Residential School Survivors Meet Pope
A group of Survivors from Canada’s Indian Residential Schools had a private audience with Pope Benedict. The delegation was led by assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine. The group also includes one of the survivors of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, Membertou Chief Terry Paul.
Pope Apologizes to Abuse Survivors
There have been new developments in the class action filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish. The class action was filed by Ron Martin on behalf of all persons who were sexually abused by priests who were members of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish.
Case Management Judge Assigned
Justice John Murphy has been assigned to case manage the class action lawsuit. Justice Murphy will be in charge of ensuring that the class action moves forward in an orderly fashion.
Childhood abuse can permanently change the way your genes fight stress, leaving victims of childhood abuse more vulnerable to stressful events throughout their life.
Abuse Alters Gene Function
Researchers at Montreal’s McGill University have published a study which suggests that childhood abuse can have, not only long term psychological effects, but can physically alter the way abuse victim’s genes function.
Last week the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador ruled that the Roman Catholic Church in St. John’s was responsible for the sexual abuse of eight former altar boys by disgraced priest, Reverend James Hickey.
Priest Convicted of Abusing Alter Boys
Hickey was criminally charged ten years ago with sexually abusing the boys while he was a parish priest on the Burin Peninsula. He was convicted and spent five years in prison.
C.T.V.’s Native Affairs program First Story has aired a documentary on the life of Nora Bernard.
I was pleased to have participated in the documentary honouring my friend and client, Nora Bernard.
First Story takes a retrospective look at Nora’s fight for compensation for survivors against the Government of Canada and the Catholic Church on behalf of former residential school students across Canada and the legacy she left for Residential School Survivors across Canada.
In a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has allowed a lawsuit over alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests to proceed against the Vatican.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that lawyers for the Vatican tried to strike out the plaintiffs’ lawsuits under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a U.S. federal law that governs when a foreign Country can be sued. The U.S. law contains a number of restrictions that limit the ability to sue a foreign state.
The Cincinnati Court of Appeals confirmed that the Vatican is a foreign state, and therefore eligible for sovereign immunity. However, the court determined that the plaintiffs were able to continue their lawsuit under an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act which allows lawsuits for damages caused by “tortious acts” of a foreign State.
The Vatican has issued guidelines for psychological screening of new priests. The Associated Press has reported that the guidelines were issued in response to sexual abuse scandals that have cost the Roman Catholic Church hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for victims of sexual abuse.
Weeding Out Psychopaths
According to AP, the guidelines are supposed to help church leaders weed out candidates with “psychopathic disturbances.”
Yesterday the Supreme Court of Canada restored a finding of civil liability for sexual assaults committed by an Oblate Brother against a former Indian Residential School Student decades ago and confirmed the burden of proof that victims of historical sexual assaults must meet if they pursue civil claim for compensation.
In F.H. v. McDougall the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a finding of civil liability against Ian Hugh McDougall, a former teacher at the Meares Island Indian Residential school. McDougall was originally found liable in B.C. Supreme Court, but the judgment was overturned by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that the testimony of adult victims about sexual assaults that happened during childhood require independent corroboration.
“[t]o choose one over the other . . . requires . . . an articulated reason founded in evidence other than that of the plaintiff”
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Canada was delivered by Rothstein J. He considered whether there was a shifting burden of proof in Canada or if allegations of criminal misconduct should carry a higher burden of proof similar to the burden in criminal prosecutions.
I am pleased to announce that my friend and client, Nora Bernard has been named to the Order of Nova Scotia.
Yesterday the Protocol Office for the province of Nova Scotia released the names of this years recipients of the award. You can read the announcement here.
Perry Dunlop, a former Cornwall Ontario police officer whose investigation launched a huge criminal investigation in the 1990s is still in jail.
Contempt of Court
Dunlop refused to testify before the Cornwall public inquiry and was sentenced to 6 months in jail. Yesterday he was sentenced to another 30 days in jail for a criminal conviction of contempt of court.
