This section covers the Doukhobors’ early conflicts with the B.C. Government over the School and Vital Statistics Acts. It delves into the nuances and beliefs fueling the Doukhobors’ rejection of government regulation and covers the resurgence of The Sons of Freedom with the burning of public schools in 1923.

SECTIONS:

1. Initial Encounters with B.C. Schooling System
2. Conflicts over Vital Statistics Act
3. Royal Commission is Established
4. Government Takes More Extreme Approach to Demand Co-Operation
5. A Compromise is Reached
6. WWI – Public Perception of Doukhobors Shifts
7. Penalizing Doukhobors Through the Community Regulation Act
8. Burning of Public Schools – Resurgence of The Sons of Freedom

 

INITIAL ENCOUNTERS WITH B.C. SCHOOLING SYSTEM
Shortly after the Doukhobors arrived in B.C., they learned that public education was compulsory for children ages 7-12 who resided within 3 miles of a school accessible by public road. ¹ While initially apprehensive, those who lived close to the school in Grand Forks allowed their children to attend, and on April 15, 1912, “a government school was opened at Brilliant.” ² According to their English teacher, “the Doukhobor children showed a greater interest and progressed more rapidly than either Canadian or American children of the same age.” ²

 

CONFLICTS OVER VITAL STATISTICS ACT
Unfortunately, this period of cooperation was short-lived as issues arose regarding the registration of births, deaths and marriages that broke the Doukhobors’ trust in the B.C. Government, resulting in them removing their children from school.

On January 25, 1912, the Doukhobors were delivered mandatory registration forms for recording their births, deaths and marriages. Due to their religious beliefs, and general hesitancy towards government and military cohesion, the Doukhobors refused to share this information. ³

Failure to comply with the Vital Statistics Act led to the arrest of four Doukhobor men. On June 13th, 1912, “two men were seized… and imprisoned because they did not make out declarations about the death of their mother and brother respectively; and two others likewise for preparing coffins for the interment of the deceased.” ⁴

Consequently, the Doukhobors were very upset by the Government’s course of action. As a protest for putting “innocent men in jails, all [their] children … declared their repugnance of frequenting the English school,” arguing that “these cruelties… [were] perpetrated by men brought up in those very schools.” ⁵

 

ROYAL COMMISSION IS ESTABLISHED
In response to the escalating tensions, a Royal Commission was established in 1912 to investigate the Doukhobors’ grievances and their resistance to government regulations. The commission aimed to understand the Doukhobors’ motivations and actions, particularly their refusal to comply with registering vital statistics and sending their children to school. The appointed commissioner was William Blakemore, editor of the Victoria-based newspaper The Weekly.

During the commission, Blakemore found that while the men being thrown behind bars undoubtedly instigated the widespread truancy, the Doukhobors also fundamentally disagreed with many aspects of the public school system.

In a roughly translated report of their own, the Doukhobors outlined their reasons for rejecting public schools:

“1. The school education teaches and prepares the people, that is children, to military service, where shed harmless blood of the people altogether uselessly. The most well educated people consider this dread- fully sinful such business as war, lawful. We consider this is great sin.

2. The school teaching at the present time had reached only to expedience for easy profit, thieves, cheaters, and to large exploitation working-class laborious on the earth. And we ourselves belong to working-class people and we try by the path of honest labour, so we may reap the necessary maintenance, and to this we adopt our children to learn at wide school of Eternal Nature.

3. The school teaching separates all the people on the earth. Just as soon as the person reached read and write education, then, within a short time leaves his parents and relations and undertakes unreturnable journey on all kinds of speculation, depravity and murder life. And never think of his duty, respecting his parents and elder-ones, but he looks opposite, turning themselves, enslaving of the people, for theirs own licentious and insatiableness gluttony.” ⁶

Ultimately, Blakemore conducted a comprehensive and genuine investigation and report. He spoke highly of the Doukhobors, stating that they were “the very essence of kindliness, courtesy and hospitality.” ⁷ Ultimately, he highlighted that the attitude of the Doukhobors to the matters in question was due “in no small degree, to the persecution they ha[d] suffered, and their lack of confidence in the bona fides of all forms of government.” ⁸

Consequently, he suggested a moderate course of action, stating that while the Doukhobors should be required to abide by all Canadian laws, including military service, “no drastic steps should be taken to force their immediate compliance.” ⁹

 

GOVERNMENT TAKES MORE EXTREME APPROACH TO DEMAND CO-OPERATION
The Royal Commission was issued in 1912, and by 1914, Doukhobors were still not complying with the School or Vital Statistics Acts. While Blakemore had advised an approach governed by moderation, in 1914, the government prepared a more extreme course of action. On March 4th, the Government of British Columbia implemented the “Community Regulation Act,” an act that would forever change the relationship between the Doukhobors and authorities in the years to follow.

The Community Regulation Act introduced fines for non-compliance with the School, Vital Registration, and Health Acts. It held the Doukhobor Community, that is the Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood, liable for any infractions committed by its members. In cases where individuals failed to pay, authorities were authorized to seize “all the goods and chattels” found on community property without a warrant. ¹⁰

In protest, a group of Doukhobors, presumably the Sons of Freedom, addressed a letter to the attorney general, in which they threatened to “present their clothing to the members of parliament at Nelson and Grand Forks if the law were put into effect.” ¹¹

They asserted that the “government ha[d] robbed [them] of all [they] possessed in Saskatchewan” and feared that “if the British Columbia government… [took] one cent of money by fine it [would] mean that they [were] going to rob [them] of all [they] had in” B.C. ¹¹ By vowing to shed their clothes, the Doukhobors aimed to underscore the government’s potential action of stripping away everything they held dear. It symbolized the notion that if the authorities were intent on taking everything from them, they might as well seize their only remaining possession—their clothing.

