Film tells story of banished lepers

A DOCUMENTARY is forcing Canadians to acknowledge a shameful part of their past: an island that isolated Chinese people with leprosy from the rest of the world.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Visitors to a campground on D'Arcy Island near Victoria often sense an eerie feeling that contrasts sharply with the tranquillity of the forested area surrounded by pebble beaches.

Unknown to most, they are treading on unmarked graves from a sad and unacknowledged part of British Columbia's past. The island once housed a leper colony.

"I remember getting off the boat and feeling a chill run through my body," said Erik Paulsson, a documentary filmmaker.

The story of what happened on D'Arcy Island between 1891 and 1924 is not recorded in any history books.

Paulsson found out about the leper colony after reading a short blurb in the back of a travel guide. His curiosity piqued, Paulsson pored over history books for more information, but found nothing.

At the British Columbia Archives in Victoria, Paulsson learned that D'Arcy Island was virtually an escape-proof prison for lepers, almost all of them Chinese.

"I remember leaving the archives quite shaken," says Paulsson. "These people were predominantly Chinese and they were abandoned."

"It was at that point, when I was at the archives, that I thought, `This is something that has to be told.' "

Telling the lepers' story

The result is a compelling and haunting documentary called "Island of Shadows: D'Arcy Island Leper Colony, 1891-1924." It premiered recently on Canadian TV.

Paulsson blended archival photos taken of the island's inhabitants during the 1880s with newspaper accounts and re-enactments to weave a gripping account of a tragic time.

The original site of the leper colony was discovered only last year during the making of "Island of Shadows."

The story revolves around Lim Sam, a character representative of the Chinese men - and one woman - banished to D'Arcy Island and left there to die.

There never were more than nine people who lived in meager shacks. In one case, a man lived alone on the "island of the dead" for 15 months.

An American missionary who applied to move to D'Arcy Island to care for the dying inhabitants was denied permission.

Their only contact with the outside world was when a supply ship arrived every three months with food, clothing, opium and coffins.

Although medical officers cited deplorable conditions on the island, nothing was done.

Anti-Asian sentiment

The political and social climate of the time produced the Anti-Asian League, which fueled two riots against the Chinese.

In 1882, a Chinese man with leprosy was strangled, stripped naked, hung by his ankles and burned.

The provincial government pressured the federal government in Ottawa to operate the leper colony because it had allowed the Chinese into Canada.

In the late 1800s, thousands of Chinese immigrated to Canada to build a railway so they could send money to their families.

They provided cheap labor in dangerous railway and mining jobs that few wanted.

The overcrowded barracks in which the migrants lived bred leprosy, an infection that spreads through blood or sneezing.

The bacteria breed in the hands, feet and face. They attack the peripheral nerves, causing a loss of sensation that can lead to nerve swelling and deformities.

Because people with leprosy don't feel pain, they can go unaware of cuts, bruises or burns. A lack of medical attention and clean water means untreated wounds become infected quickly.

Although it was known that leprosy is not highly contagious - 90 percent of the world's population is immune to it - the Chinese sufferers were shunned and segregated.

However, whites with leprosy in Canada were sent to another leper colony in Tracadie, New Brunswick.

That facility was located in a spacious building in town with a cook, nurses and a resident doctor. Admission was voluntary and relatives could visit.

Paulsson said his aim in making the film is for Canadians to remember the "forgotten people."

"We pride ourselves on being a multicultural country full of diversity, and we cherish that, but we forget that a hundred years ago, there were all kinds of acts of barbarism . . . and cruelty and racism," he said.

"I think it's important that Canadians don't gloss that over and say `Aren't we the most wonderful country in the world.' "