Through the Eyes of a Child

Ah, the sad New Denver tale that we have been hearing for 70 years. Unfortunately, even though the government is now acknowledging the injustice, the overall issue is still as polarizing a topic as they come.

For those of you who may not know the details: In the first Public Report (No 38, April 1999) to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, titled, “Righting the Wrong: The confinement of Sons of Freedom Doukhobor Children,” the BC Ombudsman shared information about the confinement of children in a residential school institution located at New Denver in the Kootenay Region of British Columbia, during the years 1953 to 1959.

The Ombudsman’s recommendations to “right the wrong” were never realized. Over the years there have been other reports. However, this fall 70 years after the fact, and after yet another official Ombudsman's Report, the government is finally preparing to issue an official apology.

Over two hundred children were incarcerated in New Denver, only half are still alive today. Despite everything you have heard over the years, I implore you to stop for a moment, take a breath, close your eyes, put your hand on your heart and bring to your mind’s eye your own seven-year-old child, or grandchild, or niece/nephew, or even your next-door neighbour’s child. They were children.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) declares that every child in the world should be recognised, respected, and protected as a unique and valuable human being. It was ratified in Canada in 1991 to prevent the infringement of children’s rights. Aside from the maltreatment and neglect upon being apprehended and confined, these children of New Denver were deprived of receiving love, nurturing, and guidance.

Being separated from parents/caregivers can lead to developmental traumas that may result in various psychological conditions, chronic diseases, substance abuse, and more. Individuals can carry these effects throughout their lives, which can also negatively affect their children and loved ones, commonly referred to as intergenerational trauma.

As smart, as modern, and as fast-paced as our world is today, a seven-year-old is still incapable of rationally understanding the adult world or their own feelings and emotions. How can we expect them to comprehend why they were taken away from their parents, their families, their homes, their communities. And whatever we may think about the actions and attitudes of the adults of that time, that should not reflect on the injustice experienced by the children of New Denver.

Yes, they are adults now, but they have been wounded adult children for the majority of their lives. A wounded child grows into a wounded adult, period. There are many extenuating circumstances that can explain why one child struggled or continues to struggle more than another in response to trauma. This is true across all social classes.

Have money, power and prestige become our only measure of success? In my experience the disenfranchised, despite their own hardships, are often the ones who can see another’s pain and are also often the first ones to give you the shirt off their backs if you needed it.

As outsiders we will never know first-hand the experiences of those children. Both my mom and my dad were children in New Denver. I do not claim to know their journey. They were wonderful parents – loving, caring, giving, sometimes very strict parents, who always put our needs first, but they were also wounded parents. As their child, having shared their life experiences since New Denver, I still cannot speak to their pain. Their voices did not seem to matter then, they should at least finally matter now.

I have been on "both sides of the tracks" . . . my heart breaks at some of the insensitivity I have witnessed over the years. I have remained silent. Where is our compassion, our empathy, our love for another human? Whether it’s the children of New Denver, or other innocent Doukhobor children who may have been traumatized by horrific events they experienced in our complicated past, or the children of the former Indian Residential Schools, or the children in the war in Ukraine, or those in Iraq, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, or Syria?

God help us to get out of our heads and stop trying to understand and explain everything before we actually do what obviously needs to be done. We may not ever know the full picture (we rarely do) but with faith, love, kindness, and compassion in our hearts, we can learn to love one another. In my mind, it is less about being right than it is about doing the right thing. Haven’t we been on "opposite" sides long enough? We are all part of the Doukhobor family – let us stand together at this important moment in time and allow for the process of healing to begin.

In the photo: my dad, George G. Swetlishoff in New Denver.