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	College Being Sued for $1 Billion Class-Action Suit Claims Form By Kim Lunman Brockville Recorder and Times November 6, 2007 http://newsfeed.recorder.ca/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=24330 Former Grenville Christian College students have filed a class-action lawsuit seeking $1 billion in damages to compensate claims they were "physically, emotionally and psychologically abused and harassed sexually" over nearly four decades at the now-closed private school east of Brockville. The statement of claim filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Milton, Ont., on Oct. 17 names two of the school's former headmasters, Rev. Alastair Haig and Rev. Charles Farnsworth, as defendants along with the Anglican Church, Grenville Christian College, Berean Fellowship International of Canada, and a Massachusetts group known as the Community of Jesus. The court document alleges students were beaten with wooden paddles and subjected to "light sessions" in which they were told they were sinners. It also accuses former staff of questioning female students about their virginity and denouncing them as "whores." The lawsuit names three former Grenville Christian College students as plaintiffs: Tim Blacklock, Mark Vincent and Martin Whyte. But the class-action suit extends to former students who attended the school between 1970 and 2007. The litigants are seeking $500 million in general damages, $250 million in general and special damages, and another $250 million in aggravated, exemplary and punitive damages. They are also seeking "complete reimbursement for all tuition and other fees paid to the college" with compound interest from the date of the payment. Their Burlington lawyer, Christopher Haber, could not be reached for comment. The 19-page court document states Rev. Farnsworth "questioned a number of female students with respect to their sexual experience and chastity, and on numerous occasions verbally attacked and humiliated female students with insults of a sexual nature that were coarse, obscene, lewd and degrading." Farnsworth refused to discuss the allegations in the lawsuit against him when reached at his home in Brockville on Monday night. The 75-year-old Anglican priest referred questions about the accusations to his lawyer in Ottawa, Todd Burke, who could not be reached for comment today. However, Farnsworth said the scandal swirling around the school he served as headmaster between 1984 and 1998 has been "an ordeal." Allegations by former students against the elite private school first surfaced on Internet chatrooms and in the media after Grenville Christian College suddenly closed its doors in July. The complaints sparked an Anglican Church Diocese of Ontario inquiry into complaints and an OPP criminal investigation. "It's a strange situation," Rev. Farnsworth said when asked about the civil lawsuit by The Recorder and Times. "It's a tough situation ... it's a terrible shame." And while he declined to comment on the accusations, he defended his former school. "Grenville Christian College was formed simply to give children a world-class education in a Christian environment." None of the allegations have been proven in court and no statement of defence has yet been filed. The lawsuit states that Haig "selected incompetent or immoral persons to serve as teachers" and that he "sanctioned, authorized, and approved the physical beating of students by teachers and non-teaching staff." Rev. Haig, of Coldwater, Ont., was a founding member of the college and is an Anglican priest who served as headmaster there from 1970 until 1984. Tim Blacklock, a former Grenville Christian College student named as one of three former students identified in the lawsuit, said all he wants is justice. Blacklock said he has also laid a formal complaint with the OPP against the college stemming from alleged incidents while he was a Grade 9 and 10 student in 1976 and 1977. "Obviously, a lot of people have an ill-feeling toward the school and they need a result or settlement to move on," he said in an interview. "There was a lot of rumour, a lot of talk," said the 46-year-old used car salesman who lives in Glenburnie, north of Kingston. "When you're a kid and you want to speak out against the reverend, it's not going to go very far. "Father Farnsworth hasn't recognized how he ran the school was improper," Blacklock said. "How things were, they just weren't right." The Ontario Provincial Police launched an investigation into allegations of criminal wrongdoing at Grenville Christian College in September. Investigators in Prescott are handling the case. "It's still ongoing," said OPP spokesman Sgt. Kristine Rae. "That's all I can say." The statement of claim alleges that Grenville Christian College, the Anglican Church and the Community of Jesus Inc. were negligent for employing incompetent staff and "permitted, either expressly or tacitly, teachers and non-teaching staff to physically, emotionally and psychologically abuse students." The lawsuit also alleges the bizarre disciplinary practices such as "light sessions" were used to punish pupils at the boarding school. "Students who were believed to have sinned were awakened from their dormitory beds during the night by teachers and/or non-teaching staff, who would then take them to a darkened room, shine a bright light on their faces, denounce them as sinners, and berate, castigate, harangue and humiliate them until they renounced their alleged sins."
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