Peter Bryce

{{Short description|Canadian government physician (1853–1932)}} {{for|the Canadian Methodist and United Church of Canada minister|Peter Bryce (clergyman)}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Peter Bryce | honorific_suffix = | image = File:Peter H. Bryce.jpg | alt = Portrait of Peter Henderson Bryce taken in 1899 | caption = Bryce in 1899 | birth_date = {{birth date |1853|08|17}} | birth_place = Mount Pleasant, Ontario | death_date = {{death date and age |1932|01|15 |1853|08|17}} | death_place = At sea near West Indies | death_cause = | resting_place = Beechwood Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | residence = | nationality = | fields = Public health | workplaces = | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Upper Canada College * University of Toronto (BA 1876, MA 1877, MB 1880, MD 1886)}} | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse = {{marriage|Kate Lynde Pardon|1882}} | relatives = George Bryce (brother) | children = 6 | footnotes = }} '''Peter Henderson Bryce''' (August 17, 1853 – January 15, 1932) was a public health physician for the Ontario provincial and Canadian federal governments. As a public official he submitted reports that highlighted the mistreatment of Indigenous students in the Canadian Indian residential school system and advocated for the improvement of environmental conditions at the schools. He also worked on the health of immigrant populations in Canada.

==Biography== Peter Bryce was born in Mount Pleasant, Ontario, on August 17, 1853.<ref name="FitzGerald">{{cite journal|last1=FitzGerald|first1=J. G.|title=Doctor Peter H. Bryce|journal=Canadian Public Health Journal|date=February 1932|volume=23|issue=2|pages=88–91|jstor=41976579}}</ref> He obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto, where he studied natural science geology, and went on to study neurology in Paris. He lectured in 1878-79 at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario, in science and applied chemistry.<ref name="Lux">{{cite book|last1=Lux|first1=Maureen K.|title=Medicine that walks : disease, medicine, and Canadian Plains native people, 1880 - 1940|date=2001|publisher=Univ. of Toronto Press|location=Toronto [u.a.]|isbn=9780802082954|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ejSqbqXHQqoC&q=inauthor%3A%22Maureen%20Katherine%20Lux%22&pg=PP1|access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref> Bryce served as the first secretary of the Ontario Board of Health from 1882 to 1904, and was also named as Ontario's first Chief Officer of Health in 1887 and Ontario Deputy Registrar General (in charge of Vital Statistics) in 1892.<ref name="Morgan">{{cite book|last1=Morgan|first1=Henry James|title=The Canadian men and women of the time : a handbook of Canadian biography|url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.02221/146?r=0&s=1|publisher=W. Briggs|year=1898 |location=Toronto|pages=122–123}}</ref> He was a member of the Canadian Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, and in 1900 became the first Canadian president of the American Public Health Association.<ref name="Dickin" /> Topics of his early papers included hypnotism, malaria, smallpox, diphtheria, sewage disposal, cholera, water supplies, ventilation, milk supply problems, tuberculosis, and the influence of forests on rainfall and health.<ref name="Morgan" />

In 1904 Bryce was appointed the Chief Medical Officer of the federal Departments of the Interior and Indian Affairs.<ref name="FitzGerald"/><ref name="Dickin">{{cite web|last1=Dickin|first1=Janice|date=2013|title=Peter Henderson Bryce|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/peter-henderson-bryce|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|publisher=Historica Canada|access-date=August 27, 2019}}</ref> His 1905 and 1906 annual reports emphasized the abnormally high death rates for Indigenous peoples in Canada. In 1907 he wrote a "Report on the Indian Schools of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories" describing the health conditions of the Canadian residential school system in western Canada and British Columbia. This report was published without its recommendations, as Bryce discussed in his 1922 book ''The Story of a National Crime: Being a Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921''.

