Media for social change

Ryerson University, in Toronto Ontario, was named after a Egerton Ryerson--the founder of Canada’s public education system. In 1847, the superintendent general for Indian affairs in Upper Canada asked Egerton, who was the superintendent of education at the time, to prepare a report that considers strategies for native education. In it, Ryerson suggested that the federal government educate “Indians” in separate schools that focused on religion and manual labour. To some, his report marked the beginning of the residential school system in Canada — a national calamity that natives and non-natives have considered a genocide.

In this dossier, students from a Cross-Cultural Communications class at Ryerson University come together to present media on the subject. The media we submit does not aim to present a one-sided, accusational tone of one man but rather offer some insight into the history of Ryerson and residencial schools, as well as the atrocities that they have produced.

We invite you, the audience, to contribute to this dossier by sharing your own media on this issue and letting us know if you feel that schools named after Egerton Ryerson should be changed. Is this an approprialte consideration?

Do you know of another institution whose name is controversial?