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    Shattering the Illusion: Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions
    Shattering the Illusion: Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions
    Shattering the Illusion: Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions
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    Shattering the Illusion: Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions

    By Tracy J. Trothen

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    6

    Islam in Canada

    Tracy J. Trothen

    Chapter 6 examines Islam in Canada and their approach to child sexual abuse, from 1960 to 2009.


    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilfrid Laurier University Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2012
    ISBN9781554584086
    Shattering the Illusion: Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions

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      Book preview

      Shattering the Illusion - Tracy J. Trothen

      Shattering the Illusion

      Shattering the Illusion

      Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions

      Tracy J. Trothen

      This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Trothen, Tracy J. (Tracy Joan), 1963–

      Shattering the illusion : child sexual abuse and Canadian religious institutions / Tracy J. Trothen.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Issued also in electronic formats.

      ISBN 978-1-55458-356-0

      1. Child sexual abuse by clergy—Canada. 2. Child sexual abuse—Religious aspects—Christianity—History of doctrines. 3. Child sexual abuse—Canada—Prevention. I. Title.

      BX1912.9.T76 2012            261.8′3272088282            C2012-903300-6

      ———

      Electronic monograph.

      Issued also in print format.

      ISBN 978-1-55458-407-9 (PDF).—ISBN 978-1-55458-408-6 (EPUB)

      1. Child sexual abuse by clergy—Canada. 2. Child sexual abuse—Religious aspects—Christianity—History of doctrines. 3. Child sexual abuse—Canada—Prevention. I. Title.

      BX1912.9.T76 2012            261.8′327208828              C2012-903301-4

      Cover design by David Drummond using image from Shutterstock. Text design by Angela Booth Malleau.

      © 2012 Wilfrid Laurier University Press

      Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

      www.wlupress.wlu.ca

      This book is printed on FSC recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100% post-consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy.

      Printed in Canada

      Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.

      No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit http://www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Introduction

      1    Child Sexual Abuse in Religious Institutions

      Research Method

      Overview of the Chapters

      2    The Roman Catholic Church in Canada

      Church Structure and Description of the Context

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1960–80

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1981–91

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1992–2009

      Chapter Summary

      3    The United Church of Canada

      Church Structure and Description of the Context

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1960–80

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1981–91

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1992–2009

      Chapter Summary

      4    The Anglican Church in Canada

      Church Structure and Description of the Context

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1960–80

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1981–91

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1992–2009

      Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse and Complaints by Adults of Historical Childhood Sexual Abuse

      Chapter Summary

      5    The Mennonite Church in Canada

      Church Structure and Description of the Context

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1960–80

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1981–91

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1992–2009

      Chapter Summary

      6    Islam in Canada

      Institutional Structure and Description of the Context

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1960–2009

      Educational Work

      Chapter Summary

      7    The Canadian Unitarian Council/The Unitarian Universalist Association

      Church Structure and Description of the Context

      Approach to Child Sexual Abuse, Including Relevant Statements, Policies, and Practices: 1960–2009

      Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse and Complaints by Adults of Historical Childhood Sexual Abuse

      Chapter Summary

      8    Gathering the Pieces

      Themes and Historical Shifts

      Relevant Differences between the Identified Religious Institutions

      Future Directions

      Summary Table

      Notes

      Index

      Acknowledgements

      THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE to whom I owe a debt of gratitude in seeing this book through to fruition. First, this book would have been many more years in the making without the expertise and dedication of my research assistants. Tim Crouch and Ryan McNally were involved in this project for close to three years intermittently. Barb Adle helped out at a time when she was much needed. We were all inspired to investigate these policies and their attendant evolutions out of a commitment to the work of justice and the protection of the vulnerable.

      Religious communities have a particular responsibility to safeguard the children in their midst and to nurture their spirits. Yet widespread child sexual abuse continues. This book is born of the outrage that must stoke any crucible of justice. To all of you who have suffered such abuse, I am truly and deeply sorry. No child should ever be abused.

      I am both heartened by the work done at a policy level and overwhelmed by the need for more healing and prevention. Numerous individuals in the religious institutions examined in this book have invested much courage, soul, and wisdom in the crafting of policies and procedures addressing child sexual abuse within their faith communities. To them I extend heartfelt gratitude; this is not easy work.

