The 2022-2023 Laurier Milton Lecture Series will once again be in-person at the FirstOntario Arts Centre Milton (MinMaxx Hall).

Join Dr. Kate Rossiter, a Laurier researcher who worked alongside survivors of the Huronia Regional Centre and film maker Barri Cohen to discuss the documentary Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children.  The documentary details Barri’s quest to discover the fate of her disabled brothers, and uncovers an institution's shocking history of neglect and abuse. Viewers of the film will come away with an understanding and a new appreciation about the perils of incarceration within care organizations.

Through Rossiter’s careful work, Laurier is in possession of most of Huronia's remaining artifacts,that are featured in the film. Cohen and Rossiter will present their experiences of working with the artifacts and Rossiter will share the digital archive she has created. They will share how a growing awareness about the dehumanization that can occur in institutional care settings, created through the documentary and the archive, can prevent institutional violence. 

Wilfrid Laurier University Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Community Health, Dr. Kate Rossiter studies the effects of institutional violence through her research on the former Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia, Ontario, Canada’s first and largest residential facility for people with intellectual disabilities. She is the co-author of Punishing Conditions: Institutional Violence and Disability, and curates the Recounting Huronia Community Archive.   

Barri Cohen is an award winning independent documentary filmmaker, producer, and writer. She is also a counsellor and is studying psychoanalysis and trauma. She has produced and directed over 50 hours of documentary television focused on families and health. Unloved is her 5th documentary film, which she began in 2014, after the Class Action Settlement.