Bryce wrote that Indigenous children enrolled in residential schools were deprived of adequate medical attention and sanitary living conditions. He suggested improvements to national policies regarding the care and education of Indigenous peoples.<ref name="TRCExec">{{cite web|title=Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future - Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada|url=http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Exec_Summary_2015_05_31_web_o.pdf|publisher=The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada|access-date=28 June 2016|date=31 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921023350/http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Exec_Summary_2015_05_31_web_o.pdf|archive-date=21 September 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Sproule-Jones">{{cite journal|last1=Sproule-Jones|first1=Megan|title=Crusading for the Forgotten: Dr. Peter Bryce, Public Health, and Prairie Native Residential Schools|journal=Canadian Bulletin of Medical History|date=1996|volume=13|issue=2|pages=199–24|doi=10.3138/cbmh.13.2.199|pmid=11620073|doi-access=free}}</ref> In a 1907 report Bryce cited an average mortality rate of between 15% and 24% among the schools' children and 42% in Aboriginal homes, where sick children were sometimes sent to die.<ref name="LHF">{{cite book|title=Hope and Healing: the Legacy of the Indian Residential School System|date=March 2014|publisher=Legacy of Hope Foundation|location=Ottawa|isbn=978-1-77198-002-9|url=http://staging.legacyofhope.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Hope-Healing-2014_web.pdf|access-date=4 May 2017}}</ref>{{rp|9}} Bryce noted that the lack of certainty about the exact number of deaths was, in part, due to the official reports submitted by school principals and "defective way in which the returns had been made."<ref name="TRCHistoryPart1">{{cite web|title=Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1 Origins to 1939|work=Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Volume 1|url=http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Volume_1_History_Part_1_English_Web.pdf|publisher=National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation|author=Truth and Reconciliation Commission|access-date=1 July 2016|date=2015|archive-date=5 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305044526/http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Volume_1_History_Part_1_English_Web.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|405}}

He appealed his forced retirement from the Civil Service in 1921 and was denied, subsequently publishing his suppressed report condemning the treatment of the Indigenous at the hands of the Department of Indian Affairs that had been given the responsibility under the British North America Act.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bryce|first=Peter Henderson|url=https://archive.org/details/storyofnationalc00brycuoft|title=The story of a national crime|publisher=J. Hope and Sons|year=1922|location=Ottawa, Canada|author-link=Peter Bryce|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> thumb|right|Bryce's grave site in Ottawa Bryce died on January 15, 1932, while travelling in the West Indies.<ref name="FNCaring">{{cite web|title=Who was Dr. Peter Henderson Bryce?|url=https://fncaringsociety.com/peter-bryce|publisher=First Nations Child & Family Caring Society|access-date=5 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416065935/https://fncaringsociety.com/peter-bryce|archive-date=16 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Dr. Bryce is buried and honoured at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, the same location as Nicholas Flood Davin, author of the 1879 Davin Report that called for the establishment of a residential school system in Canada and Duncan Campbell Scott who served as deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913-1932.

== Legacy == To assist reconciliation while also addressing historical and societal injustices, Beechwood Cemetery has a Reconciling History program, where “school children of all backgrounds...place paper hearts of gratitude and remembrance at Dr. Bryce’s grave site, as they do their own part for reconciliation."<ref name="Deachman">{{cite news|last=Deachman|first=Bruce|title=Beechwood ceremony to honour medical officer's tenacity|url=https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/beechwood-ceremony-to-honour-medical-officers-tenacity|access-date=5 September 2016|publisher=Ottawa Citizen|date=14 August 2015}}</ref><ref name="Hay Blackstock Kirlew pp. E223–E224">{{cite journal | last1=Hay | first1=Travis | last2=Blackstock | first2=Cindy | last3=Kirlew | first3=Michael | title=Dr. Peter Bryce (1853–1932): whistleblower on residential schools | journal=Canadian Medical Association Journal | publisher=CMA Joule Inc. | volume=192 | issue=9 | date=2020-03-02 | issn=0820-3946 | doi=10.1503/cmaj.190862 | pages=E223–E224| pmid=32122982 | pmc=7055949 }}</ref><ref name="Ottawa Citizen 1970">{{cite web | title=Reconciling History with Canada's First Nations - Beechwood Cemetery's program of national healing through truth and education | website=Ottawa Citizen | date=1970-01-01 | url=https://ottawacitizen.com/sponsored/life-sponsored/reconciling-history-with-canadas-first-nations-beechwood-cemeterys-program-of-national-healing-through-truth-and-education | access-date=2021-05-30}}</ref>

There are multiple plaques commemorating Bryce's efforts in improving public health and his outspoken views on residential schools. The first was erected in 2015 near Bryce's grave by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Doctor who blew whistle on atrocities of residential schools honoured in Ottawa {{!}} CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/peter-bryce-plaque-ottawa-national-truth-reconciliation-1.6599608 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251217185206/https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/peter-bryce-plaque-ottawa-national-truth-reconciliation-1.6599608 |archive-date=2025-12-17 |access-date=2026-04-18 |work=CBC |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="Dickin" /> Heritage Toronto would later erect a plaque in 2020 on the University of Toronto campus as part of its plaques program.

