It was going to be a memorial for Doukhobor children who were taken from their Sons of Freedom parents and placed in a residential school in New Denver in the 1950s. It has ended up as a picnic site that nobody as yet wants to look after.
A letter dated January 26 from Attorney General Geoff Plant informs the New Denver Survivors Collective (NDSC), a group of people who attended the school and who opposed the memorial project, that the picnic site will not be completed as planned.
The letter states that following the statement of regret in the legislature on October 4 last year, Plant was advised that a majority of the former residents did not want the historical site. So, he asked Deputy Attorney General Allan Seckel to survey former residents.
“He didn’t get very far into the consultation process before he heard some very strong opposition to the idea, and so rather than have him continue what looked like a fruitless exercise ... we realized that we are not going to be able to satisfy the former residents with respect to some issues, so given that there is no support for the completion of the site, we are not going to take further action. We will continue to offer the counselling program,” said Geoff Plant in a telephone interview.
The letter says that Seckel met with two groups of former residents to hear the “differing views.” It goes on to say, “Walter Swetlishoff, who advised he had authority to speak for a majority of former residents, told Mr. Seckel at the meeting in Surrey that the people he represents did not want the historical site completed. He expressed this point quite forcefully and others in the room supported his view with considerable emotion. As a result, Mr. Seckel concluded that further consultation was unnecessary.”
Swetlishoff said that receiving the letter was “such a relief” and “like a cloud rising.”
“I thought it was pretty well impossible to change the mind of the government that has spent so much money for this...it’s a miracle...” exclaimed Swetlishoff in a telephone interview.
Swetlishoff explained that Doukhobors do not believe in inanimate objects like symbols, icons or statues. He felt that the government was forcing the memorial site upon them, and called it “another form of assimilation, which is what they were trying to do 50 years ago.”
“It was no picnic for us when we were there,” he said, “so this picnic site as a reminder was very disrespectful.”
When asked what would happen to the statues and plaques that were to be installed at the New Denver site, Plant answered that no decision had been made yet. Plant also was not sure of the cost of the site, but said he thought it was “not very far into the tens of thousands.”
Swetlishoff said that the NDSC was going to pursue an apology. He said that every group of people who experienced systemic abuse in BC institutions as children have received apologies except the Doukhobors. He gave examples of Jericho Hill School for the deaf and Woodlands for the developmentally disabled.
“We are the only ones who have been left without an apology. It is discriminatory and it is not acceptable. They say they had to do something to punish our parents...he [Plant] said in the legislature that they might have done it differently today. To me, the abuse of children was not right 50 years ago and it is not right today.”
Asked if the group would look for financial compensation, Swetlishoff said, “That’s not what I’m thinking of. We are looking at the Ombudsman’s recommendations of 1999 and I’m not sure if the Ombudsman recommended compensation. When the apology comes, healing will start. It is useless to go to counsellors, psychologists when you are still left to believe that you are responsible in some way, that you may be guilty. An apology is an indication from the jailer saying it was not your fault—you were innocent and it’s the government’s fault. We will have the same feeling when the apology comes as we had when we were told this monument was going to stop,” said Swetlishoff.
Plant said the government was looking for someone to maintain the site. The offer was extended to the Village of New Denver council, but they declined.
by Jan McMurray View all news articles |
