It was disgraceful what happened and how it seemed no one cared. Thank you to the author and the publisher for telling Chanie Wenjack's story as well as the others. Very strong reading. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

After the death of Chanie Wenjack in 1966, a twelve-year-old boy who ran away from his residential school and froze to death, an inquest was called and recommendations were made to prevent this tragedy from happening to another Indigenous child in Canada. And yet, decades later the tragic deaths of Indigenous children and teenagers continue to happen throughout the country.

From 2000 to 2011, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. None of them were from the city, they had all travelled hundreds of kilometres from their homes to be able to continue their educations. But what they found in Thunder Bay was loneliness and trouble amidst a terrain that was hostile toward Indigenous people.

Focusing a chapter on each of the students, award-winning journalist Tanya Talaga examines how the residential schools system has broken Indigenous families, the perilous journey many Indigenous teens have to make to finish their education, and how the Indigenous experience in Canada is an obvious violation of human rights.

Lately, I have been reading quite a bit of material about the residential school system in Canada, the plight of Indigenous people, and the importance of truth and reconciliation. And I thought that I was at the point where nothing could surprise me anymore. And along came this book. Over the years I have read about these children in the Toronto Star, the newspaper for which Talaga works, and I knew bits and pieces of what happened but I did not understand the conditions that made these deaths complete and utter tragedies.

This whole book broke my heart. To read about the experience these children had at the hands of the local community in Thunder Bay along with the systemic racism that so obviously exists in the police force there made me so angry at my country. The lengths to which the teachers and elders in the Indigenous community in Thunder Bay went in order to protect the children in their care is incredible. But no matter how hard they tried they were hampered by a lack of resources and a daunting assignment.

This is a must-read book, not just for Canada but for everyone. The book has been nominated for the 2017 Writer’s Trust Non-Fiction prize and it is so deserving of that nomination.

Jordan Wabash. Kyle Morriseau. Curran Strang. Robyn Harper. Paul Panache’s. Reggie Bushie. Jethro Anderson. These are the names of the children who were failed by this country. These are the names of the children who remind us that we need to do better. We owe it to them.

Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley
Tamra Jewel Keepness.
Name doesn’t ring a bell to many people here in the United States. In 2004, the five-year member of Whitebear First Nation went missing from her family home in Reinga. She has never been found. I only know about because I was in Montreal shortly after she was reported missing, when the story was showed on Canadian news. I remember thinking at the time that it such coverage seemed to be different than that of the US, were the only people who seem to go missing are attractive white women or old forgetful people, at least according to the national news.
I found myself thinking of Keepness while reading this book, in part because the book showed me how wrong I was.
Prior to reading this book I knew about the reputation of Residential Schools, of the taking of Native/First Nation children by whites in order to “civilize” or “assimilate” them in both the US and Canada, and I have read reports and watched documentaries about the large number of First Nation women missing and killed in Canada, including along Highway 16. Yet, there was a sense that Canada at least owned up to the injustice in a way that the United States has not done.
Nope. Wrong about that.
Talaga’s book looks at the deaths of seven indigenous students from a school in Thunder Bay. The students lied in Thunder Bay, but they came from small Northern communities that lacked adequate schooling. The only way for the students to get a good education, the First Nation schools in their communities either being non-existent or severally underfunded. It is also a condemnation of a society and a government that does little to nothing to correct the issues that are a result of colonialism and racism. Of school that is underfunded but tries, and a town that does little to deal with hate crimes.
Talaga tells the story from the indigenous point of view. This means that the focus is on racism and government responsibility as well as, at times, culture shock of moving to a city from a town of 300 people or less. So, this isn’t drink done them wrong, at least no more than drink does any teen wrong. Additionally, while details are given about the lives of the people whom Talaga is writing about, she doesn’t Romanize them. It is reporting, all the more damning because of it. In part, this is all due to Talaga herself who is honest enough to admit that when the germ of the story started, she was reporting on something completely different.
It’s important to remember that the focus is on seven young lives that were lost, all in a similar way. It chronicles not only the crime but also the reaction of society and the struggle to get justice. It also is a look at the families. What would you do if there was no school for your child at home, and the closest school was 100s of miles away? You also have more than one child.
The book is both eye-opening and anger inducing.