Duncan Campbell Scott CMG FRSC (August 2, 1862 – December 19, 1947) was a Canadian civil servant and poet and prose writer.

As chance would have it, when Duncan arrived for his interview, the prime minister had a memo on his desk from the Indian Branch of the Department of the Interior asking for a temporary copying clerk.

The entire family moved into a newly built house on 108 Lisgar St., where Duncan Campbell Scott lived for the rest of his life.

It was Scott who initiated wilderness camping trips, a recreation that became Lampman's favourite escape from daily drudgery and family problems.

"[7] In 1892 and 1893, Scott, Lampman, and William Wilfred Campbell wrote a literary column, "At the Mermaid Inn," for the Toronto Globe.

His intention was to conjure up a vision of The Mermaid Inn Tavern in old London where Sir Walter Raleigh founded the famous club whose members included Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and other literary lights.

Before she was born, Scott asked his widowed mother and sisters to find another place to live (his father had died in 1891).

[4] The Government of Canada biography of him says that: Although the quality of Scott's work is uneven, he is at his best when describing the Canadian wilderness and Indigenous peoples.

Although they constitute a small portion of his total output, Scott's widely recognized and valued 'Indian poems' cemented his literary reputation.

In these poems, the reader senses the conflict that Scott felt between his role as an administrator committed to an assimilation policy for Canada's Native peoples and his feelings as a poet, saddened by the encroachment of European civilization on the Indian way of life.

"Probably the best known poem from the collection is 'At the Cedars,' a grim narrative about the death of a young man and his sweetheart during a log-jam on the Ottawa River.

[4] Other notable poems in the volume include the pretty lyric "A Love Song," the long meditation, "The Height of Land," and the even longer "Lines Written in Memory of Edmund Morris."

"[citation needed] His poetry ranged in this collection from the moving war elegy "To a Canadian Aviator Who Died For His Country in France," to the strange, apocalyptic "A Vision."

The Green Cloister, published after Scott's retirement, "is a travelogue of the sites he visited in Europe with Elise: Lake Como, Ravello, Kensington Gardens, East Gloucester, etc.—descriptive and contemplative poems by an observant tourist.

The Circle of Affection (1947) contains 26 poems Scott had written since Cloister, and several prose pieces, including his Royal Society address on "Poetry and Progress.

Aside from his poetry, Scott made his mark in Canadian history as the top-ranking civil servant, deputy superintendent, of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932.

Shortly after he became Deputy Superintendent, he wrote approvingly: 'The happiest future for the Indian race is absorption into the general population, and this is the object and policy of our government.'...

Assimilation, so the reasoning went, would solve the 'Indian problem,' and wrenching children away from their parents to 'civilize' them in residential schools until they were eighteen was believed to be a sure way of achieving the government's goal.

[11][12]In 1910, after Peter Bryce issued a report to the department warning about the severe toll tuberculosis outbreaks were having in residential schools, Scott helped block the implementation of Bryce's recommendations to fight the disease, stating that the frequency of disease outbreaks and the resulting mortality in the schools "does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards a final solution of our Indian Problem.

"It is observed with alarm that the holding of dances by the Indians on their reserves is on the increase, and that these practices tend to disorganize the efforts which the Department is putting forth to make them self-supporting," Scott wrote.

You should suppress any dances which cause waste of time, interfere with the occupations of the Indians, unsettle them for serious work, injure their health or encourage them in sloth and idleness."

Much valid criticism had been leveled against the Residential school system for the often poor conditions and abusive treatment by staff of Indigenous children.

When Scott retired, his "policy of assimilating the Indians had been so much in keeping with the thinking of the time that he was widely praised for his capable administration.

Scott attributed this rise partly to Bill 14's section on compulsory attendance, but also to a more positive attitude among First Nations people toward education.

[18] Despite these statistics, Scott's efforts to bring about assimilation through residential schools could be judged a failure by his own criteria, as many former students retained their language, maintained and preserved their tribe's culture as adults, and refused to accept full Canadian citizenship when it was offered.

Moreover, during the decades of the residential system, only a minority of all enrolled students attended school beyond the elementary grades; thus they often lacked skills to find employment.

[23] The work was republished in 2024 by Stonehewer Books, having received praise from Indigenous and non-Indigenous readers alike, including Bob Rae.

According to a CBC News report, Rhodes felt "Scott's legacy as a civil servant overshadows his work as a pioneer of Canadian poetry".

[24] The editor of Arc Poetry Magazine, Anita Lahey, responded, saying that she thought Scott's actions as head of Indian Affairs were important to remember, but did not eclipse his role in the history of Canadian literature.

"I don't think controversial or questionable activities in the life of any artist or writer is something that should necessarily discount the literary legacy that they leave behind.