Durant les années 1940, Ottawa a privé les enfants indiens de nourriture pour étudier les effets de la famine.
En 1942, des chercheurs du gouvernement visitaient des réserves éloignées au nord du Manitoba dont The Pas et Norway House. Il y ont trouvé des Indiens affamés; la traite des fourrures s’était effondrée et le support gouvernemental inadéquat. Plutôt que de recommander une augmentation de l’aide gouvernementale, les chercheurs ont décidé que ces Indiens isolés, affamés, dépendants étaient les cobayes parfaits pour étudier diverses diètes.
The first experiment began in 1942 on 300 Norway House Cree. Of that group, 125 were selected to receive vitamin supplements which were withheld from the rest.
At the time, researchers calculated the local people were living on less than 1,500 calories a day. Normal, healthy adults generally require at least 2,000.
“The research team was well aware that these vitamin supplements only addressed a small part of the problem,” Mosby writes. “The experiment seems to have been driven, at least in part, by the nutrition experts’ desire to test their theories on a ready-made ‘laboratory’ populated with already malnourished human experimental subjects.”
The research spread. In 1947, plans were developed for research on about 1,000 hungry aboriginal children in six residential schools in Port Alberni, B.C.; Kenora, Ont.; Schubenacadie, N.S.; and Lethbridge, Alta.
One school deliberately held milk rations for two years to less than half the recommended amount to get a ‘baseline’ reading for when the allowance was increased. At another, children were divided into one group that received vitamin, iron and iodine supplements and one that didn’t.
One school depressed levels of vitamin B1 to create another baseline before levels were boosted. A special enriched flour that couldn’t legally be sold elsewhere in Canada under food adulteration laws was used on children at another school.
And, so that all the results could be properly measured, one school was allowed none of those supplements.
Many dental services were withdrawn from participating schools during that time. Gum health was an important measuring tool for scientists and they didn’t want treatments on children’s teeth distorting results.