A sociology professor with Memorial University Grenfell Campus is researching a shocking and painful part of recent history which few people are even aware of; the Magdalene Laundries.

The laundries started out as an attempt by the Roman Catholic church to reform so-called wayward and incorrigible women. They were originally intended as a short-term experience to teach women a trade and change their path in life.

Dr. Rie Croll says the laundries, which operated in Ireland, England, Australia and Canada eventually became more punitive institutions.

She says the women and girls were sent there by men, and could only be released by men, and ended up doing laundry work 364 days a year, amounting to slave labour.

Dr. Croll says what few people know is that the laundries also operated in Canada, and she decided to speak to women affected, some of whom are in their 60s and 70s, before it was too late. One of the women she spoke with was actually born in a laundry in Saint John, New Brunswick.

She says for the sin of being raped, her mother was sent to a laundry. The daughter lived her entire the life in the laundry from birth until she finally climbed over a wall and escaped at the age of 18.

The last laundry closed in Dublin, Ireland just 20 years ago.

Croll says the British, Irish and—to a degree—Australian governments have all formally acknowledged the pain and suffering caused by the laundries, but the Canadian government has yet to acknowledge the injustice done to the women affected.

More information on the Magdalene Laundries can be found at this link.