School Days

Youngsters attending the one-room schoolhouse at Perry Siding, B.C., saw a strange sight as they trooped out of class for their lunch recess one day last week. Ranged outside the school was a crowd of 75 buff-bare men and women, members of the unruly Sons of Freedom Doukhobor sect,* staging one of their nude protest parades.

The Freedomites had a particular reason for demonstrating at the schoolhouse door. In last spring's election campaign, when government policy toward the Freedomites was an issue, Attorney General Robert

Bonner had promised to enforce the compulsory-education law and compel the unruly Sons to send their children to school. As opening day approached, indications grew that the Sons were getting set to defy Bonner and the "manmade" school law. Railway dynamitings and house-burnings, two favorite methods of Freedomite protest, broke out around their settlements in the mountainous Kootenay district. Several hundred Freedomites left their homes and set up a tent village at Perry Siding. None of their children showed up for classes when school opened. Instead, the parents stripped for their demonstration.

Hymns & Prayers. Determined to make good on his election promise, Attorney General Bonner sent the Mounted Police into the area immediately. Children were separated from their parents and put under temporary care of provincial welfare workers. All the adults in the camp (77 men, 71 women) were herded into a train. Praying loudly and singing mournful Russian hymns, they were hauled 590 miles to Vancouver to stand trial for contributing to juvenile delinquency.

The mass Freedomite arrest is the biggest roundup in a single day in British Columbia since 1932, when the Sons staged a similar protest against the school law. At that time, those convicted got 2 1/2-year prison sentences. The punishment did not increase the Sons' respect for the law. But it did succeed in getting the Freedomite children into school: the youngsters were placed in foster homes and sent to classes regularly while their parents were in prison. Attorney General Bonner is apparently planning to use the same stern method to enforce the school law again.

Bag & Baggage. Public opinion was sharply divided over Bonner's decision. Some people, particularly those in the areas close to the Freedomites' dynamitings and burnings, felt that a tough policy was the only way to deal with the sect. Others urged patience, arguing that harsh treatment of the Sons only created sympathy for them, even causing some peaceable Doukhobors to join their ranks. The differing views were reflected in Vancouver's leading newspapers, the Sun and the Province. Said the Sun: "The tough policy has been tried before [and] has always failed." Said the Province: "Plain, ordinary methods cannot cope with [dynamiting and arson]. They could be moved bag and baggage to some isolated northern wilderness . . . where the prevailing temperature rules out nude parades."

* The fanatically religious Doukhobors emigrated to western Canada from Russia in 1899 and now number more than 20,000, split into several sects. All are law-abiding except the 2,500 Sons of Freedom, who oppose government and man-made law.

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