Two brothers want the prime minister and the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador to apologize to people who resettled between the 1950s and 1970s, as the government of the day tried to centralize services.

Raymond and Hayward Blake also want compensation.

"You know, I don't think they really understood what the people were actually going through. And there should be some recognition, perhaps, for the harm that was done to people," said Raymond Blake.

Electric lights, flush toilets

The brothers started life in Pushthrough, on the south coast of Newfoundland.

In 1969, they moved 10 kilometres across the bay to Hermitage with their mother and siblings.

Raymond Blake, left, as a child, in this undated family photo with his mother, Minnie and brother, Lloyd. The single-mother family resettled from Pushthrough to nearby Hermitage on the south coast of Newfoundland in 1969. (Submitted )

While the Joey Smallwood government did not force people to leave Pushthrough, Raymond Blake said the community was struggling to find teachers who would stay. His mother signed the petition to resettle, just like everyone else.

In July, 1969, a schooner carried the family's possessions from the old house in Pushthrough to their new home.

Raymond Blake was 10, Hayward 13.

Hayward Blake was 10 when he posed for this photo, and still living in the isolated community of Pushthrough, where people used kerosene lamps whenever their generators broke down, which was often. Blake is now 60 years old. (Bruce Tilley/CBC )

The new place came equipped with running water, a flush toilet, and a television.

Raymond Blake said it was very exciting for children who were used to kerosene lamps whenever the generator back in Pushthrough didn't work, as it often didn't.

"In the evenings you could go anywhere in the house and push a switch and the light would come on," said Blake. "Simply amazing."

Blake says resettlement was in many ways a good thing, but he adds he's come to understand that it was traumatic for some.

Debt and heartache

Raymond Blake says his mother was stoic, but he wondered what it was like for her as a widow with six children. She was separated from her friends and relatives, and was an outsider in her new community.

Until the age of 10, Raymond Blake lived in the now-abandoned community of Pushthrough. Today he lives in Regina, where he is the head of the history department at the University of Regina. (Don Hall)

Minnie Blake received just under $2,500 to help with the move, but her son said the only house she could find in Hermitage cost twice that, leaving the family in debt.

I've heard from a number of people who said they dropped out of school, people who said they were bullied. - Hayward Blake

His grandmother moved in with the family but Raymond Blake said she deeply missed her old garden in Pushthrough.

"We don't think that she was ever happy, ever again," said Blake.

He remembers that even the annual flower service at the cemetery in Hermitage was painful for the newcomers because they could not visit the graves of their own loved ones. His father's grave is in Pushthrough.

Children mocked, bullied

Blake said some resettled children faced ridicule for the way they talked, and playground fights were common.

His brother said some young people paid a life-altering price. "I've heard from a number of people who said they dropped out of school, people who said they were bullied when they went to their new communities," said Hayward Blake.

"So, you know, this is an untold story."

Hayward Blake lives in Harbour Grace and works in St. John's at Memorial University's department of education. He grew up in both Pushthrough and Hermitage. (Bruce Tilley/CBC )

He said one woman contacted him recently and told him that after her family resettled, other students made her the laughingstock of the school. Some students also stole her lunch money.

The woman said she quit school and went to work at the local fish plant.

While the Blake brothers said they were not bullied, they're taking action so others can have a voice.

Plaque or scholarship, to remember

Today, Hayward Blake works at Memorial University in St. John's, in the department of education.

Raymond Blake is the head of the history department at the University of Regina. He calculates that around 30,000 people moved between the mid-'50s and the mid-'70s.

Raymond and Hayward Blake's father's grave is in Pushthrough. This image is from a Land & Sea episode 20 years after the town was resettled. (CBC )

The two men have drafted letters to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as Premier Dwight Ball, calling for them to apologize for the resettlement program.

They also want compensation and redress.

Raymond Blake said he's not looking to get any money for himself. Instead, he'd like to see something like a plaque at a museum or a scholarship at Memorial University.

"The apology is first and foremost what we're looking for," added his brother, Hayward Blake. "And we're looking for a recognition that the resettlement of the '50s and '60s was not done in the manner that it should have been."

Hayward Blake had this painting done of the Pushthrough church, with its big red roof, one of his fondest memories of his childhood home. (CBC )

The brothers said their goal is to open up a dialogue about resettlement.

However, they said if there's no formal apology they'll look into the possibility of a class-action lawsuit.

The brothers pointed out that governments in Canada have offered apologies for injustices including residential schools, discrimination against gay and transgender civil servants and the head tax for immigrants.

Raymond Blake was careful to say he's not comparing those experiences to what people went through in resettlement.

But the brothers said resettled people are also victims.

"The state has recognized how it has harmed people in different ways," he said.