In 2024, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Steven Guilbeault announced that Dr Bryce would be classified as a person of national historic significance.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Parks Canada Agency |first=Government of Canada |date=2024-10-17 |title=Peter Henderson Bryce (1853–1932) — National Historic Person - Peter Henderson Bryce (1853–1932) National Historic Person |url=https://parks.canada.ca/culture/designation/personnage-person/peter-henderson-bryce |access-date=2026-04-18 |website=parks.canada.ca}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Canada (HQ) |first=Parks |title=Government of Canada recognizes Peter Henderson Bryce as a person of national historic significance |url=https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/government-of-canada-recognizes-peter-henderson-bryce-as-a-person-of-national-historic-significance-836621783.html |access-date=2026-04-18 |website=www.newswire.ca |language=en}}</ref>

==Publications== *{{cite journal| title=Small-Pox in Canada, and the Methods of Dealing with it in the Different Provinces | journal=Public Health Papers and Reports | volume=11 | pages=166–181 | year=1885 |publisher=American Public Health Association | pmc=2266210 | last1=Bryce | first1=P. H. | pmid=19600241 }} *{{cite web|title=The duty of the public in dealing with tuberculosis: being a paper read before the Association of Executive Health Officers of Ontario, at Ottawa, October 27th, 1898|url=https://archive.org/details/dutyofpublicinde00bryc/mode/2up|format=|date=27 October 1898 | access-date=5 June 2021}} *{{cite web|title=Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, for the fiscal year ended 30th June, 1905.|url=https://archive.org/details/1906v40i12p27_0357/page/n337/mode/2up |date=1906|publisher=Department of Indian Affairs|access-date=11 July 2021|pages=271–278}} *{{cite web|title=Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, for the fiscal year ended 30th June, 1906.|url=https://archive.org/details/19061907v41i11p27_0433/page/n307/mode/2up|date=1907|publisher=Department of Indian Affairs|access-date=5 September 2016|pages=272–284}} *"Report on the Indian schools of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories". ''Internet Archive.'' Ottawa : Government Printing Bureau, 1907. Retrieved 5 June 2021. *"Insanity in immigrants: a paper read before the American Public Health Association, at Richmond, Va., October, 1909". ''Internet Archive.'' Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1910. Retrieved 5 June 2021. *"The illumination of Joseph Keeler, Esq., or, On, to the land!". ''Internet Archive.'' Boston, Mass.: The American Journal of Public Health, 1915. Retrieved 5 June 2021. *{{cite web|title=The story of a national crime : being an appeal for justice to the Indians of Canada; the wards of the nation, our allies in the Revolutionary War, our brothers-in-arms in the Great War – Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20230315|website=Internet Archive|publisher=James Hope and Sons |location=Ottawa |access-date=5 September 2016|date=1922}}

== See also == *List of Canadian residential schools *United States Indian Boarding School *New Zealand Native schools *Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission *Canada - Institutional racism *[https://www.knockaboutmedia.com/story-of-a-national-crime ''The Story of a National Crime''] podcast at Knockabout Media.

==Sources== {{cite journal | last1=Hay | first1=Travis | last2=Blackstock | first2=Cindy | last3=Kirlew | first3=Michael | title=Dr. Peter Bryce (1853–1932): whistleblower on residential schools | journal=Canadian Medical Association Journal | publisher=CMA Joule Inc. | volume=192 | issue=9 | date=2020-03-02 | issn=0820-3946 | doi=10.1503/cmaj.190862 | pages=E223–E224| pmid=32122982 | pmc=7055949 }}

{{cite DCB|last=Lux|first=Maureen K.| title=“BRYCE, PETER HENDERSON,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003– | url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/bryce_peter_henderson_16E.html}}

==References== <references />

==External links== {{cite web|title=He was a whistleblower, who exposed deadly conditions in residential schools.|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/he-was-a-whistleblower-who-exposed-deadly-conditions-in-residential-schools-1.3193371|publisher=CBC News|access-date=6 September 2016|date=17 August 2015}}

Pushed out and silenced, CBC Unreserved, April 20, 2020| access date= 19 May 2020 .https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/exploring-the-past-finding-connections-in-little-known-indigenous-history-1.5531914/pushed-out-and-silenced-how-one-doctor-was-punished-for-speaking-out-about-residential-schools-1.5534953

{{cite web |last1=Fraser |first1=Crystal |last2=Logan |first2=Tricia |last3=Orford |first3=Neil |title=A doctor's century-old warning on residential schools can help find justice for Canada's crimes |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-a-doctors-century-old-warning-on-residential-schools-can-help-find/ |website=The Globe and Mail |access-date=28 May 2022 |date=17 July 2021 |quote=Peter Henderson Bryce detailed to Ottawa how its colonial policies were killing children, but his report and a self-published pamphlet from 1922 went unheeded.}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryce, Peter}} Category:1853 births Category:1932 deaths Category:Canadian human rights activists Category:Canadian public health doctors Category:Canadian whistleblowers Category:Canadian Indigenous rights activists * * Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:People who died at sea Category:Burials at Beechwood Cemetery (Ottawa) Category:People from the County of Brant