Opened in 1971 on remote Stirland Lake in Northwestern Ontario, Stirland Lake Residential School operated as a boys’ school until 1986 when the school merged with the Cristal Lake girls’ school run by the same organization, Northern Youth Programs. In 1987 students staged a protest against what they considered excessively restrictive conditions at the school. After a cooling off period following the protest, a number of students did not return. The school closed in 1991 when Northern Youth Programs decided to withdraw permanently from providing residential schools programs.
