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Investigative Journalism Foundation
Indigenous

Hepatitis outbreaks in First Nations repeat residential school history

Residential school records reveal familiar pattern of poor conditions, government inaction fuelling epidemics

Sav Jonsa
Sav Jonsa

7 Aug 2026 • 10 min read

Five children stand outside the Pangnirtung Federal Day School, facing a wooden nativity scene laid across the front of the building.
A hepatitis A outbreak closed the Pangnirtung Federal Day School in Nunavut for a few weeks in late 1964. Outbreaks continue to plague First Nation communities in Canada. (Joseph Vincent Jacobson and family fonds/Library and Archives Canada)

Sav Jonsa
Sav Jonsa

Sav Jonsa is a Winnipeg-based journalist focused on Indigenous affairs. They see journalism as a tool for bringing colonial powers to account and continuing their ancestors’ fight against corruption.

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