Allegations of sexual abuse at a private Catholic school in Vancouver have surfaced on the eve of a crucial court decision on whether the school property can be sold to pay compensation to victims of the Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada.
Newfoundlander Wayne Newman said in an interview that a Christian Brother who was convicted of sexually assaulting him regularly during the years he was at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the early 1980s was transferred to Vancouver College in 1983.
The priest arranged for him to go to the Vancouver school on two occasions, once for three months, where the abuse continued, he said.
Mr. Newman also said he was speaking out now, as he braces for the court decision, because he was upset about Vancouver College spokesmen saying the demand for compensation was related only to events that happened in Newfoundland.
Transferring the abusers from Mount Cashel to Vancouver College did not stop the abuse, he said.
A former employee has also accused Vancouver College of covering up allegations of child abuse.
The former employee, who was concerned about the administration's lack of response to allegations of child abuse, filed a report with police in 1995, according to a sworn affidavit by the former employee.
The Christian Brothers of Ireland in Canada, a Roman Catholic religious order, operated Mount Cashel, Vancouver College and other schools in Canada. The religious order was forced to wind up its operations in the mid-1990s in order to pay compensation to victims who were physically and sexually abused while in their care.
More than 80 claims for compensation totalling about $80-million have been submitted so far. Although most claims are from former residents of the Mount Cashel orphanage, 11 people say they were abused at other institutions run by the Christian Brothers.
Chief Justice Donald Brenner of the B.C. Supreme Court is to issue a ruling this morning on whether Vancouver College and another private Catholic school in B.C., St. Thomas More, can be sold to pay part of the compensation. The two properties have been estimated to be worth more than $40-million.
The B.C. government spearheaded the application for a court order to halt the sale until further legal arguments on the matter can be heard later this summer.
The private grade schools were built and expanded with funds collected mostly in the local community. Parents and alumni of Vancouver College, who have spent millions of dollars over the past six years on legal battles to save the school, say the students should not lose their facility as a result of crimes for which they had no part and share no blame.
"The students would truly be victimized by what would happen," said Jeanine Chase, who has two sons attending Vancouver College and another son on the waiting list.
"I have all the sympathy in the world for the victims [of Mount Cashel]but why . . . [is]another generation being victimized."
John Nixon, chairman of the school's board of directors, said the school community in Vancouver had nothing to do with events at Mount Cashel.
"We've never had any criminal charges against anyone at Vancouver College," he said. "We obviously have compassion for those who were hurt, but we are an innocent school community and are not involved in any of the wrongs."
Mr. Nixon said he was familiar with Mr. Newman's comments about abuse at Vancouver College but he did not know whether the statements were true, including whether Mr. Newman really was at Vancouver College. The statements have never been challenged in court, he said.
As for allegations of abuse by the former employee, Mr. Nixon said an independent review conducted for the school's board of directors concluded that no sexual assault had taken place. He did not know what the police did.
A police spokesman said Friday an internal review would take weeks to determine whether the 1995 complaint was followed up.
Published reports have stated that six Christian Brothers, later convicted of molesting boys at Mount Cashel, had been transferred to teach at the two B.C. Catholic schools when accusations of abuse first arose in Newfoundland.