Doukhobor children housed in a New Denver facility often only saw their parents every two weeks through the chain link fence that surrounded it. Photo courtesy of Walter Swetlishoff.

Editor’s note: This story was edited on Nov. 30 to reflect information from the BC Human Rights Tribunal indicating that no date has yet been set for the tribunal hearing into the New Denver Survivors’ human rights complaint.

Doukhobors taken from their families as children in the 1950s could soon have their story told at a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, a development they’re hailing as a victory in a decades-long struggle.

“It’s an exceptional victory,” said Walter Swetlishoff, who was one of those children. “All the New Denver survivors have worked tirelessly on this and are still working toward the resolution.”

Swetlishoff is the spokesperson for the New Denver Survivors’ Collective (NDSC), a group of Doukhobors who were forcibly confined in a former New Denver tuberculosis sanatorium during 1950s.

From 1953 to 1959, West Kootenay RCMP took about 200 children between the ages of seven and 15 from conservative Doukhobor families (widely referred to as Sons of Freedom or Freedomites) throughout the West Kootenay and sent them to the New Denver facility.

According to a report from the BC Ombudsman’s office into those events, the children were taken because their parents refused to send them to public school; a school where the children were not allowed to speak Russian and denied education in their cultural heritage which stressed communal living and pacifism.

Some children stayed at the sanatorium for as long as six years during which they were only allowed to see their families for about an hour every two weeks, and even then only through a chain link fence.

Many allege they suffered sexual abuse during their time at the school and endured difficulties adapting to society after their release.

For more than a decade now the New Denver Survivors’ Collective have sought redress from the provincial government for the alleged human rights violations they suffered during their confinement.

Ombudsman finds children experienced ‘many losses’

In 1999 the BC Ombudsman did a full investigation and issued a report called Righting the Wrong: The Confinement of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobor Children, which concluded the children were wrongfully confined and experienced many losses, including civil liberties, language, religion and culture.

In 2004, after about six years of seeking an apology from the provincial government, the New Denver Survivors were issued a “Statement of Regret” from then attorney general, Geoff Plant, who also announced the province would build a statue of a mother and child on either side of a chain link fence in New Denver that would serve as a monument to the suffering of the Doukhobor children who were confined to the school.

Human rights complaint made over proposed monument

The Statement of Regret was unsatisfactory to the Doukhobor group, who wanted nothing less than a full apology and the proposed monument was so offensive that they filed a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal (BCHRT) over it.

The original complaint, filed in September 2004 stated that the proposed statue violated a section of the BC Human Rights Code because it would “descriminate against their ancestry,” and they had urged the provincial government not to build the monument for four years prior to the public announcement.

“Our forefathers resisted and fought against the Russian Orthodox church to proclaim Martin Luther’s simple religious beliefs,” wrote the NDSC in their original complaint. “They were given the name “Iconobortsi”, which means “icon wrestlers” and this later became “Doukhobortsi” or “Spirit Wrestlers”. For us New Denver Survivors to accept a memorializing symbol is to dishonour our forefathers who gave their lives for this principle and passed on to us this same principle of honouring only the Living Spirit within each individual. The Unity Committee of Canada and the United States will shun our small group as traitors to the basic principles of our culture.”

The province denied the allegations in the original complaint but didn’t provide any further information. Government subsequently abandoned its plans to build the monument in 2005.

As the complaint worked its way through the process over the next two years, several amendments were added to it that broadened the scope of the complaint to the point that it alleged a total of 18 different BC Human Rights Code violations against the provincial government. The complaint was accepted by the BCHRT in March of 2008.

Soon after, the provincial government applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia for a judicial review of the BCHRT decision, asking of an order to quash the decision and an order dismissing parts of the complaint.

In her judgment, issued on August 6, 2010, Madam Justice Adair dismissed the petition and upheld the decision of the BCHRT to accept the New Denver Survivors’ Collective complaint.

Swetlishoff says the hearing will be a unique opportunity for the Doukhobors.

“This is the first victory I feel the Doukhobors have ever had to tell their side of the story . . . Hopefully court, when it happens in Castlegar, will provide some understanding and connect the Doukhobors to Canadian society – break down the Berlin Wall that divides two societies.”

The provincial government is not taking a position on the court’s decision.

According to the BCHRT, notice of the hearing date will be issued 90 days before the date – which has not yet been set. The BCHRT also noted that a hearing might not take place at all if the two parties come to an agreement in the interim.

colin@inthekoots.net