Doukhobors.

Canada has become home to many groups whose religious beliefs caused them problems in their homeland. One such group to settle here were the Doukhobors. Members of this sect came from Russia where they challenged the doctrines of the Orthodox Church. Doukhobors believe that God dwells in each person and not in a church; they reject secular governments; and they preach pacifism.

They were persecuted off and on in Russia from the late 18th century. Many of the Doukhobors were allowed to emigrate to Canada, assisted by novelist Leo Tolstoy and British and American Quakers. More than 7,400 sailed in 1898-99 and settled in what was to become Saskatchewan, where they lived as a community. Their leader, Peter Verigin, joined them there in 1902.

The Doukhobors were allowed to register for individual homesteads but to live communally. However, when they refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Canada their homestead rights were cancelled.

In 1908, Verigin led most of his followers to southern B.C., where he bought land and established a self-contained community of 6,000. During the 1930s, the effects of the Depression combined with other misfortunes to destroy the community. In 1939, the land passed to the B.C. government, from which individual Doukhobors bought it back in the 1960s.

A tiny splinter group, the radical Sons of Freedom, burnt several schools in a dispute with B.C. over education. They were opposed to government-run education and refused to send their children to school. In 1953, the government of W.A.C. Bennett cooked up a plan to force the Sons of Freedom to put their children in school. The RCMP swooped down on Doukhobor homes and snatched 170 children away from their families. They were taken to an internment camp near New Denver where they were housed under a court order and educated. Many of those taken were the children of parents who had been seized in a similar way in the 1930s.

By the late 1950s, the Sons of Freedom had softened their opposition to education and the New Denver camp was closed. Late in 1997, some of the survivors launched a bid to sue the government. They want compensation and an apology for wrongful imprisonment and other abuses.

Descendants of the original Doukhobor settlers now number about 30,000 across Canada. About half of them remain active in the culture, maintaining their religious customs, Russian language, and pacifism. The majority group, known as the Orthodox Doukhobors, or Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC), has been most successful in integrating into the Canadian multicultural mosaic. The USCC is headed by Peter Verigin's great-grandson John J. Verigin.

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