Walter Rudnicki

  1. QTOT01EN
  • Walter Rudnicki
  • Ottawa

Walter Rudnicki was born in Winnipeg in 1925. He served overseas in the Second World War and moved to Ottawa in 1955 to work with the Arctic Division. He worked with the Welfare Division, and tackled issues such as housing and health, including the return of evacuated children and adults to their parents and home communities in the north. Walter also worked to establish communication between hospitalized patients in the south and their families in the north. He testifies that he never heard of an official edict to get rid of sled dogs, but he expects that there were local or regional initiatives and he acknowledges that loose dogs would have been the target of the RCMP. Walter's testimony includes information on residential schools and the attitudes of government officials, including paternalistic and racist attitudes. He discusses the failed relocation at Ennadai Lake and the failure of the RCMP to investigate the situation. He claims that Canada committed genocide up until 1952, when the government began to introduce reforms in First Nations policy. In his career, Walter also worked with Indian Affairs.