Home for Incurables

I will have to stop at the Portage location on my way west this summer.

agent j

"Homes for Incurables" was a (weak) attempt at being more sensitive to the residents and families of previously named "Homes for Defectives". These were not institutions for people with physical health issues but places to congregate people with developmental disabilities mostly (some may have had severe mental illness but as the care and needs are very different that usually did not happen). The care received in large congregate institutions like this for people with development disabilities is considered inferior and dehumanizing when care is often better and cheaper in smaller settings and homes.

The Portage building site is still being used for Manitoba Development Center but I do not think that building is still there. That building had a director that was a strong advocate of being able to kill residents legally (luckily his efforts did not succeed). Needless to say the residents were treated very badly and lived in severely overcrowded conditions. There is a current lawsuit seeking damages from poor treatment over decades (the lawsuit has a scope of over 60 years).

Portage la Prairie has the world's largest Coke can which is weirder, not a "downer", and more of a photo op.