CANADA
Alberni Valley Times
Eric Plummer / Alberni Valley Times
July 23, 2014
One of the most vocal opponents of the Alberni Indian Resident School has died, leaving behind a host of unanswered questions in what many believe is a black mark on the Alberni Valley’s history.
At the age of 10 Alvin Dixon was taken from his family in Bella Bella to attend the school in 1947, part of a mandatory federal program designed to assimilate First Nations children into mainstream society. He would spend the next eight years at the Alberni school, eventually studying at the University of British Columbia and leading careers in teaching, councilling and social activism. Dixon passed on Sunday at the age of 77 in Vancouver.
He was one of several former students at the local school to accuse the institution of experimenting the effects of malnutrition on students. A study released last summer by University of Guelph historian Ian Mosby backed up Dixon’s claims, determining that students were deficient in vitamins A, B, C, iodine and riboflavin due to a lack of fruits, vegetables, eggs, milk and cheese. To measure the effects of an enhanced dairy intake, the amount of milk in students’ diets was tripled.
“There’s no question that there’s more to be discovered and there’s no question that the health issues are reverberating today. It’s disgusting,” said Dixon in an interview with the Victoria Times Colonist last year. “This government is no different from the government 40 or 50 years ago. Racism is still rampant.”
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