Thursday 24 May 2012

Review of News Article about
New Denver Residential School Apology

Updated for clarity on 26 July 2023.

New Denver Survivors Collective Complaint to BC Ombudsman

Forcibly taking children from parents is a traumatizing experience whether this be for Indigenous children or that of the Sons of Freedom in the 1950s in the Kootenays of British Columbia. I fully sympathize for the fate of all these children.

An article we corrected: 'New Denver Survivors Doukhobors want apology from B.C. government,' by Kalyeena Makortoff, was published this week [May 21, 2012] in newspapers across Canada, and deserves comment and discussion. 

First, the title is misleading. The article is about children of the Sons of Freedom who organized as the New Denver Survivors Collective, not about 'Doukhobors' as shown in the first word. See all corrections.

Second, the Globe and Mail shows a photo of John J. Verigin Sr. as if he was leader of the Sons of Freedom. He was not. Compare to the photo below from the Toronto Star which really tells a story in one image.

Click for large image.

The image (above) shows a Sons of Freedom prayer meeting. The parents needed special passes to visit, limited to two Sundays per month, one hour each visit. The incarcerated kids are standing behind the fence in their New Denver rehabilitation facility, and their parents are outside the fence, in the foreground. In the center, a traditional small table is seen inside the fence, with a white table cloth on which are bread, salt and water. By ritual the men and women are standing separated, facing each other. 

Third, the story dealt with the 170 survivors of the New Denver School and Dormitory for zealot children, British Columbia, who went through various forms of trauma from 1953 to 1959. In early February of this year, a group calling itself the New Denver Survivors Collective argued before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal that the government has unjustly refused to apologize to the zealot parents. They also pointed out to the hefty compensation packages doled out to other groups who faced abuse at BC-run residential schools as unfair.

Ultimately, the Collective wants the government to carry out recommendations put forward by a 1999 B.C. Ombudsman report, which called for an unconditional, clear and public apology. The human-rights-tribunal ruling is expected late this summer.

The Nelson Daily News reported (Sep. 16, 1954, p.2) that after years of not enforcing the School Act, the zealot parents were given choices:
  1. Set up their own schools to teach religion, and subjects that did not conflict with their beliefs. Previously I said 'home schools'.
  2. Government provided schools, parents can choose teachers who could be pacifists (Doukhobor, Mennonite, Quaker, ...) 
  3. Send children to regular school but excused from objectionable subjects/ classes (military, history, )
The 1952 'Hawthorn report' (pp. 118-120) suggested not using the word 'school' and offering vocational training. No matter what was suggested, the parents rejected all proposals, not because they were against literacy and learning, but many feared retribution from the most zealous who did not trust government.

In reaction, the BC Government, headed by Premier W.A.C. Bennett, took 'a get-tough' policy of forcibly teaching the children at a special location in New Denver, BC at the site where Japanese Canadians were earlier interned during World War II. Periodic raids by RCMP on truant children of the Sons of Freedom became a routine occurrence as their parents feared that the kids were being abused physically and mentally. The experiment in re-charting children (which went against the recommendations of the Hawthorn Committee) was termed 'a disastrous failure'.

A comment in the email section of the Globe and Mail, May 22, 2012, by 'Castle1946', states the situation correctly:

'....These were innocent children, victims of their own parents' misguided belief system. The blame, therefore, lies solely with these fanatical parents who made incredibly bad choices, and did not act in the best interests of their children. They used their children as pawns in their fanaticism and rebellion against the government. When the parents of these children and what is left of the Sons of Freedom community apologize to their own children first, and then apologize to me and others in my Doukhobor community who, as children, were traumatized by their terrorist activities, then and only then should the government proceed with apologies on its part if it deems it fitting.'

Another comment comes from Annie Barnes of Alberta, who wrote a letter to the editor of The Province (Vancouver), copied to me but not published. Annie is a former hospital equipment planner and author. Here is her letter:

Dear Editor:

The innocent children of New Denver paid the price for their Sons of Freedom parents' often misguided and misunderstood beliefs. No question, we [Doukhobors] have empathy for them. However, innocent children of Orthodox [Community Doukhobor] and Independent Doukhobor parents also paid the price for many years due to the actions and publicity about the Sons of Freedom sect [reporting that Sons of Freedom are Doukhobors].

Orthodox [Community Doukhobor] villages were set aflame while these [Community Doukhobor] children slept. Their parents were constantly vigilant, on guard, fearful their home could be next.

Independent Doukhobor children and young adults were all tainted in the media by the actions and demonstrations of the Sons of Freedom sect, often stopped and searched during roadblocks because our names ended in Off. In the fifties and sixties, even the seventies, we were sometimes denied our rightful place in society or the community or the university because of the actions and demonstrations of this sect.

Early non-Doukhobor immigrants were often denied many privileges given to others born in Canada. Should everyone ask for an apology, or should we, as pacifist Doukhobors forgive ourselves and others as we were taught to do by our forefathers?

Yours very truly,
Annie B. Barnes


In conclusion, in my opinion, all Canadian Doukhobors, not just the New Denver Survivors, deserve an apology, compensation and treatment, because:
  1. All Canadian Doukhobors were victims. They were repeatedly blamed and abused by and for the actions of the Sons of Freedom by the media, government, and academia, who all lied and widely published that all Canadian Doukhobors are bad people.
  2. The Canadian government punished all Doukhobors who did not sign an oath of allegiance or affirmation to the Crown.
  3. The Canadian government profiled all citizens with Russian surnames, mostly Doukhobors, as suspect terrorists, which caused police to check everyone in the interior of BC.
  4. The Sons of Freedom parents, who opposed education, are responsible for their children being taken to New Denver.
  5. The Sons of Freedom should apologize to all Doukhobors for their violent actions of arson and bombings which traumatized generations of Doukhobors.
The reputation of all Doukhobors, the 'Doukhobor Movement', and Sons of Freedom and their descendants, are polluted by lies, which fooled the Canadian people and world that Doukhobors are the terrorist nudists, while a different group called 'Sons of Freedom' (Freedomites) were the actual terrorist nudists. 