      The research and the preparation of this book was supported financially by the following organizations and institutions: Queen’s University, where I am employed, and, indirectly, by the Cornwall Public Inquiry, with whom I had a contract to produce the paper A Survey of Policies and Practices in Respect to Responses by Religious Institutions to Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse and Complaints by Adults of Historical Child Sexual Abuse, 1960–2006. This paper was one of four tabled as exhibits in Phase 1 of the inquiry. I did not influence or discuss evidence with the commissioner or anyone else associated with the inquiry in respect to Phase 1 factual determinations. This report for the inquiry formed the base for this book. Additional research and writing was done to complete this book in the years following the submission of the research paper to the inquiry.

      Heartfelt appreciation goes to my outstanding research assistants, the anonymous peer reviewers who provided invaluable critique, and always to the wonderful people at Wilfrid Laurier University Press, in particular Leslie Macredie, Lisa Quinn, and Rob Kohlmeier, for their encouragement and assistance. Any mistakes remaining in these pages are mine alone.

      Introduction

      THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK was inspired by the Cornwall Public Inquiry into institutional responses to complaints of organized historic child sexual abuse in Cornwall, Ontario, purported to have occurred between the 1950s and the early 2000s.

      This was one of the most costly and thorough public commissions ever undertaken. Lasting over more than three years, testimony from approximately 175 people was heard, and more than 3,400 exhibits were entered into evidence. Estimates of the cost of the Inquiry range from $40 million to $50 million. Regarding the scope of the Inquiry, reporter Trevor Pritchard pointed out that other commissions "pale in comparison. The recently completed Goudge Inquiry into the forensics work of Dr. Charles Smith, for example, heard from a mere forty-seven witnesses over fifty-two days. The O’Connor Inquiry into E. coli-related deaths in Walkerton lasted ninety-five days and heard from 114 witnesses."¹

      For those interested in the Inquiry’s precipitating events, the following is a summary of that story. Prior to the launch of the Cornwall Public Inquiry, Cornwall had been the site of on-again, off-again police inquiries and allegations of child sexual abuse. Further, there were accusations that institutional actors, including some police and Roman Catholic priests, had either ignored victims or actively engaged in a cover-up.² The first known allegations were made by an adult victim of historic child sexual abuse in early 1992, with other allegations following. The now adult complainant, David Silmser, said he was first abused in the 1970s.³ In 1992 he summoned the courage to tell police that [as a boy] he had been sexually assaulted by a Cornwall priest.⁴ Subsequently Silmser was given $32,000 by the Roman Catholic Church to drop his allegations. This settlement became public when Const. Perry Dunlop, who was to become a pivotal agent in the Cornwall saga, discovered the complaint and passed it on to child welfare authorities. This revelation generated an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigation that concluded in 1994 with no criminal charges. (Later, Dunlop would refuse to testify at the Cornwall Inquiry because he was convinced that justice would not result. Consequently, in 2008 he was convicted of contempt and spent seven months in jail.)⁵

      The case was reopened in 1995 after the lawyer, Malcolm MacDonald, employed by the Church to settle the Silmser complaint, was found guilty of obstructing justice. This led to criminal charges against Father Charles MacDonald—seven counts of indecent assault on three boys.

      After this turn of events and several more complaints from other alleged victims, the OPP initiated Project Truth in 1997. The media and possibly some individuals associated with the OPP misinterpreted the purpose of Project Truth as an investigation into the existence of a purported Cornwall pedophile ring believed to have been comprised of prominent men, including Roman Catholic priests, doctors, police officers, and probation officers. Rather, it was an investigation into a series of particular complaints of child sexual abuse that resulted in fifteen area men being charged with 115 sex crimes committed between 1997 and 2001. These charges culminated in only one conviction—Father Paul Lapierre, who was convicted in Quebec after being exonerated in Ontario.⁶ Of those charged, four died of natural causes and two committed suicide. The court proceedings closed in 2004. Further, according to media reports, the investigation found no evidence to back claims that a … pedophile ring, complete with bizarre ritualistic orgies, operated clandestinely out of the eastern Ontario town of Cornwall,⁷ but again it was not made clear that Project Truth’s mandate did not include an investigation into the existence of a ring.

