Lawyer Disappointed with Bishop's Stance in Sexual Abuse Compensation
By Michelle Stewart
The Aurora
January 14, 2008
http://www.theaurora.ca/index.cfm?sid=97857&sc=298
St. John's lawyer Gregg Stack says he was confident Bishop Douglas Crosby would move heaven and earth to see the debt owing to victims of a priest's sexual abuse was paid in full.
But Stack told the Aurora last Wednesday, he is very disappointed to learn an 18-year-old case involving former priest Kevin Bennett and more than three dozen of his victims will drag on much longer than he ever anticipated.
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| St. Johns lawyer Gregg Stack says Bishop Doug Crosby has not put enough effort into raising money to pay compensation owed to the sexual abuse victims of former priest Kevin Bennett. |
Bishop Crosby, whose diocese of St. George's was ordered to pay $14 million in settlement compensation to the victims, relayed (through correspondence) to Stack last week the money is not there to satisfy the remaining $7 million of settlement debt.
"I am very disappointed with Bishop Crosby," Stack, who represented most of the victims in the civil case, said. "There was a proposal made about two years ago and at the time he (Crosby) extended his hand and said, 'look, this is an obligation we will meet in this fashion; you will get a payment of this much at this date, this much at this date, an so on' and he said to us personally when he was in here (St. John's), 'I will make sure this is done to the best of my ability.'"
The deadline for the payment is Dec. 31, 2008 but, to date, the victims have only received about half of the money owed them. Last summer Stack expected the victims to receive approximately 25 per cent of the outstanding amount, as scheduled, but that amount never came, neither did the amount scheduled to come before Christmas.
He said it's not easy being the bearer of the frustrating news to the victims when their calls keep coming in.
"It's extremely difficult [to tell them it's not there]," Stack explained. "They are calling me wanting to know when they will get paid, when is the next payment. I don't know. I haven't got any answers for them, and it's very uncertain if they are even going to get paid. Everyone was sort of breathing a sigh of relief when this started a couple of years ago with the bishop saying he'd satisfy it all. These men feel it's a final slap. They feel they've been banged around by the Church for all those years; they went right to the Supreme Court of Canada to fight this."
Stack says he is very disenchanted with Bishop Crosby, as he put stock in the bishop's commitment he'd make good on the debt in the time frame given.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of St. George has sold off a number of its properties and used the money for the settlement but, according to Stack the diocese is "washing their hands" of any further efforts to raise money to settle the remainder.
"It's frustrating for me personally, but more importantly it's frustrating for these boys," he added.
Stack isn't convinced the diocese has done all it could to raise the money and says no real fundraising attempts have been initiated within the diocese.
"Bishop Crosby has never indicated what money was raised," said Stack. "He's gotten enough money to secure his core buildings. Those buildings were acquired by him at appraised value. That works to their advantage very much so, and legally there is very little we can do about it. The appraisal of a church building that might've cost $2.5 or $3 million to put there may probably come in at only $150,000, because who wants to buy a church building?"
Stack says he is also curious over a holdings corporation that has been set up.
"They (Diocese) have set up another corporation that seems be in direct conflict with the law," he explained. "The Church was established in this province under a statute and it's what's known in laws as an ecclesiastical corporation sole. The individual, who happens to be the bishop, is always the representative of the corporation. He (Crosby) had his private lawyer incorporate a couple of new companies. One of them he is calling the lands corporation, which is holding the property. It seems incredible that anything like that would survive a court challenge, because anyone in the province could do the same thing. I mean, if you owed someone $100,000 and, if you had $100,000, instead of paying it over you transfer your title to something else... transfer it to an new entity, you are purchasing property with your own money from yourself to yourself. If anybody is victimized by a Catholic priest in this province from here on in, they (the Church) are going to say they have nothing to satisfy and we are not going to pay because the lands corporation that holds the property is not the Church."
Stack says there is some indication the victims will receive a very small percentage of what is left owning them by March, but he says, even that amount, he can't say with any certainty, will show up.
"I am personally disenchanted with him because he, personally, made assurances to us that he would do everything in his power to get this satisfied," Stack said of the bishop. "Now he seems to have done an about-face and seems to be walking away from it. When the bishop says he will do everything to get this done and he turns around mid-stream and says 'nah, I'm not going to bother', you can draw your own conclusions. This comes after he has got his precious buildings put in another name so-supposedly, I guess his belief is-they are safe from creditors."
For now, Stack says, his hands are tied until the Dec. 31 deadline arrives when a formal bankruptcy may occur. Then he will be able to dig deeper and pursue it further.
"It's tragic to these boys; they were victimized years ago and now they are being victimized again," he concluded.
Contact: mstewart@theaurora.ca
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