‘Free our children’ cry
of Doukhobor mothers

“Gj children,” was the plea of 30 Sons of Freedom Doukhobors who visited Victoria
eae Us eee oe to secure the release of 35 Doukhobor children now being held in an abandoned
The children were seized by RCMP

on Wednesday last we

sanitorium at New Denver under t

he Children’s Protection Act.

because their parents refused to send them to school.

Singing hymns and_ carrying
banners, the Doukhobor delegation
from the Kootenay and Slocan
valleys entered the legislative
buildings with the intention of
presenting their case to Attorney-
General Robert Bonner.

Bonner was “not available”
and the delegation was directed
to the office of Deputy Educa-
tion Minister H. L. Campbell.
The doors were closed and the

VICTORIA, B.C.

Doukhobor mothers and fathers
pleaded with Campbell and other
department officials for more
than an hour, but failed to win
any assurances that their chil-
dren would be allowed to re-
turn home.

Weeping Doukhobor women told
reporters later that they kept their
children out of school because
“Canadian schools nourish militar-

‘Believed innocent’

LDR explains fight
to free Doukhobor

By JACK PHILLIPS
x “Why is the League For Demo-

, cratic Rights taking up the case
of Nick Evdokimoff?” This ques-
tion has been put to us by many
people, in many different ways.

Nick Evdokimoff is a Sons of
Freedom Doukhobor, sentenced to
14 years in jail, for allegedly be-
ing in possession of a jug filled
with a mixture of gasoline and oil.

Four Sons of Freedom Doukho-
bors, returning from a recent dele-
gation to Victoria, put the question
to me bluntly, “What is your 1n-
terest in Evdokimoff, who is one
of us?” When they were told
that the LDR is helping Evdokim-
off because it believes him to be
innocent, they donated $10 to the
cost of the appeal and apologized
because they couldn’t afford more.

At Grand Forks a few days ago,
a group of Orthodox Doukhobors |
met to discuss the case with a
mutual friend. “Why is the LDR
taking up this case? Are they con-
nected with the/Sons of Freedom
sect?” :

A business man who is otherwise
friendly to the LDR put it like
this: “Sons of Freedom Doukho-
bors are trouble makers. Why do
you defend them?”

All of. these questions reflect
the confusion that has been delib-
erately created by government
circles and the daily press on the
Doukhobor question. It has never
been proven in court that the Sons
of Freedom, as such, practise arson
or violence as a policy. Neither
has the group been declared an
unlawful society by legislation.
Therefore, to say that a man 1s
guilty because he is a Sons of
Freedom Doukhobor, is to accept
the theory of guilt by association.

Facts of Evdokimoff’s case are
that he was allegedly seen by one
man lying in the grass, on the un-
occupied farm of his brother, at
Goose Creek, at 12:30 am. Two
hours later, the RCMP found a

NICK EVDOKIMOFF

accused in possession of the jug.
No finger prints were found. No
law was quoted to prov@ that a
mixture of gasoline and oil is an
explosive. Nonetheless, Evdokimoft
was convicted and sentenced to 14
years...) :

Response to the financial appeal
has proven already that many peo-
ple are fully aware of the danger
to civil liberties inherent in this
conviction. The LDR hopes that
as more people are acquainted with
the facts support for the appeal

jug of gasoline and oil nearby. No
witness was produced who saw the

will grow.

‘insult to

“An insult to the intelligence of
the people” is how Mrs. Effie Jones
labels the B.C. Electric survey of
its transit service, launched with
considerable fanfare this week.

“What does Vancouver City
Council expect as a result of the
BCER investigating itself?” asked
Mrs. Jones. “Does anyone serl-
Ously believe that this company
will find that its own services are

inadequate? Of course not. The
' public can have no confidence in
this so-called investigation.”

The BCER began its survey after

4 \

BCE transit survey

people’

city council, prodded by. Mrs.
Jones into taking some action on
transit service cuts, told BC Elec-
tric that the present service was
inadequate during rush hours. The
company is to report to council on
the result of its “survey” early in
February.

Mrs. Jones has been pressing
city council to investigate service
cuts, and she is planning to head
a delegation to the next meeting
of utilities» committee of council

ism and prepare our children for
war.” The -Doukhobors are all
pacifists.

Copies of a New Year’s Appeal
to Canadian Authorities and the
Public were distributed by the
Doukhobor mothers to Attorney-
General Robert Bonner. The lat-
ter appeal said, in part:

“The actions of the authorities

dren to attend school are causing
unusual suffering to our young-
sters. The children, in protest
to attendance of school, throw
their clothes off and fall on their
knees in fervent prayer to God.
The teachers then open the win-
dows intentionally, letting the
cold draft.in, trying to force the
children to put their clothes on
and attend school. But the chil-
dren continue standing, their

teachers twisting some children’s
hands, thinking thus to force
obedience. :

“To all our protests against
this inhuman conduct and the
separation of children from
mothers, the government replied
that they acted strictly within
the law, because the parents are
to blame when they abandon
their children and go to jail.