      In the thirteen years between the first allegations and the initiation of the Public Inquiry in 2005, citizens’ groups agitated for action on these allegations of child sexual abuse committed by a pedophile-ring.⁸ Notably, community member and MPP Garry Guzzo, who had long agitated on behalf of victims, continued to believe in the existence of an organized pedophile ring.⁹

      Only weeks after the conclusion of Project Truth, Lapierre, who was charged as a result of the investigation, took the witness stand in his own defence and told a stunned courtroom that, while he himself was innocent of the three counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency laid against him, a ring of sorts did exist in the Cornwall area and that Catholic authorities knew about it.¹⁰ Further, Lapierre claimed that other priests told him of indecent acts against several boys, and that one priest kept pictures of naked boys.¹¹ To the shock of victims, residents, and supporters, Lapierre was acquitted on all charges on the grounds of reasonable doubt.¹²

      The Cornwall Public Inquiry was created, by Order in Council 558/2005, on April 14, 2005, with the Honourable Justice G. Normand Glaude as commissioner.¹³ In explaining the rationale behind the Public Inquiry, Order 558/2005 states that allegations of abuse of young people have surrounded the City of Cornwall and its citizens for many years, and since criminal investigations and prosecutions had concluded, and as [c]ommunity members have indicated that a public inquiry will encourage individual and community healing, an inquiry was judged worthy and appropriate.¹⁴

      Specifically, the commission’s mandate was to

      inquire into and report on the institutional response of the justice system and other public institutions, including the interaction of that response with other public and community sectors, in relation to:

      (a) allegations of historical abuse of young people in the Cornwall area, including the policies and practices then in place to respond to such allegations, and

      (b) the creation and development of policies and practices that were designed to improve the response to allegations of abuse in order to make recommendations directed to the further improvement of the response in similar circumstances.¹⁵

      In addition, the commission was to examine and report upon processes, services or programs that would encourage community healing and reconciliation in Cornwall.¹⁶ The final report, containing findings, conclusions and recommendations, would be submitted to the attorney general and made available for public release in both official languages.¹⁷ The Inquiry was directed not to find civil or criminal liability but attempt to discover what happened in two phases.¹⁸

      Phase 2 of the Inquiry involved working with the residents of Cornwall for healing and reconciliation. Various models and approaches to systemic healing after a community has been mired in deep conflict were of interest in this phase, but most important were approaches to healing from child sexual abuse.

      In Phase 1, the Inquiry held public hearings into allegations of abuse; examined the response of the justice system and other public institutions, including religious institutions, to abuse complaints; and made recommendations accordingly. This investigative phase focused on the possibility of a cover-up (but not the investigation of a ring) and recommendations for avoiding similar dynamics in the future. In addition to obtaining factual evidence and testimony from parties to the hearings, the commission was empowered to seek medical, professional, social science and similar evidence and background information related to the causes, consequences, and responses to the abuse of young people (O.C. 558/2005: S.5.d). To this end, in Phase 1 the commission charged a number of researchers to undertake background studies. These four studies concerned, respectively, the practices and policies of Canadian police, government agencies involved in child sexual abuse complaints, child welfare agencies, and religious institutions.¹⁹ I, together with research assistants Tim Crouch, Ryan McNally, and Barb Adle, compiled the latter report, entitled: A Survey of Policies and Practices in Respect to Responses by Religious Institutions to Complaints of Child Sexual Abuse and Complaints by Adults of Historical Child Sexual Abuse, 1960–2006. This book builds on that report with some significant additions and changes.

      The final report of Inquiry Commissioner Justice Normand Glaude, twice delayed, was released December 15, 2009. In his statement accompanying the four-volume report, Glaude reiterated that the Inquiry was not a civil or criminal trial. He addressed the issue of a pedophile ring in Cornwall and is clear that neither this Inquiry nor Project Truth were mandated to investigate or draw conclusions regarding the existence of such a ring; Glaude states that the mandate of Project Truth was not to discover if there was an endemic problem of sexual abuse in the Cornwall area and whether prominent people were acting together to perpetrate or cover up this abuse.²⁰ However, he continues on to indicate that there may well have been such a ring, but he was not asked to make a decision on that: The Ontario Provincial Police concluded Project Truth by saying there was no paedophile ring in Cornwall. Since they did not investigate this, they could not have reasonably come to this conclusion. This does not mean that I find there was a ring of paedophiles. It is not my role to make such a finding. But I do find that no investigation provided conclusive evidence on this point.²¹

