Mark Carney’s Family Legacy: Catholic Education, Indigenous Assimilation, and the Shadows of Joseph Burr Tyrrell School
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): A Further Inquiry
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/05/14
*Written prior to election.*
Interim Prime Minister Mark Carney of the Liberal Party of Canada will be running in the next federal election in Canada. He came from a Roman Catholic family history, particularly with his father, Robert James “Bob” Carney. He was a Catholic educator who lived and worked in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, in the 1960s. What is the history here? We can focus on superficial news analyses of “culturally retarded” and then leave the narrative about the father of the current Prime Minister, or look more deeply than centre-left news media and opinion in Canada or simply ignore it amongst centre-right media. Let us sidestep those.
Robert Carney served as the Principal of Fort Smith Federal Day School in 1965. Its official name was not Fort Smith Federal day School but Joseph Burr Tyrell School, which focused on the education of Indigenous children. Federally, JBT was run as an ‘Indian day school.” Principal Carney oversaw school Indigenous youth in the Fort Smith locale and children housed in nearby church-run residential facilities.
Carney was deeply committed and connected to the missional work of the Catholic Church in the North of Canada, which was aimed at the local Indigenous communities. He worked at the crossroads of government policy and Catholic educational efforts. Principal Carney was deeply committed to the Catholic faith based on an analysis of statements made in a 1965 CBC Radio interview. He discussed the program at JBT for–in his terms–“culturally retarded” Indigenous children. He defined the “culturally retarded child” as “a child from a Native background who, for various reasons, has not been in regular attendance in school.”
Indigenous children at JBT, in turn, were compared to the Euro-Canadian Catholic cultural and educational standards of the time. Principal Carney implemented assimilationist education policies discouraging the locale’s traditions and languages, favouring the English language and Catholic teachings. When speaking of Fort Smith and surrounding areas, we’re talking of Dene nations, e.g., Smith’s Landing First Nation (Thebacha Dene), Salt River First Nation, and Métis Communities.
These Métis communities were descendants of Dene and European (primarily French) fur traders. The primary language was Dënesųłiné (Chipewyan) by Smith’s Landing First Nation and Salt River First Nation. The Chipewyan people of Smith’s Landing First Nation are descendants of those from lower Slaver River and northeastern Alberta, while Salt River First Nation are those who signed Treaty 8 in 1899.
As per current commentary, Principal Carney was a principal of a federal day school and adhered to assimilationist education policies, but was not a residential school principal. He ran JBT, not the boarding facilities. However, these operated in tandem with the residential institutions of Fort Smith. Indigenous children were boarded at a hostel or residence run by the Catholic Church and then sent to JBT for day classes. Carney participated in the broader residential school infrastructure, while his professional title was Principal of a federal day school.
He was a vertex between Indigenous families and local communities, nuns, and clergy from the Roman Catholic Church who managed the hostels and missionary work. Fort Smith was formative for the work and life of Robert Carney circa 60 years ago. In the broader purview, Fort Smith functioned as a hub for residential schools and assimilationist educational efforts. (Roman Catholic) Church and State in Canada functioned in tandem with the colonial educational efforts of Euro-Canadians and the Catholic hierarchs. Oblate of Mary Immaculate and affiliated clergy had a strong presence with Bishop Gabriel Breynat (after which Breynat Hall was given its title) and Bishop Paul Piché leading initiatives there. The explicit purpose was to Christianize Indigenous children.
The accounts from former students, in addition to historical investigations, document severe abuse and trauma associated with the residential schools of Fort Smith. Grandin College, though, has been remembered–as per the mixed moral history of Canadian society–for its positive mentorship and high-quality education for the time. Breynat Hall is remembered for significant abuses. Survivors continue to speak out. JBT was known for mistreatment and discrimination too.
Jeannie Marie-Jewell, a Fort Smith Dene woman who became an NWT MLA, has recollections. She was made to attend it when her mother was sick. She described the supervision as “structured and strict,” with discipline crossing into cruelty. Others and Marie-Jewell report witnessing sexual abuse and physical abuse at Breynat Hall. Marie-Jewell stated, “At night, I remember I was too scared to look when the priests or the nuns took some of the kids out [of the dorm]. Moreover, these little girls would come back sobbing. So, what did they do with them at night? I spoke to a survivor who was there at the same time as me, and she said she was sexually abused there.” Sexual abuse has been identified at Breynat Hall by multiple survivors. This came to light in the 1990s and 2000s during lawsuits and the TRC process.
JBT’s former students recall a racially segregated and punitive environment. It is reported that non-Aboriginal children sat in the front of the room, and Aboriginal children sat in the back. Corporal punishment was used liberally, using either a ruler or a pointer if a student spoke the Native language or did not adhere to the rules. In the day school, there were violations of privacy and sexual boundaries, physical abuse and humiliation. We do not know the names of specific perpetrators from accounts. Girls were vulnerable and unprotected from predatory staff. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), in its Final Report (2015), documented widespread abuse in residential schools nationally. Fort Smith was no exception. Therefore, Breynat Hall survivors suffered harsh discipline, malnutrition, illness, and abuse at the hands of certain clergy and staff.
Decades later, Robert Carney reflected on the residential school system. He became an academic and remained a devout Catholic. He pursued graduate studies and wrote about Indigenous education policy. In authored articles, he emphasized what he saw as favourable and benign facets of residential schooling. These struck a chord when abuses came out in the 1990s and 2000s. He emphasized increased literacy and the dedication of the missionaries rather than dwelling on the abuses. Some historians have characterized this as “residential school denialism” or a distortion/minimization of residential schools. Interim Prime Minister Mark Carney is drawn into the public discussion due to the legacy and work of his father at JBT.
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