Former Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard knew about the pedophile scandal at his downtown hockey arena and once sexually propositioned a teenaged boy, according to a new lawsuit filed by a man seeking damages for sexual abuse.
The allegation that knowledge of the sex scandal went all the way to the top of the organization is controversial and unproven.
Mr. Ballard died 12 years ago, and the current owner of the hockey team, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, intends to defend itself against the new suit.
The claim is one of at least three lawsuits currently before the courts in which plaintiffs say they were sexually abused years ago by Maple Leaf Gardens employees.
Those actions follows previous lawsuits that have been settled by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and by the now-grown men who were sexually abused during the 1970s and 1980s.
Last night, Ken Dryden, president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, said Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment found out about the latest allegations only yesterday, but he was not surprised. "It never comes out of left field," he said last night between periods of the Maple Leafs-Phoenix Coyotes NHL game. "It takes a long time for abuse cases to come forward. This one, I understand, was over 30 years ago, so you just don't know."
But he stressed that no one should rush to judgment. "All you can say is, 'I don't know and you don't know [what happened]' and that's why we have a court," Mr. Dryden said.
In an interview last night, a lawyer for one of the new plaintiffs said that her client, known as R. L. in the lawsuit, felt unable to come forward any earlier.
Like other alleged victims, R. L. claims he was sexually assaulted by former Gardens employees Gord Stuckless and John Paul Roby. Both men have been convicted of sexually abusing boys.
But R. L. also makes an allegation that Harold Ballard knew about the abuse and once sexually propositioned him, said lawyer Loretta Merritt in an interview last night.
Asked what the alleged proposition was, Ms. Merritt said, "Ballard apparently asked my client to lick ice cream off his penis."
There are no allegations that the boy was abused by Mr. Ballard. But Ms. Merritt, who won settlements for about a dozen clients in the first round of lawsuits, said that R. L. also plans to make use of a witness who "can back up that Ballard knew" about the abuse that was going on in Maple Leaf Gardens.
That Mr. Ballard was complicit in the sex scandal is not an allegation that is frequently made. However, a book titled Gardens of Shame,published earlier this year, recounts a story about Mr. Ballard witnessing Mr. Stuckless assaulting a boy.
"I have no reason to doubt this man's report," said co-author Cathy Vine in an interview last night.
She had conducted interviews with about 20 victims of sexual abuse and one of them gave an account of Mr. Ballard witnessing an assault.
In addition to the new claim filed by R. L., similar claims have been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by men known to the courts as R. H. and C. H. The three men are now between 41 and 60 years old.
Ms. Merritt said that Mr. Ballard had an obligation to protect her clients.
"He would have known that people were being sexually abused in the Gardens, and he did nothing," she said, pointing to the fact that he had lived in a Maple Leaf Gardens apartment.
"Anybody who is the occupier of the premises and anybody who is an employer of the perpetrators certainly has an obligation to investigate, take steps, call the police," she said.
All of the victims in the first round of legal action accepted settlements worked out through a special mediator appointed by the court.
Mr. Dryden expects that a mediator will be involved in this latest legal action.
Colin Freeze