The media, Canadian government, and academia, are all guilty of helping the 'Sons of Freedom' to 'hijack' the Doukhobor identity, which must be restored to correct more than a century of misinformation.

8 comments:

  1. And compensation for land losses resulting in hundreds of thousands of acres, use it towards cultural programs and economic progression, I would advise the USCC and other groups to take a look into what Cheif Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band does for his people

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  2. Thank you Koozma and Annie for your rational analysis of the situation. I now hope that you and many others can send articles to ISKRA. The last issue was abominable and insulting to many of us that suffered depridations from these fanatical parents as well. The innocent interned New Denver children were pawns in their parents fanatical beliefs. The parents, clearly, had rational choices, as you say, but they were unable to make them for their own selfish reasons. The children should first look internally for a solution to their problems...first an apology from their parents.

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  3. Kalyeena Makortoff26 May 2012 at 23:51

    Koozma,

    Interesting analysis.

    It seems a part of the article was misinterpreted, however:

    "In early February of this year, a group calling itself the New Denver Survivors Collective argued before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal that the government has unjustly refused to apologize to the zealot parents."

    The group is made up of survivors of New Denver, and they themselves are looking for an apology. Their parents are not involved as far as I am aware.

    All the best,
    KAlyeena

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    Replies
    1. Correct. "Their parents are not involved ..." with the New Denver Survivors Collective.

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  4. Hello Koozma, I am interested in your statement that "In the 1950s, the zealot parents were given the choice of home schooling using local Doukhobor teachers." Is there evidence of this that can be accessed?

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    1. Summaries of parent options for education, including using "Doukhobor teachers" with links to 2 sources are added above.

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  5. The descendents of the Sons of Freedom sect have launched an action through B.C.’s Human Rights Tribunal demanding an apology from the B.C. government for using the police to force them into a residential school in New Denver back in the 1950s.

    I have two questions to ask the plaintiffs in this case. Why didn’t your parents just send you to school when you were kids? Didn’t your parents want you to learn English like everyone else in this country?

    The Sons of Freedom left the Prairies and quit being Doukhobors (my people) to continue living the way our ancestors did back in Russia. Why go to such lengths to escape oppression in Czarist Russia only to attempt to re-create our Old-World existence here in the New World?

    For my great grandparents and their children, adopting the language and ways of our new culture, for the most part, came naturally. Sure, it was difficult for some, and learning a new language is never easy. But my predecessors knew that after being rescued by Queen Victoria (who had been petitioned by none other than Leo Tolstoy to help us), and after receiving free land, we owed at least some debt of gratitude to Canada. Not so for the Sons of Freedom.

    They claimed children were being taught militarism in Canadian schools; an absurd notion, largely based on the fact that portraits of England’s King and Queen hung in public schools, just as they do to this day. But to hear my dad and granddad explain it, rural schooling in the 1950s comprised entirely of reading, writing and arithmetic, precisely the type of learning we had been denied when we were illiterate peasants back in Russia!

    But, alas, to the recalcitrant Sons of Freedom it all had to be escaped. And, once established in the Interior of B.C., they went as far as to burn down their own property, blow up public property, and march in the nude, just to demonstrate their rejection of all that was Canadian. This was quite embarrassing for those of us who stayed in the Prairies.

    But it was the refusal to send their children to school that really set the communal Sons of Freedom apart from independent Doukhobors like my grandparents.

    To this day, failing to send a child to school is not taken lightly by officials, and rightly so. But for the Sons of Freedom it was their way or the highway. And that brings us to where this story began… to the point where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called upon by provincial authorities here in B.C. to take children away simply so they could be educated, and not be radicalized like their parents whose actions, let’s face it, often amounted to terrorism, plain and simple.

    Quite unlike this country’s First Nations’ people who had no choice whatsoever in being forced to watch as their kids were taken away to residential schools, sometimes never to be seen again, the Sons of Freedom had a choice.

    Try to imagine sticking to your guns on a matter of principle and not being willing to concede, not one iota, as your own flesh and blood was being ripped away from you. Wouldn’t you at least consider conceding the point?

    While my grandparents and every other independent Doukhobor that stayed in Saskatchewan embraced education, the Sons of Freedom were antagonistically intent on rejecting it, so much so that they were willing to let their own children be taken away just to demonstrate their resolve. Shameful!

    So again I ask the plaintiffs… Why didn’t your parents concede when the police arrived, and agree to send you to school?

    There is no valid claim here. The people who ran B.C.’s Ministry of Education so long ago did the right thing. The issue is, quite clearly, with the parents of the plaintiffs.

    Mischa Popoff, Osoyoos, British Columbia, is a writer of Doukhobor descent with a degree in history.

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  6. I am new to this blog, but I have lived 2 summers in the Castlegar/Grandforks area and I try to visit there when I can to get to know the people there better as well as reading what is available . I have spent many hours discussing the topics in this blog with many people in the area. I havent been able to meet or visit the people in the New settlement or Gilpin. If anybody is interested in meeting next summer in the area and exchanging a few emails before then, I would be interested in doing that. Paul Bruhn pb54321pb@yahoo.ca

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