At the time of their arrival in Canada, their charismatic spiritual leader Peter V. Verigin was still in exile in Siberia - but it was he, with the aid of Leo Tolstoy and friends such as Vladimir Chertkov, who was responsible for obtaining the Canadian refuge.

Within the first year of their arrival, Doukhobors started the Doukhobor Trading Company. In 1902, Peter V. Verigin joined his followers in what was known as Assiniboia Territory (which would become the province of Saskatchewan in 1905). Their formal association was later registered as The Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood in 1917. It was rapidly becoming the most successful and one of the largest communal enterprises in North America.

While the Dominion government during the immigration negotiations guaranteed non-conscription into military services, and allotted land 'in a bloc' for the Doukhobors' communal lifestyle, the government of the day was soon reneging on most of the guarantees previously made. In 1904 a new Minister of the Interior (Frank Oliver), was appointed, and he set about enforcing the Homestead Act, no longer allowing the provisions of communal ownership under the Hamlet Clause, which had allowed the Doukhobors to live communally in villages, while staking ownership on surrounding properties which they were improving through cultivation. The pressure for individual registration was not new, this had been a coercion from the very beginning, however, the threat of land seizure and loss of the improved land was now a reality these naive immigrants had to face.

Furthermore, the new Minister was openly hostile toward the Doukhobors and along with Reverend John McDougal, Land Commissioner, who had been active in the Native Reservations allotment, set about to prove that the required improvements on all lands were not completed.

This resulted in an ultimatum - either register their land individually and become 'naturalized citizens' by swearing allegiance to King Edward - or forfeit their land. The Doukhobors realized that if they swore allegiance to the Crown, they were pledging to go to war if called. This pressure created conflict and mistrust with a people who were already suspicious of their own past government of Russia, a 'king' they had refused the oath to then in 1893. To the Doukhobors, the Dominion of Canada had proven to be one more government that promised one thing but delivered another.

Roughly two thirds of the Doukhobors refused the oath and registration, and lost their hard-won lands. These Doukhobors were defined as 'Community' Doukhobors. Others embraced the opportunity of becoming individual landowners, swore the oath and became known as 'Independents'.

The land in question was nearly 257,000 acres of choice, cleared, cultivated, and improved land, broken by the Doukhobors. In 1907 eviction notices were given when the lands reverted to the Government. (It has been speculated at that time the land was worth about 11 million dollars - that the government confiscated and literally then 'wholesaled' and even granted freely to others, mostly non-Doukhobors that the government deemed as 'fit'. This confiscation of their lands subsequently became known as the 'land loss'). The Doukhobors asked for minimal compensation for the land-breaking work, but none was given, the answer simply being ‘...regret no compensation can be given for lands abandoned...'.