Canada was born constitutionally in 1867, the year of the publication of the first volume of Das Kapitalmaster work of Karl Marx devoted to the genesis and development of capitalist society.
The Dominion then entered its second industrial revolution by massifying the production of goods after having developed since the beginning of the 19the century mines and transport (by rails and canals). The social tensions created by the new mode of production quickly triggered a royal commission of inquiry, with a quasi-Marxist title, since it dealt with “capital and labor in Canada”.
The report of the commission filed in 1889 will accompany the first regulations on the working world. The survey gives a voice to young people and their employers in booming factories, particularly in Montreal, the industrial cradle of the young country. One of the question (Q) and answer (R) excerpts goes as follows:
“Q. When there’s a lot of work you work overtime, don’t you? A. Yes, sir.
Q. At what time, to your knowledge, did the children leave the factory on press days? A. When we work overtime, we work until nine o’clock in the evening and the children leave the factory at that time.
Q. Are you saying that the children of ten years of age that you mentioned and below stayed at the factory from six and twenty-five minutes in the morning until nine o’clock in the evening on those days? A. Yes, sir. »
We repeat: 10-year-old children then worked up to 15 hours a day, and often six days a week. So we’ve come a long, long way since those days at La Zola.
Quebec has just tabled a new bill this week to reframe child labor. Those under the age of 14 will no longer be able to work, with some exceptions (for babysitting, for example). Teenagers aged 14 to 16, whose education remains compulsory, will not be able to work more than 17 hours a week.
What is a young person?
Comparison is not right. To talk about child labor, we must first clarify these two terms. Childhood has not always been seen as it is seen now.
“The 19the century changes the conceptions we have of the child”, summarizes Joanne Burgess, professor at UQAM specializing in socio-economic history in Canada and Quebec in the 19th century.e and at the XXe century. She cites the book Pricing the Priceless Child (1994) by Viviana Zelizer on this great cultural change.
“These changes come primarily from middle-class and elite circles. We begin to see childhood as a distinct moment in a life course. We develop the notion of the age of innocence with the idea of protecting the child, of letting him play. We are no longer in front of a small adult, but in front of a different being. »
Professor Magda Fahrni, also a professor at UQAM, a specialist in family history and this period in particular, echoes this same idea. “The ages that make a child are inherited from the 19e century,” she sums up, noting that the first Canadian labor laws dating from the years of the Royal Commission of Inquiry legalized the hiring of a boy at 12 and a girl at 14. “Our age categories have not evolved much, except perhaps for what is called adolescence and which remains a phenomenon of the XXe century. »
What is work?
Work is also not what it used to be. Before the 19the century, and in fact for millennia, girls and boys contribute to domestic tasks and the family economy, without ever being paid. “We work more by task than by hours of work,” says Ms.me Fahrni. The house and the fields need arms, and the younger ones supply them intermittently.
“Except for exceptional groups of the elite, children have a contribution to make to the economic activity of the family,” says Professor Burgess, who has particularly studied the artisanal world. Apprentices, clerks or servants begin their apprenticeship around the age of 14 or 15. The youngest of 9 or 10 years old in these same situations are often fatherless or motherless.
This world changes with the appearance of factories. “Industrialization is accompanied by economic measures, such as the enclosure movement in England which undermines agriculture to force people to migrate to find work. The logic is to ensure the economic survival of the family. The children are then integrated into work in the mines or factories, especially in textiles, where the jobs do not require extensive training or significant physical strength. »
When Confederation was formed in 1867, 17% of the population lived in cities. In 1921, the proportion rose to half. In Montreal, in 1871, according to the census, 25% of boys aged 11 to 14 earned a salary, probably minimal. “That doesn’t mean they work every day or every week,” notes Professor Fahrni. But they work during the year to help their family. »
Their miserable conditions make one shudder. Marx describes the proletarian as “an appendage of flesh on a monster of steel”. The small proletarians who often in winter never see the light of day are assigned to tasks using their agility, for example to connect the threads of mechanical looms or oil the cogs. Accidents happen, of course.
“Besides, they are treated like children,” says Professor Fahrni. Not in the sense that they are protected, in the sense that the foreman or the factory owner can beat them to discipline them. »
What do the laws say?
The first Quebec legislation already setting the minimum age of employment at 14 was adopted in 1907, twelve years after Ontario, seven years after Manitoba. Professor Fahrni points out, however, that these laws governing hiring and working conditions are not always respected and provide for exceptions. They also don’t apply to smaller factories, for example.
Above all, Quebec is very far behind on compulsory education, the other major legislative means of keeping young people out of factories and businesses. The great legal intervention came here in 1943 under the Liberal government of Adélard Godbout. France already had its own since 1882, Ontario since 1891, and all the American states arrived there by 1918.
Quebec law obliges parents to send their offspring to school from 6 to 14 years old under penalty of fines. It is still possible to obtain waivers of a total of six weeks by submitting a written request. Professor Fahrni points out this time that even without legislation, many young people were already attending school here too. “There is often a gap between law and practice. »
The delay remains obvious. One element of the explanation can be found in the industrial structure of Quebec. The over-represented tobacco and textile sectors depend more on young workers. The major cause once again points to the influence of the Catholic Church, which is opposed to an increase in the role of the State and thus would undermine paternal authority and the autonomy of the family unit.
“The great development of the XXe century has it said that a child is addicted, says Professor Fahrni. He no longer has to contribute to the family economy as in the past. As early as the Second World War, when the economy was running at full speed and teenagers and women alike could work in factories, people rose up to say that children should go back to school to better ensure their future. »
The new shortage of employees also encourages the hiring of young people and the intervention of the State to better protect them, in particular against accidents. Nevertheless, childhood, work, capitalism and society have changed a lot since 1867…
“We are no longer in the logic of children contributing to the family economy in most cases,” says Professor Burgess. Myself, when I worked as a teenager, it was to buy my own things. It’s been some time, let’s say since the late 1960s, that for many young people, work is not an obligation, but rather a rewarding experience. »