It turns out that Gilles Duceppe, former Bloc Quebecois leader, has more anglo blood coursing through his veins than many English-speakers here opposed to his views on sovereignty.
Duceppe’s maternal grandfather, John James Rowley, hailed from the other side of the pond. He was one of an estimated 100,000 orphaned, abandoned and/or poor children who were dispatched to Canada from the British Isles between the mid-19th and mid-20th century, ostensibly to help alleviate a labour shortage here. Known as the British Home Children, many of these new arrivals were treated terribly, and were often exploited.
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