Freedomites

Freedomite meetings were similar to other spiritual Christian folk-Protestants from Russia. They met in simple buildings, sat on benches, men and women separated facing each other, prayed in Russian, sang religious hymns and songs in Russian, and spoke about matters of religious and community interest mostly in Russian. The ideals of the Freedomites emphasized basic traditional Russian communal living and action — growing food, building homes, living a peaceful rural life, ecstatic religious doctrine when agitated for protest, and anarchic attitudes towards external regulation. == Public protest ==

Although Canada at first provided a more tolerant religious environment than the Russian Empire, conflict soon developed, most importantly over the schooling of children and land registration. These Svobodniki generally refused to send their children to government-run schools. The governments of Saskatchewan and later British Columbia did not heed reports by sociologists to appease the concerns of parents, and chose to legally charge many of the parents for not sending the children to school. and two were killed by their own bombs in 1958 and 1962. Targets included their own property and unfortunate Doukhobor neighbors to further exhibit their loathing of materialism, attacks on schools to resist government pressure to school Svobodnik children, and attacks on transportation and communications. One such incident was the bombing of a railway bridge in Nelson, British Columbia in 1961. Most of these acts were committed in the nude. Abuse of these children was later alleged, and a formal apology demanded. The BC government made an official Statement of Regret that satisfied some, but not others. The Government of Canada has not apologized for its role in the removal, saying that it is not responsible for actions taken by the government in place 50 years ago. == Operation Snatch ==

Between 1953 and 1959, roughly 200 Sons of Freedom (Freedomite) children, aged 7–15, were seized by the BC government, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the federal government in "Operation Snatch". These children were confined in New Denver, BC in a prison-like setting. The Sons of Freedom children are alleged to have lost their human rights throughout their imprisonment by the BC government. • 1953. The conservative Social Credit government is determined to end the "disorder" caused by the radical Sons of Freedom. • 1958. One Son of Freedom killed by his own bomb • July 31, 1959. Parents are compelled to swear before a magistrate to send their children to school. • March 2000:The Law Commission of Canada completed an extensive study on institutional child abuse in Canada, producing a final report entitled "Restoring Dignity". :The Law Commission of Canada recommended that the provincial and federal governments correct the historical wrongs, in the best interests of Canadian society. In the years leading up to the creation of the residential schools, the Sons of Freedom had become a concern for the province of British Columbia as a whole; they seemed to have a problem with any sort of government, in addition to the laws and policies that were being enforced. Public and Authorities were unhappy because the Sons of Freedom did not register their births, deaths or marriages that occurred within their communities; nor did they send their children to public schools. Public alarm was increasing, based on the fears that the unruly incidents of nude protests, burning of homes and buildings and bombings of bridges and railways, were not being attended to by the RCMP. "It was between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. and Elsie Ericson's mother had just begun lighting the stove when four RCMP officers barged into their tiny wooden home in the village of Krestova, B.C. The child jumped out of bed and hid under it, only to be dragged out by their feet. Elsie and her brother spent the next four years in what she said felt like a jail. They were housed with nearly 200 other in a residential school in New Denver, B.C." ==See also==