An all-male jury was selected for the Oct. 3 trial in [Nelson] of Mrs. [Astaforoff], who is acting as her own counsel. She has pleaded not guilty to two counts of arson, both stemming from the museum fire in which damage was estimated at $100,000 to $250,000. "I should not be here alone," she said yesterday in County Court. "All the Doukhobor prophets . . . not I alone.

Doukhobors kept out after fire in courtroom

Wednesday, September 25, 1985

CASTLEGAR, B.C. -- Special to The Globe and Mail CASTLEGAR, B.C. - Members of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors were ejected yesterday from one courtroom and barred from entering another after a member of the sect stripped and threw a burning undergarment on court documents during a preliminary hearing for Mary Astaforoff.

Mrs. Astaforoff, 72, is charged in connection with the Sept. 8 burning of sections of the Doukhobor Historical Society Museum near here.

During an adjournment in the one-hour hearing, while Provincial Court Judge Richard O. D'Andrea and most RCMP were out of the courtroom, Pauline Berikoff walked from the back of the courtroom and, calling out "enough prison, enough prison," calmly dropped her burning slip on the documents.

After the small flame was swatted out, an angry Judge D'Andrea, who had halted a ritual prayer at the beginning of the hearing, ordered sheriffs and police to clear all Sons of Freedom members from the courtroom.

Most of the 30 courtroom observers then drove 50 kilometres to the County Court in Nelson where the jury was to be selected for Mrs. Astaforoff's trial.

Sons of Freedom members were barred from entering the Nelson courthouse, although members of other sects were allowed in.

Six women then stripped outside the courthouse and, with other members of the sect, began singing, refusing to put their clothes on when police asked them to do so. They later dressed and remained waiting outside.

Authorities called the barring a question of security. There were more than 90 prospective jurors in the County Court at the time, for selection for seven coming trials.

An all-male jury was selected for the Oct. 3 trial in Nelson of Mrs. Astaforoff, who is acting as her own counsel. She has pleaded not guilty to two counts of arson, both stemming from the museum fire in which damage was estimated at $100,000 to $250,000. "I should not be here alone," she said yesterday in County Court. "All the Doukhobor prophets . . . not I alone. All the Doukhobors are accomplices in this trial." Many of the Sons of Freedom are upset about eight-year sentences being served by Mary Braun and Tina Jmaieff, elderly Freedomites who were sentenced recently for the burning of a house last spring.

The fire in which Mrs. Astaforoff is charged destroyed a blacksmith's shop, a caretaker's living quarters, a bath house and a barn.

Arson has been used by the sect as a means to protest against materialism and government regulations, to keep other Doukhobors in line and sometimes as a spiritual cleansing.