Expanded Kootenay Committee on Intergroup Relations collection: Special Collections and Rare Books

We do not want any more fear, threats or coercion. We want the children to find some hope in the future. I'm very optimistic myself that this meeting will be the first of many meetings which will lead us again to toil and peaceful life.

Robin Bourne,  EKCIR Chairman, Expanded Kootenay Committee on Inter-Group Relations Proceedings, Vol. A p. 10

Collection history

The Expanded Kootenay Committee on Inter-Group Relations (EKCIR) was launched in October 1982. The proceedings represent a pivotal moment in the Doukhobor story where political, historical, and religious differences were shared and a process of reconciliation could begin. 

Before the EKCIR, there were several predecessors that aimed to start the process of reconciliation. Initially, the Joint Doukhobor Research Committee (JDRC) was established by the Doukhobor community. These were a series of meetings or symposia that were held across the BC Interior, inviting Doukhobors to come together to "draw on personal and collective memory to address a series of questions aimed at elucidating various historical and identificational issues" (Androsoff, p.8). 

After these initial grassroots meetings, the BC Ministry of the Attorney General established the Kootenay Committee on Intergroup Relations (KCIR) in 1979 to provide a process of consultation towards the resolution of problems with Doukhobors in the Kootenays. 

By 1982, it expanded the committee to involve not only representatives from the various Doukhobor communities, including the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC); the Christian Community and Brotherhood of Reformed Doukhobors (CCBRD); and the Sons of Freedom. It also included representatives from interior municipalities, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the provincial and federal governments. Other members of Doukhobor communities attended the sessions as observers. All of these groups made up the Expanded Kootenay Committee on Inter-Group Relations.

The goal of the group was to bring an end to the arson and bombings, and to reach an accord between the various Doukhobor communities. By 1985, the Committee signed the Interim Accord between Doukhobor groups. Committee meetings lasted another two years and included archival research into the histories of the Doukhobor communities. The last session was held in September 1987.

Joint Doukhobor Research Symposium in Castlegar, October 12, 1980 (481-4A). Image copyright Koozma J. Tarasoff. Doukhobor Collection. MsC-121-DP-2175. Used with permission.
[Interim Accord event - people standing by the tables arranged in rectangle], 1985. Photograph by Steve Lapshinoff. Doukhobor Collection. MsC-121-0-11-1-0-37-1577.
[Interim Accord event - people standing by the tables arranged in rectangle], 1985. Photograph by Steve Lapshinoff. Doukhobor Collection. MsC-121-0-11-1-0-37-1576.

Access the digital collection or visit in person

With generous financial support from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre's B.C. History Digitization Program, 98 reports of the Expanded Kootenay Committee on Inter-Group Relations have now been digitized and made available online with descriptive metadata.

You can also view the collection in person in Special Collections and Rare Books.

Rights

This collection is made available for non-commercial research and educational purposes. Numerous rights holders are represented in this collection. If you believe that this project has not given proper attribution, has used your work without authorization or has released confidential information, please contact copy@sfu.ca and include the URL of the digital item in your message.

You may reproduce and display this material for research purposes. For all other reproduction or distribution uses, please contact the copyright holders.

Expanded Kootenay Committee on Intergroup Relations: Proceedings at meeting, Volume XVIII, page 18

Sources:

Androsoff, Ashleigh. "Spirit Wrestling: Identity Conflict and the Canadian 'Doukhobor Problem,' 1899-1999." Doctoral thesis. University of Toronto, 2011.