      Glaude’s report includes numerous recommendations for the improvement of several agencies related to child sexual abuse complaints. At the outset he assigns culpability to those in positions of trust and their respective institutions: institutions that became aware of misconduct by their employees were often less concerned about victims than about public embarrassment, or about the perceived difficulty of disciplining or reporting employees.²² And, again, later in his statement he names this prioritizing of image over children’s well-being, specifically castigating the Church:

      the response of senior diocese officials was preoccupied with avoidance of scandal—desiring to keep issues within the church. This meant that they did not contact the Children’s Aid Society or police when they should have … and did not turn their concern and resources to the support of those reporting or their families. In some cases, those with a confirmed history of sexual abuse were permitted to stay in roles where they were a risk to young people.… When police investigations did occur, cooperation from the diocese was grudging and guarded.…²³

      He makes a number of recommendations specifically to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, including the following: that they revis[e] their guidelines to ensure that they immediately report allegations of abuse to the Children’s Aid Society, and not wait until the Diocese conducts a preliminary inquiry … [; that] information-sharing between dioceses … be open and detailed in respect to abuse by clergy. Record keeping and note taking should be improved and relevant training provided to clergy, employees and all volunteers. The Diocese should institute rigorous procedures to evaluate the suitability of priests it supports for ministry.²⁴

      Glaude ultimately was optimistic regarding the Diocese. Owing to evidence of change both in response to and preceding the Inquiry, he found cause to believe that the page has been turned.²⁵ Certainly one constructive outcome has been the furthering of knowledge regarding child sexual abuse in Canadian institutions. This book, hopefully, will stand as one valuable moment in this emergent dialogue.

      Chapter 1

      Child Sexual Abuse in Religious Institutions

      CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE HAPPENS in faith communities. The appalling stories are found under headlines such as these far too often: Children Beaten, Raped at Irish Schools: Report,¹ Southern Baptists Face Sexual Abuse Crisis,² Canadian Churches Accept Ruling on Indian Sex-Abuse Claims,³ and Lahey Laptop Had Many Porn Files.⁴

      Yet the denial persists at some level. There is still a wish that it can’t happen in my church/synagogue/mosque; the possibility of child sexual abuse by trusted religious leaders can be shattering. The deconstruction of the illusion of religious leaders and religious institutions as moral exemplars, incapable of evil, has been necessary to the generation of effective accountability mechanisms. This book focuses on one such mechanism: the development of policy.

      This book is the first published comparative analysis of policies addressing child sexual abuse complaints in a selection of religious institutions in Canada. Although there is a substantial body of literature regarding Christianity and sexual abuse, there is very little regarding religious institutions in Canada and their respective policies. This comparative study is the first of its kind in the Canadian context.

      Whenever there is sexual activity involving a child, there is abuse. Religious institutions condemn this abuse in principal, and have begun to respond concretely through the creation of policies. Policy is a significant and necessary component of a just response to child sexual abuse.

      This book focuses exclusively on one particular moment of sexual abuse ethical discourse: the historical review of sexual abuse policies of some major religious institutions in Canada. This book does not provide a literature review of material addressing the dynamics of sexual abuse. It also does not investigate the efficacy of these policies as experienced by those who use them. These latter two dimensions are equally necessary moments of this discourse, but not the topic of this particular book.

      This book focuses on policies and procedures in Canadian religious institutions that address child sexual abuse complaints directed at paid and voluntary faith community representatives and/or leaders. It is not possible to examine adequately the approach of a faith group to complaints without also examining preventative dimensions, in addition to the responsive dimension, such as screening measures and the production of educational resources. Further, some institutionalized religions have emphasized the educational piece more than the development of policy and procedure.

      The emergence of policies to address child sexual abuse complaints has required that particular illusions be dismantled and shattered. The causal factors underlying the shattering of these illusions have been necessary to the emergence of policies, hence, the title of this book: Shattering the Illusion: Child Sexual Abuse and Canadian Religious Institutions. These illusions include: the illusion that religious institutions are pure or moral; the illusion that religious communities always respond justly and effectively to abuse; and the illusion that religious leaders are pure and moral and therefore beyond any need for accountability mechanisms. These illusions are connected to a conviction that because religions centre on the numinous—that is, a divine, transcendent god figure or spirit that can be found internally or in the world—the religious institution itself is somehow closer to this divinity than is the rest of the world. This conviction has contributed to the avoidance of needed accountability mechanisms, including policy development.⁵

      Behind the development of policy are several causal factors precipitated by particular agents. At minimum, beginning with the most important, those doing the shattering have included: sexual abuse survivors, the media, advocates for change in the religious institutions—particularly from those within the institutions—and people who have confessed to abusing children. These agents gain some visibility, sometimes between the lines, through the historical review of sexual abuse policies in each chapter.

