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	Former NWT Premier Knew of Abuse in Schools, Victims' Lawyer Says By Sara Minogue Globe and Mail February 5, 2008 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080205.ABUSE05/TPStory/National IQALUIT — A Newfoundland lawyer will be in Iqaluit court today to argue that the Northwest Territories government and former premier Joe Handley knew about the sexual abuse of Inuit students in isolated Arctic schools, but chose to deal quietly with offending teachers instead of reporting allegations to the RCMP. Geoffrey Budden represents 69 Inuit who say they were victims of convicted sex offender Ed Horne when they were between six and 17 years old and Mr. Horne was their teacher in the 1970s and 1980s. Mr. Budden launched the lawsuit in 2004, seeking compensation from the governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. (Nunavut was created out of the original Northwest Territories in 1999.) On Jan. 11, Mr. Budden filed a motion in the Nunavut Court of Justice saying there is evidence that the government, like the Catholic Church, had "policies or procedures" that treated child sexual abuse by teachers as an internal matter. "Rather than the school reporting it to the police, the teacher being fired and investigated and charged, the practice seems to have been to allow the teacher to resign or perhaps transfer," Mr. Budden said in an interview, reiterating the claim in his motion filed in court. Mr. Budden said he has evidence that officials in the Northwest Territories governments knew about Mr. Horne's sexual activities as far back as the early 1970s, well before Mr. Horne went on to abuse other students. He also says the government used to destroy evidence of teachers' sexual misconduct. Mr. Budden is asking the court for permission to interview 14 former government employees he says in the court document have "direct, first-hand knowledge" of sexual abuse. Top of that list filed in court is Mr. Handley, who was premier from 2003 to 2007, and NWT deputy minister of education during the mid-1980s. The Nunavut and Northwest Territories governments are contesting the motion. Their lawyer, Robert Dewar, filed a brief in response to the motion on Jan. 30, but a judge has sealed it to protect the identity of the plaintiffs. Mr. Dewar declined to comment, saying the matter is before the courts. Mr. Horne, now 64, has twice been convicted for sexually abusing students in three remote Eastern Arctic communities. Between 1971 and 1985, he worked as a teacher and education consultant throughout the Baffin region, in Sanikiluaq, Kimmirut, Cape Dorset, Iqaluit and Grise Fiord. In 2002, the two governments paid a $21.5-million out-of-court settlement to 85 of his victims. Mr. Budden filed the latest lawsuit on Feb. 5, 2004. In this case, 68 men and one woman allege Mr. Horne fondled them, performed fellatio on them or anally raped them at school and in his home. They say they were forced to watch other children being abused. They also say the abuse caused "irreparable psychological harm." The plaintiffs say the governments failed to supervise Mr. Horne while he was their employee. The suit says the governments were negligent in investigating Mr. Horne's background and failed to respond to "knowledge of acts of sexual abuse committed in education facilities under their control." In a statement of defence filed on Sept. 11, 2006, the governments deny the assaults took place or that they are liable. They say there is no causal relationship between the alleged assaults and the later psychological trouble among victims. They allege that some of the victims were over 14 and consented to sexual contact. Mr. Horne was not the only sexual predator operating in remote Arctic schools. Maurice Cloughley an artist and author as well as a teacher, spent 30 years in the High Arctic, northern Manitoba and parts of the Northwest Territories. In 1996, at age 61, he was convicted on nine charges of sexually abusing Inuit and Dene girls, and sentenced to 10 years. Mr. Budden's firm represents 30 victims seeking damages from the government. Only some, Mr. Budden says, were formally charged. Mr. Budden also represented former students at the Mount Cashel orphanage run by the Christian Brothers of Ireland in St. John's.
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