No apology included in proposed $30M settlement for Christian Brothers abuse case

The Christian Brothers taught Colin harriet wilson a lot near answerableness.

Sometimes it was the sting. Sometimes it was the shoulder strap. Sometimes it was an open hand on a bare buttocks. 

Truth was paramount for the boys of Vancouver College, but Wilson believes the administration was held to a different standard. 

He's part of a class-action lawsuit alleging the school was complicit in a series of secret deals allowing six Christian Brothers to escape abuse and pedophilia allegations at an orphanage in Newfoundland.

These men were hired to teach Wilson and his friends at a pair of Vancouver-area Catholic schools.

Vancouver College, St. Thomas More Collegiate and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver are nearing a $30-million settlement with more than 200 former students who say they were abused between 1976 and 2013.

But the proposed settlement agreement does not include an apology.

“It upsets me that for my entire childhood, I had to go to confession and I had to do my penance for the smallest things. But what was their penance?" Wilson said. "So yeah. I want an apology."

The schools were run by the Christian Brothers — a lay order of Roman Catholic educators who operated schools and orphanages around the world. 

They ran the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, where boys began raising complaints about sexual and physical abuse in December of 1975.

A public inquiry later revealed a cover-up orchestrated by the Christian Brothers, local police and provincial government officials to send the offending brothers outside Newfoundland without charges. At least six Christian Brothers from Mount Cashel ended up at Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, B.C. They were charged in the 1990s in relation to their time at Mount Cashel.

Not much was known about their tenures in B.C until a class-action lawsuit was launched in 2021, alleging many of the same behaviours continued after the cover-up in 1975.

Both Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate have kept the public updated on the progress of the case through pages on their websites.

"The present day STMC is dedicated to working with — and walking alongside — survivors, taking every step we can to support their journey," reads a post signed by St. Thomas More Collegiate president Stephen Garland on March 6.

"Vancouver College remains committed to a trauma-informed reconciliation process, and we believe in truth and restorative justice," reads a post from Vancouver College on the same day.

Former VC student Niall Murphy, a member of the class-action lawsuit, said those words mean nothing in the absence of the word "sorry."

Murphy waived his right to confidentiality prior to a settlement approval hearing on April 30, where he addressed the courtroom in person.

He talked about how he was beaten by staff members in front of his classmates, struck with items ranging from rulers to hockey sticks.

"Why does the archdiocese and the school still refuse to even acknowledge that abuse, let alone take accountability? How does that honour a commitment to the truth? How is this trauma informed, or contributing to restorative justice?" Murphy asked.

"I have read the proposed settlement offered to the class members litigating against Vancouver College. Ironically, the language in the proposal actually explicitly distances the institutions from any accountability. I don't think you can have it both ways."

Both Garland and Weaver said they look forward to working towards reconciliation after the legal matters are put to rest.

"Should the negotiated settlement be approved, it will serve as the catalyst for the next phase of this work, including the pursuit of a restorative justice process. Central to that process, in my view, must be a public apology delivered in the presence of survivors, their families, and their loved ones," Garland wrote.

And while the proposed settlement does not include an admission of liability, Garland said there can be no denying that the abuse happened.

"As a school community, St. Thomas More Collegiate refuses to remain silent about historical abuses," Garland said. "We cannot meaningfully support survivors in their healing if we fail to acknowledge the painful truths of our past. To do so would risk repeating those same failures. We must neither ignore nor attempt to sanitize our history; rather, we must commit ourselves to doing better than those who came before us."

The settlement approval hearing will recommence on July 6. Ultimately, it will be up to Justice Simon Coval of the Supreme Court of British Columbia to decide what happens with the proposed agreement.

Ryan Cooke is a justice affairs reporter based in St. John's. He can be reached at ryan.cooke@cbc.ca.

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