In 1899, a group o f Russian peasants called the Doukhobors immigrated to Canada, after suffering centuries of persecution in Russia. Soon after their arrival, conflict emerged between these new immigrants and the state over such issues as land ownership, refusal to register births and deaths, and to send their children to school. As positions hardened, a group known as the Sons of Freedom emerged that used nudity, arson, and bombings as their means o f protest and retaliation. These practices continued on for the better part of a century. Numerous unsuccessful attempts were made to address the conflict, ranging from commissions of inquiry to child apprehensions for truancy. Finally, in 1985 an accord was reached among the groups and government that marked the beginning of the end to violence. What enabled this intervention to succeed was the focus of this study. This study applies a narrative approach that examined the discourse of the Doukhobor groups, government and others to learn how certain perceptions and meanings led to bombings and arson and how co-constructing competing narratives into a new narrative provided a means for change. The analysis is based on transcripts o f the proceedings, along with the narrative renderings and epiphanies of those who played a key strategic role in helping the groups reach an accord. Resulting from this study were findings that challenged conventional conflict resolution practices, particularly when applied in an ethnopolitical context. / Graduate

The Sons of Freedom Doukhobors have been of great concern to the Government of Canada and the people and Government of British Columbia for many years. They have gained notoriety in recent years because of protests against the Canadian and British Columbia Governments by the use of treks, arson, dynamiting, nudism, opposition to schools, taxes, and forms of registration. Since 1925 there have been more than 900 acts of violence and terrorism attributed to the Sons of Freedom. There have been convictions in approximately 10 percent of the cases. Proposed relocation in British Columbia has not occured because of protests from the proposed areas. Many countries have been approached for possible migration but none will accept the Sons of Freedom. In 1961-1962 there were over 100 acts of terrorism and arson which led to the imprisonment of 95 Sons of Freedom. There are many conflicting issues on the subject of terrorism. Most of it has to do with inter-sect conflict with one group blaming the others of siding with the government in an attempt to destroy the sect and assimilate it into the Canadian way of life. Out of fear of death and destruction the marchers burned their homes and vowed that their destination would be the gates of Mountain Prison, a special prison established for Sons of Freedom offenders. The trek was designed as a protest to draw public attention to themselves and force the government into making an impartial investigation behind the imprisonment of their sons, husbands, and brothers. The trek began on September 2, 1962 and ended on August 21, 1963. This migration is significant in-so-far as it brought the Sons of Freedom out of relative isolation in the Kootenays and exposed them, for a period of time still to be determined, to the heavily populated area of Vancouver and the lower mainland of British Columbia. The present migration is possibly the most significant event in recent Doukhobor history as it offers the first hope for possible integration or at least a better understanding between the Sons of Freedom and the larger Canadian Community. This study records the facts and details of the migration and the reciprocal impact between the Sons of Freedom and the community of Agassiz. Information was received from interviews with the Freedomite spokesman, people in the community, newspaper and magazine articles and books written about the Doukhobors. The entire study is divided into four sections done by four students in the School of Social Work. The first section is the movement of the migration from the Kootenays into the community of Hope. The second is the movement of the migration from the community of Hope to the city of Vancouver. The third part focuses upon the social welfare aspects and implications of the migration. The fourth section is the movement of the migration from the city of Vancouver to the gates of Mountain Prison in the Municipality of Kent. It is with this later phase of the migration that this section of the study is concerned. The Freedomites failed in their objective to gain an impartial investigation for the prisoners. They did however gain the objective of being with the men and share their suffering with them. The Freedomites displayed their usual capacity to adjust to any situation by making and subsisting in their makeshift encampment. They have caused very little trouble outside of "squatting" on municipal land. The Freedomites are keeping their usual detachment from the community. The community is rather passive in regard to the Freedomites. The sect is very uncertain in regard to the future as they have no place to go and no money or resourses. The Freedomites should be encouraged to remain in the lower mainland where improved community relationships and better understanding are possible. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