Consequently, the government was faced with the decision as to whether or not they wanted to “invite the six thousand to appear in nature’s garb and suffer the hardships consequent upon such action, as well as subject the residents to sirable publicity which the incidents would undoubtedly bring.” ¹¹

 

A COMPROMISE IS REACHED
Upon this harsh confrontation and the understanding that minor legalities, such as the land being registered under the sole name of Peter Verigin, would inhibit the full implementation of the act, the attorney general agreed to compromise with the Doukhobors. In exchange for them agreeing to abide by the laws and returning their children to the Brilliant and Carson public schools, he promised that “no military training would be forced upon their children, and that they would be excused from religious exercises.” ¹ Consequently, a period of relative agreement followed. The children attended class, though irregularly at best, and the Doukhobors established nine more public schools throughout their settlements. ¹²

 

WWI – PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF DOUKHOBORS SHIFTS
While the government and Doukhobors had finally reached a compromise regarding the School and Vital Statistics Acts, public perception of the Doukhobors shifted for the worse during World War I. While the rest of Canada fulfilled their patriotic duty, the Doukhobors stayed at home and prospered. Their religious beliefs and deeply rooted pacifism meant they were exempt from all military service.

However, many Canadians did not approve of this, and the government, despite having agreed to the Doukhobors’ military exemption, favoured citizens who were willing to serve the country’s best interests. Consequently, the Doukhobors lost the right to vote in federal elections from 1917 to 1920. ¹³

During this time, newspaper articles disparaged them, claiming that “the Douks… and other foreign gentry [were] overrunning th[e] Province.” They cast aside sarcastic remarks about how it was “getting to be some fine climate for a white man” and how the Doukhobors were sure to leave “little room for [them] or [their] standard of living.” ¹⁴

While the vast majority of Doukhobors did not support the war, they were eager to provide aid for those suffering as a result of the conflict and found ways to contribute that did not contradict with their pacifist tenants. Most remarkable of all was their donation of approximately 92,000 pounds of jam throughout the course of the war. ¹⁵ Their donations of jam were greatly appreciated and offset some of the rampant scrutiny and discrimination they were facing.

While negative perceptions of the Doukhobors had already started to develop during the war, it was the homecoming of the soldiers that exacerbated the situation. Upon the soldiers’ return, there was a growing public demand for the Doukhobors to abide by all Canadian laws, and some people even wanted them to be sent back to Russia. This pressure stemmed from the belief that the Doukhobor existence was “a serious menace” and made “it impossible for returned soldiers to compete in horticultural or fruit growing industries with any prospects of success.” Consequently, The Nelson Board of Trade, along with the Grand Forks, Trail and Nelson “branches of the Great War Veterans Association” “strongly urge[d] the government to absolutely enforce compliance with every law on the statute books by Doukhobors to exactly the same extent as they [were] enforced with other citizens.” ¹⁶

 

PENALIZING DOUKHOBORS THROUGH THE COMMUNITY REGULATION ACT
Along with this growing pressure to enforce the Doukhobors’ compliance with Canadian laws came a new school inspector by the name of E.G. Daniels. While the prior inspector, A.E. Miller, had been lenient and patient with the Doukhobors, the new man took a different approach. ¹²

In 1922, Inspector Daniels, feeling that “the Doukhobors were simply making a joke of the local schools,” “placed the onus for nonattendance on the school board.” ^{17 18} Consequently, the Grand Forks School School Board, utilizing the Community Regulation Act,  pressed charges for eight incidents of truancy. When the fines were not paid, communal property was seized. However, before it could be sold, the Community paid the fines. ¹

Unfortunately, that was only the beginning. In April of 1923, Inspector Daniels imposed $50 fines on six parents. When their payments were delayed, the Community’s farm truck was seized. Nevertheless, the Community came around and settled the fines. ¹

 

BURNING OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS – RESURGENCE OF THE SONS OF FREEDOM
However, a month later, members of the community, presumably the Sons of Freedom who had begun to coalesce during the early years in Saskatchewan, set the school building on fire. In the subsequent months, “a total of nine schools in the Brilliant area were destroyed, the burnings in each case coinciding with an attempt on the part of the police to seize property in payment of fines.” ¹

The Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood, despite feeling “that the authorities were unreasonably zealous in pressing for fuller attendance,” denounced these acts of arson. ¹² From then on, the conflicts with the Government would primarily concern the extremist sect known as the Sons of Freedom. The burning of the schools marked the resurgence of the Freedomite movement and the beginning of decades of nudity, arson and bombings throughout the Kootenay region.

 

1. Janzen, “Forced Doukhobor Schooling in British Columbia.”
2. The Daily News, April 4, 1914, 3.
3. Evalenko, The Message of The Doukhobors, 54
4. Evalenko, The Message of The Doukhobors, 70
5. Evalenko, The Message of The Doukhobors, 55
6. Blakemore, Royal Commission, 52
7. Blakemore, Royal Commission, 42
8. Blakemore, Royal Commission, 23
9. Blakemore, Royal Commission, 65
10. Community Regulation Act Official Document, 1914.
11. The New Westminster News, April 1, 1914, 2.
12. Janzen, Spirit Wrestlers, 171.
13. McRae, “The Chaotic Story of The Right To Vote in Canada.”
14. Enderby Press and Walker’s Weekly, July 13, 1916, 4.
15. Kalmakoff, “Doukhobors Made Jam, Not War.”
16. The Daily News, May 2, 1919, 6.
17. The Princeton Star, May 1, 1923, 1.
18. The Daily News, January 2, 1923, 8.