Children held in B.C. Doukhobor camp in 1950s offered $10M compensation package
'To me, it was a prison,' says one of up to 200 children taken by B.C. government
The B.C. government has offered a $10-million compensation package to people taken from their homes as children 70 years ago due to their parents' religious beliefs.
The offer was made along with an apology from Attorney General Niki Sharma at a private event in Castlegar today, where she met with members and relatives of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors who were forcibly removed from their parents in the 1950s.
Many were placed in a former tuberculosis sanatorium in New Denver, B.C., about 150 kilometres east of Kelowna, between 1953 and 1959, where they have testified they received physical and psychological abuse.
The Doukhobors are a group of exiled Russian Christians who settled in the West Kootenay in the early 20th century. The Sons of Freedom were a small group within the Doukhobor community that was once known for naked protests and periodically burning down their own homes as a rejection of materialism.
There may be up to 100 survivors from the Sons of Freedom group, who are now in their 70s and 80s.
Sharma acknowledged the children were "mistreated both physically and psychologically" and that the government's actions caused anxiety for the broader Doukhobor community.
Lorraine Walton, the daughter of two survivors of the Doukhobor internment and an advocate for the Lost Voices of New Denver group, said her parents' souls are finally at peace following the apology.
She acknowledged, however, that the compensation being offered by the government was coming far too late for her parents and uncle, who were interned at New Denver for multiple years.
"It breaks my heart that they're not here ... 71 years of of their suffering which created intergenerational trauma for us, for our children," she said.
"Maybe now we can say that at least they were apologized to and maybe we can move forward in healing as families, as communities, as individuals."
'To me, it was a prison': Survivor
Walter Swetlishoff, 77, said he has waited for the apology for years.
He said he lived in hiding for four years until he was caught by RCMP officers at the age of 11.
He spent four months at a camp for Doukhobor children in the 1950s.
"To me, it was a prison," he said in a 2023 interview with CBC.
Swetlishoff was only allowed to see his parents twice a month, for an hour. He says his experience in the camp and earlier of being hidden away by his parents for four years, have led to lifelong scars.
"It's just the only pain that I have, is that I'm fearful of everything," the Crescent Valley resident said through tears.
In a followup interview on Wednesday, Swetlishoff said he's glad to be receiving an apology "after so many years."
"I'm happy it's finally being done."
Apology comes after 2023 report
The apology was agreed to after B.C. Ombudsperson Jay Chalke filed a July 2023 report titled Time to Right the Wrong.
The ombudsperson is an independent officer of the legislature who investigates complaints of unfair or unreasonable treatment at the hands of provincial or local officials.
Time to Right the Wrong was itself a follow-up to a 1999 review by the Office of the Ombudsperson that called for a formal apology to the interned Doukhobors and compensation, neither of which were delivered in the ensuing years.
![A series of quotes including "They made their own zoos with the children," "The cops [would] come with pitchforks and you'd see them... and you'd run like crazy. At six years old, you were running," and "Life in New Denver was hell."](https://i.cbc.ca/1.7101171.1706746174!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/doukhobor-testimony.jpg)
The report said the children were often taken under cover of the night, and "apprehended, institutionalized and maltreated," adding that up to 200 children were removed at government direction from parents who were members of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors, a group within the community in the West Kootenay known for acts against government regulations.
About half of the removed children were seized after their parents staged a nude protest near a school in Perry Sidings, B.C., on Sept. 9, 1953.
Many of the children reported being mistreated physically and psychologically at the New Denver facility, which they described as a prison-like institution bordered by a fence they were forced to build.
"Our parents could not have too much contact with us," a survivor told the ombudsperson in 1999 for the first report calling for an apology and compensation.
"The fence was in the way. To kiss us we would kiss through the loops in the fence. To touch us, we would stick our fingers through the fence."
Calls for compensation
When issuing his report last year, Chalke said while the commitment to an apology was an important step forward, financial compensation should also be involved and that he was "deeply disappointed," it was not happening at the time.
In a written statement issued Feb. 1, Sharma said her government recognized both the apology and compensation were "long overdue."
"Our government is committed to accountability and transparency, to ensure that such harm never happens here again."
The government says the $10-million package will be used to:
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preserve and promote the community's cultural heritage and historic sites;
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support educational and cultural programs;
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conduct research and archive vital documents and oral histories; and
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expand access to mental-health services and wellness programs.
She said the programs in the package were designed after consulting with the impacted community.
Corrections
- The title of the 2023 report from the ombudsperson is Time to Right the Wrong, not Time to Write the Wrong as originally stated.Feb 01, 2024 10:06 AM PT
With files from The Canadian Press, Brady Strachan and Matt Allen