Some B.C. Doukhobor survivors unhappy with compensation offer

Seventy years after the British Columbiagovernment forcibly removed dozens of children from their families and placed them in a province-run camp, some survivors and their descendants say a$10-million compensationpackage aimed at reconciliationfalls short of their expectations.

Rather, some surviving members of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors say the B.C. government's financial compensation package hasreopened old wounds.

Those interviewed by CBC say they had hoped the government would provide direct compensationto survivors and families in a one-time lump sum payment.

"It's a slap in the face," said Betty Kabatoff, 78, who travelled from the province's Kootenay regionto Victoria on Tuesday to hear the government formally recognizethe historical wrongscommitted against surviving members and their families.

WATCH | B.C. government makes official apology:

B.C. government apologizes to Doukhobor community

6 months ago

Duration 13:41

On Feb. 27, the province officially apologized for the forcible removal of children from Doukhobor families in the 1950s.

Lorraine Walton,the daughter of two survivors of the Doukhobor camp, said many families are glad the province will finally apologize, but hoped for better compensation.

When B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma first announced acompensation package in early February, Walton, who also works withan advocacy group of survivors,said many families were too overwhelmed to properly process it.

"It's taken us three weeks to put those thoughts together ... to say that's not acceptable. We don't want this," she said.

"I think we all stand together in solidarity of accepting the apology.But I have not heardanyone ... say 'yes' we like this proposal."

WATCH | Daughter of Doukhobor camp survivors describes conditions at sanatorium:

Daughter of children held in B.C. Doukhobor camp describes harrowing conditions

7 months ago

Duration 3:03

Lorraine Walton's mother and father were taken from their parents in the 1950s and held in a New Denver sanatorium for multiple years. She tells CBC News of her parents describing starvation and abuse at the hands of guards.

Taken from family home

In addition to delivering its apology Tuesday, the government will provide $10 million for cultural, historicaland health programs.

Kabatoff was eight when she and her siblings were taken from thefamily's home inKrestova, B.C., and sent to live ataformer tuberculosis sanatoriuminNew Denver, B.C., about 150kilometres east of Kelowna.

"There was at least six of us in the back seat [of the police car], piled one on top of the other, shaking, crying,"said Kabatoff, who recalls how officers came to take the children early one morning in 1954.

WATCH |A clip from a 1958 CBC News documentary about the Doukhobor children:

From the Archives: Doukhobor children taken from families

7 months ago

Duration 2:59

In this 1958 clip from the CBC program Close-Up, members of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors visit their children, who were forcibly removed from their parents in the 1950s and placed in a former tuberculosis sanatorium in New Denver, B.C.

In a written statement issued Feb. 1, Sharma said her government recognized both the apology and compensation were "long overdue."

On Tuesday, she said,"I know no amount of compensation or money is going to make the pain go away. But I do hope that fund that's going to be directed to the community willgive them some relief."

Sharma said $3.75 million of the $10 million will go to a health and wellness fund that will be redirected to survivors and their descendants.

Between 1953 and 1959, some 200 children from families belonging tothe Sons of FreedomDoukhobors were sent to the camp, where many report they sufferedphysical and psychological abuse, including being strapped across the hands for speaking in their native Russian, and only seeing their parents twice a month from behind a chain link fence that theywere forced to build.

"I didn't know how to be a mom because Ididn't have a hug or a kiss from my mom," said Kabatoff."I had to kiss her through the fence."

The Doukhobors are a group of exiled Russian Christians who settled in B.C.'s West Kootenay in the early 20th century.

The Sons of Freedom, asmall group within the Doukhobor community,opposed the public education system, and clashed with the government over the right to educate their children at home, earning a reputation across B.C.for their occasional naked protests, and periodically burning down their own homes as a rejection of materialism.

"For decades this was described as a Doukhobor problem.As if every Doukhoborsubscribed to what was going on in terms of public nudity andtorching houses," said retired University of Victorialaw professor John McLaren.

"That's never been true," hesaid.

Government apology

On Tuesday, B.C. Premier David Ebydelivered the apology on behalf of the NDP government, acknowledging the wrongdoings done to the Doukhobor community.

"Constitutional protections would not let that happen today, and it should not have happened then," Eby said.

"These actions caused immense and immeasurable harm."

Speaking on behalf of the official opposition, Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone described what happened to Douhkobor families as a "shameful, black mark," on B.C.'s history.

"As a father, I can only imagine what was going through these parents' minds," he said, as he described how hundreds of children were removed from their homes.Stone said no apology can make up for what happened to the Doukhoborsand the intergenerational trauma that came of it.

In a similar vein, B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenausaid many of those who suffered did not live to hear the government's formal apology.

'Make this right'

After the public apology in the Legislature on Tuesday, Eby, Sharma and other officials met with those such as Walton.

She thanked Eby for the apology but called on him to consult more with her community over the historical wrong and the compensation package that was offered.

"Absolutely, we'll work with you to make this right," he said.

WATCH | Dhoukhobor survivors press for personal compensation from provincial of B.C.:

B.C. government apologizes to Doukhobors 70 years after removing children

6 months ago

Duration 2:08

British Columbias premier apologized 70 years after the province forcibly removed some 200 children from the families of Sons of Freedom Doukhobors, a group of pacifist Russian Christians exiled in B.C.'s southeastern Kootenay region.

Tuesday'sapology has been more than 20 yearsin the makingand follows two reports from B.C.'s Ombudsperson, which called onthe province to make a formal apology toaffected Doukhoborsandcompensate them,neither of which were delivered in the ensuing years.

TheDoukhobors themselves have also pressed for an apology and compensation since the 1990s.

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.

The government says the $10-million package will be used to:

• preserve and promote the community's cultural heritage and historic sites;
• support educational and cultural programs;
• conduct research and archive vital documents and oral histories; and
• expand access to mental-health services and wellness programs.

Today, there are an estimated 100 survivors ofthe Sons of Freedom group. Many are in their70s and80s.