Halifax Sexual Abuse Claims Blog

September 6th, 2012

Guidelines to help prevent child abuse

I was doing some research to write an article about what organizations can do to prevent child abuse when I came across this article written by my colleague Minneapolis attorney, Mike Bryant.

The article is short and to the point and links out to a variety of articles that non-profits, churches and other organizations can use when coming up with policies and guidelines to help prevent child abuse.

How Organizations Can Prevent Lawsuits for The Abuse of Children

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August 3rd, 2012

“Explosive” Documentary About Sexual Abuse at School for Deaf

by John McKiggan

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off in just a few weeks’ time. One of the films premiering at TIFF is Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, a documentary by an Oscar-winning Director Alex Gibney.

The film chronicles the sad and tragic story of a pedophile, Father Lawrence Murphy, who sexually abused as many as 200 deaf children over a period of three decades at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin.

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July 18th, 2012

George Ansel Smith Facing More Sex Abuse Charges

by John McKiggan

As is usually the case with charges of childhood sexual abuse, further investigation by police has lead to more charges against catholic priest George Ansel Smith.

Smith was already facing 62 charges involving various allegations of sexual abuse against children from various parishes in Western Newfoundland.

But police confirmed today that they have laid a further 7 charges including gross indecency, indecent assault and unlawful assault with intent to commit an indictable offence. Some of the charges involve incidents alleged to have taken place in Nova Scotia.

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June 26th, 2012

McKiggan interviewed on Information Morning

by John McKiggan

For those of you that missed it, here’s a link to my interview with Molly Segal of Information Morning.

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June 25th, 2012

What Does Monsignor Lynn’s Conviction Mean for the Catholic Church?

by John McKiggan

On Friday, June 22, 2012, Monsignor William Lynn was convicted by a jury on charges of criminal endangerment. The case marks the first time that any official within the Catholic Church has been held criminally responsible for sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

Landmark Decision

I don’t believe the importance of this conviction can be overstated. Every province in Canada and every state in the United States have laws that require persons in authority to report suspected cases of child abuse. The website BishopAccountability.org has a huge database of American priests who have been publicly accused of sexual abuse.

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May 18th, 2012

Albert LeBlanc – Ex Priest and Probation Officer Pleads Guilty to Sexual Abuse

by John McKiggan

Albert LeBlanc a fomer catholic priest from the Yarmouth Diocese pleaded guilty this week to charges that he sexually abused six boys in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Some of the charges stem from the period when LeBlanc was employed as a priest with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yarmouth the later charges relate to periods when he was employed as a case worker with Social Services and then a probation officer.

LeBlanc is facing 44 more charges which are scheduled to be dealt with in August.

The Diocese of Yarmouth has already been sued by several of LeBlanc’s victims. The potential legal exposure for the Diocese, Family and Children’s Services and Probation Services could be enormous.

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May 11th, 2012

Another former boy scout leader charged with sexual abuse

by John McKiggan

Scouts Canada has apologized for not reporting suspected cases of child abuse. They are conducting an internal investigation into hundreds of sexual abuse claims from past cases. See Scouts Canada Admits Not Reporting Abuse Claims.

Now they can add another abuser to their list. Notorious pedophile and former boy scout leader Ralph Rowe has been charged, again, with multiple counts of sexual abuse against young boys.

Media reports indicate Scouts Canada has already been sued for sexual abuse perpetrated by Raph Rowe.

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April 26th, 2012

Walk So Kids Can Talk: Fundraiser for Kids-Help Phone

by John McKiggan

The Kids Help Phone is a non-profit organization that provides a telephone counselling service to youth 24 hours a day, 365 day a year.

Kids Help Phone provides support to youth suffering from a variety of problems including abuse, bullying, suicide, depression and online issues like cyberbullying.

Kids Help Phone doesn’t receive any core government funding and relies entirely on the support of individual donations and corporate sponsors.

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April 25th, 2012

Incest Survivor Waits Too Long to Sue – Claim Struck-Out

by John McKiggan

Historical sexual abuse claims can be complicated and difficult to prove for many reasons; the abuse happened long ago, witnesses may have died, records are destroyed and memories fade.

Limitation Periods a Barrier

One of the biggest hurdles abuse survivors faced was the fact that the time limit to file a claim had usually run out by the time the survivor had the strength or courage to be able to disclose what happened to them as a child.

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April 11th, 2012

Bishop’s Report Shows Abuse Allegations Against Priests Continue to Increase

by John McKiggan

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops released a report this week supposedly showing the number of sexual abuse allegations made against American priests last year. How the data in the report should be interpreted depends on your point of view.

The report indicated that there were 594 new credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by a priest during 2011. That’s more than a 15 percent increase over the previous year.

However, the Conference of Catholic Bishops is quick to point out that “only” 23 of the new allegations involved children who were under the age of 18 in 2010 or 2011. In other words, the Bishops are trying to suggest that the problem of sexual abuse by priests is an historical one and that there are few current cases of sexual abuse by priests.

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