      Child sexual abuse is not new.⁶ But the emergence of policies to address such complaints within religious institutions is. All of the religious institutions examined in this book concur that child abuse is wrong.

      Research Method

      The first task in the writing of this book was to select the religious institutions to examine. While recognizing its limitations,⁷ Canadian census data was used as a guide in selecting some of these institutions. The most recent relevant Canadian census data (2001) indicates that the most populous religious institutions in Canada were, at the time of writing this book, three Christian Churches: the Roman Catholic Church, comprising 43.2 percent of the population; the United Church of Canada, which, at 9.6 percent of the population, was the most prevalent Protestant Christian Church; and the Anglican Church at 6.9 percent.⁸ Canadians self-identifying as belonging to world religions other than Christianity, beginning with the largest percentage, were: Muslim (2.0 percent), Judaism (1.1 percent), Hinduism (1.0 percent), and Buddhism (1.0 percent).⁹ Because Christianity is overwhelmingly the largest religion adhered to by Canadians as of the last census, this study, which extends from 1960 until 2009, focuses on Christian religious institutions: the Roman Catholic Church (as the largest religion in Canada), the United Church of Canada (as the largest Canadian Protestant Church and the second largest following of any institutional religion in Canada), the Anglican Church, and the Mennonite Church (in this case, not because of their numbers but because they have produced some of the earliest and most progressive policies regarding child abuse among religious institutions in Canada). The Muslim faith tradition in Canada was selected as the largest religious institution in Canada that is not Christian. Finally, the Canadian Unitarian Council/the Unitarian Universalist Association was also selected as an example of one of the very small religious institutions in Canada that are not Christian, of which there are several.¹⁰

      Not surprisingly, there was significantly more relevant material found regarding the first three religious institutions: the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada, and the Anglican Church, in relation to child sexual abuse complaints and policies. Not only are these religious institutions much larger than the others studied, they also, for the most part, have much longer histories of work related to children, sexuality, and abuse. Further, in part because of their much larger memberships, these institutions have been confronted by significant numbers of allegations of sexual abuse. Undoubtedly, the increasing volume of lawsuits functioned as a significant motivator for the creation of legally appropriate and constructive faith-informed policies for responding to such allegations in conjunction with legal protocols.

      After the first task in the writing of this book was accomplished—the identification of the religious institutions—the next steps were to investigate any official policies and procedures of these institutions, as well as relevant background material regarding sexuality and abuse in these institutions from 1960 to 2009. This historical investigation required archival research; the collection of official statements, policies, and procedures from the identified institutions; the gathering of other directly relevant primary and secondary sources; and electronic and oral interviews as necessary and possible.

      The last area of research—electronic and verbal interviews—was the least important and yielded, in most cases, the most limited amount of information. This particular research was used, largely to get a sense of the pervasiveness of a policy when it was not a binding one but a recommended one, or to see what individual faith communities were doing if their larger institution did not recommend a policy, and sometimes to help uncover additional documents. The most common response indicated compliance with insurance company requirements and the secular law, at minimum; most religious communities that received our emails or voice mail messages did not respond. For the most part, responses from faith group representatives were very helpful and forthcoming; understandably, to some degree, a few reacted defensively and/or were not interested in discussing child sexual abuse policy.

      Interestingly, it was challenging in many cases to even find relevant policies, procedures, and statements, and, secondly, to contextualize these in the faith group’s history. This challenge was, in some part, due to the complicated and usually decentralized structure of the religious institution. Perhaps it is easier for members of the respective religions to locate and understand these policies, or perhaps this poses difficulties for members as well as external researchers.

      Various stumbling blocks had to be navigated throughout the research process. For example, although archives were easily located for the United, Anglican, and Roman Catholic Churches, access to them was not always possible; in order to access Roman Catholic archives, which are usually located in each diocese or archdiocese, one must get the permission of the bishop or archbishop. Although access was not given to the two requested archives, in one case, diocesan representatives met with research assistant Crouch and provided him with some very helpful material and responded graciously to

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