Mr. [Mary Astaforoff] said his mother and the other elderly Sons of Freedom members are fighting against assimilation in Canadian society. Two other Freedomites, Mary Braun and Tina Jmaieff, are on prolonged hunger strikes at Matsqui Penitentiary, the prison where Mrs. Astaforoff served her sentence.

Move to halfway houses considered for jail fasters

Saturday, November 30, 1985

RITA MOIR

GILPIN, B. C. -- BY RITA MOIR Special to The Globe and Mail GILPIN, B. C.

The federal Government is seriously considering moving Sons of Freedom fasters from prison to halfway houses, sources close to Corrections Service officials said at the funeral of Doukhobor faster Mary Astaforoff yesterday.

Sources said the death of the 71- year-old woman has pushed the Government to look for ways to protect the lives of the other Sons of Freedom Doukhobor women who are still on a fast. They said that halfway houses would bring the women closer to their community while keeping them under supervision.

Mrs. Astaforoff's son Peter said he believes federal officials have had this action in mind for some time and likely will move more quickly now that they have seen the women's determination.

Mr. Astaforoff said his mother and the other elderly Sons of Freedom members are fighting against assimilation in Canadian society. Two other Freedomites, Mary Braun and Tina Jmaieff, are on prolonged hunger strikes at Matsqui Penitentiary, the prison where Mrs. Astaforoff served her sentence.

Another Freedomite in the provincial Lakeside Correctional Centre in Burnaby is on the 19th day of a fast. Pauline Berikoff, 43, was sentenced on Nov. 13 to 60 days for mischief after she stripped and threw her burning slip on to a courtroom table during Mrs. Astaforoff's preliminary hearing.

Mrs. Berikoff and Mrs. Astaforoff had served time together in prison on previous arson convictions.

It was a bitterly cold day yesterday when Mrs. Astaforoff was buried in the community cemetery here, next to her husband, Peter. She died in Mission Memorial Hospital on Nov. 24 after a 54-day fast while serving a 10-year sentence for the September burning of the Doukhobor Museum near Castlegar.

On Thursday night, Sons of Freedom members gathered to sing psalms before her coffin at a Grand Forks funeral home. Mrs. Astaforoff lay in a silk-lined casket without her usual prison-issue horn- rimmed glasses. Gaunt, she was dressed in a white gown patterned with cornflowers.

Mrs. Astaforoff had spent 22 years in prison for arson, nudity and contempt of court. At court appearances, she took on the role of a religious martyr fighting against assimilation of the Doukhobors by the Canadian Government.

Her son said elderly Sons of Freedom women live 90 per cent by religion and 10 per cent for daily concerns. The younger people give 90 per cent of their attention to daily concerns and 10 per cent to religion, he said.