tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post3707234166343760897..comments2024-01-18T08:37:07.265-08:00Comments on Spirit-Wrestlers Blog: Review of News Article about New Denver Residential School ApologyKoozma J. Tarasoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10339083539775964934noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-6548247039269695372023-07-26T20:03:55.449-07:002023-07-26T20:03:55.449-07:00Summaries of parent options for education, includi...Summaries of parent options for education, including using "Doukhobor teachers" with links to 2 sources are added above.Andrei Conovaloffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03643212679332623340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-65129389332417542572023-07-24T00:21:18.534-07:002023-07-24T00:21:18.534-07:00Correct. "Their parents are not involved ...&...Correct. "Their parents are not involved ..." with the New Denver Survivors Collective.Andrei Conovaloffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03643212679332623340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-41874916166511008482013-03-25T13:24:14.228-07:002013-03-25T13:24:14.228-07:00I am new to this blog, but I have lived 2 summers ...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.caPaul Bruhnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-15297428090533842322012-08-27T11:01:39.438-07:002012-08-27T11:01:39.438-07:00The descendents of the Sons of Freedom sect have l...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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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!<br /><br />So again I ask the plaintiffs… Why didn’t your parents concede when the police arrived, and agree to send you to school?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Mischa Popoff, Osoyoos, British Columbia, is a writer of Doukhobor descent with a degree in history. Mischa Popoffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-74507940042369125662012-06-25T10:58:22.071-07:002012-06-25T10:58:22.071-07:00Hello Koozma, I am interested in your statement th...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?Ahna Berikoffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-56290183187826261732012-05-26T23:51:45.357-07:002012-05-26T23:51:45.357-07:00Koozma,
Interesting analysis.
It seems a part o...Koozma,<br /><br />Interesting analysis. <br /><br />It seems a part of the article was misinterpreted, however:<br /><br />"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."<br /><br />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. <br /><br />All the best,<br />KAlyeenaKalyeena Makortoffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-4783197010920801662012-05-25T12:52:09.396-07:002012-05-25T12:52:09.396-07:00Thank you Koozma and Annie for your rational analy...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.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4048398846215710793.post-52157257477247678372012-05-24T22:27:36.506-07:002012-05-24T22:27:36.506-07:00And compensation for land losses resulting in hund...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 peopleJarred Webbnoreply@blogger.com