“However, that is just a pre-
tense, and it is hard for us to un-
derstand the real intentions be-
hind this move. Because, if they
really took the children into
custody legally, as they insist, and
only because they were without
proper refuge, then why do they
refuse now to return them to their
relatives? ‘Furthermore, why do
the police invade the homes of
peaceful citizens in the dead of

night, scaring women and chil-
dren? Why?”
Deputy Education Minister

Campbell said that there was .no
truth in this charge. Through the
closed doors the voices of Douk-
hobor women could be heard cry-
ing, “What kind of a lie is that?”

Delegates carried banners ask-
ing release of the children. and
bearing pacifist messages. “It has
been proclaimed thou shalt not
kill, peace on earth and goodwill
to men. Why prepare children to
sacrifice for cannon fodder, atom
and hydrogen bombs in wars?”

The New Year’s Appeal of the
Doukhobors declared that “the
Kingdom of heaven is not based on
armies and force and compulsion.

giveness, Mercy and Freedom. . . .
“By losing our land and prop-
erties in 1906 and again in 1937
because of arbitrary decisions of
Canadian political and financial
interests, we were deprived of
the material background and en-
vironment in which our religious
and cultural interests can be
maintained, including the school-
ing of our children.

“And now, after over 50 years
of continued interference and re-
fusal to acknowledge our religious
rights as Christians to practice
Christianity according to our faith,
we are again brought before the
bar of secular justice and public
opinion to pay the penalty for our
actions of non-conformance, not
by legitimate or democratic
means where we can produce suit-
able representation, but by arrest-
ing and holding our children in de-
‘tention and trying to force educa-
tion down their throats.. These are
the tactics of Nero and Caesar and
have as little resemblance to de-
mocracy as Herod had to €hrist. ...

“Our plea is for an immedi-
ate cessation of persecuting
and stealing our children and

at New Denver to compel the chil-|

knees blue from the cold, with}

The basic law of God is Love, For-

buildings in Victoria displaying b
35 Doukhobor children held in c

which their souls rebel. There
are legitimate ways of resolving
our differences and we demand,
on the basis of Universal Human
rights, that democratic means be
established wherein the matter

Sons of Freedom Doukhobors stand in front of the legislative

anners calling for the release of
ustody by the government at an

abandoned sanatorium in New Denver.

can be settled betweeen the per-
ents and the authorities ... .
“We would ask the Canadian
public to stop,considering us your
enemies, because we have not such
intentions.”

More than 1,200 letters urging

have the contentious sections of
Bill 7 referred to a special com-
mittee which will deal with such
matters ‘as lotteries and capital
punishment. The sections men-
tioned in the LDR call are 46, 47,
52, 60-62, 64-69, 365 and 372.

Mounting opposition to unde-
mocratic sections of Bill 7 has been
reflected in the trade union move-
ment in the last few weeks.

The tenth annual convention
of B.C. Federation of Labor
(CCL) went on record as vigor-
ously protesting the amendments
to the Criminal Code objected to
by the national CCL leadership
in their presentation to the cab-

. inet in December, namely, sec-

Bill 7 protest
rising in B.C.

citizens to write their MPs oppos-

ing undemocratic sections of Bill 7 have been mailed to trade unions,

organizations and individuals in Vancouver, Jack Phillips, executive

secretary of the League for Democratic Rights, reperted this week.
The letters call upon the recipients to ask their MPs to seek to

Crime! have gone out to all parts
of the province, plus 12,000 post
cards for mailing to MPs.

A further indication of the in-
terest in civil rights and the
mounting feeling against McCar-
thyism in Canada is the number
of groups which have gathered in
homes to hear a set of records
called Voices of Resistance, giv-
ing actual testimony of United
States citizens fighting back against
badgering tactics of the House
Un-American Committee in Los
Angeles.

“HUB HUMOR

tions 365 and 372.

Executive board of the United
Fishermen and Allied Workers
Union has voted to circularize all
MPs from British Columbia and to
distribute 1,000 copies of the
pamphlet, It’s Still a Crime! among
its membership.

makers’ Union (CCL), Building
Trades Council (AFL-TLC) of Van-
couver, and the Joint Labor Coun-
cil of Alberni have also gone on
record as expresssing concern over
Bill 7.

Ten MPs were. interviewed on
Bill 7 by delegations during the
holiday recess. Among these were
two cabinet ministers, R. O. Camp-
ney (Vancouver Centre) and James
Sinclair (Coast-Capilano).

All the MPs listened carefully to
delegation spokesmen and noted
the objections raised. In nearly
every case, the members claimed
that very few protests had been
received since Bill 93 was amend-

gations assured them that a flood
of protest postcards, letters and

had descended on Ottawa after
parliament had recessed for the
holidays.

to demand a public inquiry.

forcing them to do things against

pamphlet on Bill 7,

The Marine Workers and Boiler-

ed and became Bill 7. The dele-'

telegrams from British Columbia

Some 7,000 copies of the new,
It’s Still a’

“IT shot an arrow into the air and
it fell to earth | know not where!”

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