This study is primarily concerned with a description of the events that occurred in Vancouver in the year 1963, when a group of Sons of Freedom left the town of Hope and arrived in the city of Vancouver. While the Sons of Freedom have had a long history of migration their trek into a large western city such as Vancouver was a unique phenomenon. The purpose of this document was to record the activities of the Sons of Freedom and the response of lay and voluntary groups as well as the reactions of civic and provincial governments in connection with the Freedomites. Such a recording was seen to have historic value and would also serve as another frame of reference on Sons of Freedoms affairs. The method used was primarily individual and group interviews. The writer attempted to ignore previous issues and problems of this group, and focussed mainly on the collection of factual information from people who had come into contact with this group during their stay in Vancouver. Several Sons of Freedom were interviewed - youths and elderly people, male and female. The writer also conducted an attitude survey of a random sample of people (75) in Vancouver. The study revealed that while in Vancouver, the Freedomites encountered a range of attitudes (including curiosity, hostility, and indifference) from the Vancouver public. The Sons of Freedom had to face several problems in Vancouver and they dealt with most of these very well. Perhaps the most significant finding of this study was that the group seemed to respond fairly well to the work of the Committee for the Welfare of Sons of Freedom Children. The- committee was able to exhort the Freedomites to attend school. The role and consequence of the Committee's work in dealing with some of the concerns of the Sons of Freedom in Vancouver, may very well suggest that a bridge of this nature is the answer to an understanding and an amelioration of some of the cold conditions that now prevail between this group and the government of British Columbia. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-257). Also available via World Wide Web.

No description available.

In 1932 a total of 365 children of the Doukhobor sect known as Sons of Freedom were taken into custodial care by the provincial government of British Columbia while their parents were undergoing penal servitude. This thesis is a study of that episode in the history of child care in British Columbia. It deals primarily with the problems that were met in administering this emergency child welfare programme. These children were admitted to non-ward care by the Superintendent of Neglected Children and placed in Vancouver, New Westminster and Victoria for a period of one year. The Children's Aid Society of Vancouver cared for 119 children ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years. These children were all placed in approved foster homes by that agency. The Alexandra Orphanage, Vancouver, the Loyal Protestant Home, New Westminster, and the B.C. Protestant Orphans Home, Victoria, cared for a total of 75 children in the age group of 3 to 9 years, within their institutional facilities. The Provincial Industrial School for Girls and the Provincial Industrial School for Boys accepted 75 and 92 children respectively. These children ranged in age from 7 to 18 years and were segregated from the regular inmates who were committed to the industrial schools on authority of the juvenile court. The agency and institutions undertook the immediate responsibility of caring for these children. Physical and emotional well-being were maintained, and the customs and beliefs of the Sons of Freedom were respected wherever possible. Thus, when the children were returned to the Doukhobor colonies no serious problems of re-adjustment were encountered. The parents had been penalized for their refusal to recognize man-made laws, and the provincial authorities hoped that these placements would serve to instruct the children in the rights and obligations of Canadian citizenship. In this the experiment was ineffective. If the agency and institutions had seriously endearoured to re-educate the children, emotional conflicts would have arisen when the Doukhobor families were re-united. The children would have been torn between their desire to conform to the wishes and beliefs of their parents and to their newly acquired ideologies. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

No description available.

The purpose of this research was to select songs specific to the Doukhobor song repertoire which were not previously notated and to record, notate and analyze the melodies for use in music education. The first limitation of the study was to focus on the sacred repertoire which is comprised of three genre of song, namely the Psalms, the Old Verses and the Spiritual Songs. A comparison of the song titles of Old Verses and Spiritual Songs which are found in the two major Canadian Doukhobor song text collections was made with other Russian song text collections to determine a subset of songs unique to the Doukhobor tradition. The second limitation of the study was then applied, which was to select those Old Verses and Spiritual Songs believed to exist prior to the beginning of the twentieth century. Forty-five melodies, comprised of 11 Psalms, 18 Old Verses and 16 Spiritual Songs were included in the study. The notation of each example is accompanied by one verse of Russian text and transliteration and by documentary information stating the genre, the Doukhobor song text collection reference number, the singers' names, and a tape source in the researcher's private collection. Full and/or partial translations of the texts are provided.

This thesis braids ethnography with political analysis to explore the nature, scope and breadth of Doukhobor sectarianism in order to illuminate the nuances of difference within the Doukhobor community. A major focus of this study is the development and functioning of the Sons of Freedom (Freedomite) branch's terrorism and its effects on the Orthodox and Independent branches as well as majoritarian society, particularly in Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Another important area of discussion concerns the formulation and application of government policy to Freedomite violence and its effects. Finally, the thesis seeks to isolate the complex factors that brought the violence to an end by focusing on three significant historical events: the violent Freedomite attack on a Saskatchewan Independent leader's home in 1936; the BC government's New Denver forced schooling program (1953-1959); and finally, the trial of Orthodox Doukhobor leader John Verigin in 1979. Ultimately, this work offers ideas and approaches for understanding other sectarian conflicts defined by terrorism.