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OUR VIEW: New Denver survivors need closure

Sons of Freedom children removed from homes and placed in the New Denver Residential School looking for closure.

Some Sons of Freedom children were seized by the province and RCMP between 1953 and 1959 and sent to a residential school in New Denver.

The children didn’t attend school because of religious beliefs – the Doukhobor religion was based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and based on living simplistically – and the province believed they should.

As well, the province thought the children were being negatively influenced.

The situation involving the children is eerily similar to the situation involving First Nation children, who were also sent to residential schools.

In the case of the First Nations’ children there were reports of various abuses and the government has provided compensation in some cases.

There is currently a BC Human Rights Tribunal taking place regarding the children sent to the New Denver residential school – the New Denver Survivors as they call themselves – but rather than being about the actual seizure, it is about alleged discrimination related to a 1999 B.C. ombudsman report that recommended compensation and an apology. No resolution was reached and a human rights complaint was launched eight years ago.

Child services seizing children living in squalor and under abusive or dangerous situations and placing them in foster care is one thing and the Sons of Freedom and First Nations children seizure is another.

It is traumatic for children to be taken from their parents and taken to an unfamiliar place and the province should be doing more to rectify the situation than it has.

There have been official apologies issued in recent years but the New Denver Survivors allege that the government offered a multi-million dollar offer for a research project (which was rejected) and there is also a picnic table memorial in New Denver but it has not been dedicated. In fact, according to testimony, a retired government official denies that a multi-million dollar offer was ever made – there were projects under consideration but a price wasn’t determined, she said.

Whether you believe the reasons were correct, the province seizing the children and putting them in a residential school was wrong and they should be doing more to right the wrong.

Hopefully the tribunal will lead to a resolution.