British Columbia Sorry For Internment

British Columbia Sorry for Internment VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) - The British Columbia government issued a statement of regret but not a long-sought apology for taking a religious sect's children from their parents and interning them in the 1950s. Attorney General Geoff Plant said there were legal and political reasons for withholding an apology from the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors, part of the Doukhobor sect that fled to western Canada in the late 1800s to escape from religious persecution in czarist Russia. "On behalf of the government of British Columbia, I extend my sincere, complete and deep regret for the pain and suffering you experienced during the prolonged separation from your families," Plant said in the statement to the Legislature Monday. Between 1953 and 1959, about 200 of the sect's children whose parents opposed sending them to public school were taken by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to a former tuberculosis sanatorium in New Denver in southern British Columbia. Some stayed in the camps as long as six years, limited to family visits of one hour every two weeks. A chain link fence, built by the children, separated the families from their children. Some said they were sexually assaulted while being interned. Plant met with 11 former internees who were upset that the provincial government did not apologize. He said the decision was not about litigation, but added "I don't like the fact that an apology can be read as an admission of liability." Walter Swetlishoff, who spent six months in one of the camps and is chief spokesman for the New Denver Survivor Collective, said Plant should not have been swayed by concern about the possibility of lawsuits. "His obligation is to apologize," Swetlishoff said. Doukhobors maintained a communal, agricultural lifestyle in British Columbia and often had a resistance to government authority. The Sons of Freedom, especially, became known for arson, bombings and public displays of nudity. John McLaren, a University of Victoria law school professor who is writing a book on the Doukhobors in Canada, said the internment was "an exercise in social engineering by the province." "It's a shameful chapter," he said. "This has been unfinished business for a long time."

In 1999, provincial Ombudsman Dulcie McCallum said the former internees were entitled to an explanation, an apology and compensation. 2004-10-05 13:51:39 GMT http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/i/1101/...071506_077.html