BishopAccountability.org
	Transparency Key to Healing Edmonton Journal October 26, 2011 www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Transparency+healing/5607080/story.html The confidentiality agreements that cloak out-of-court settlements in sexual abuse cases only exacerbate a problem that has already scandalized Scouts Canada. A recent investigation by The Fifth Estate on CBC discovered 13 lawsuits filed by former scouts against former scout leaders and assistants have been settled and each one is subject to a confidentiality agreement preventing the plaintiff from speaking about the terms of the settlement. Scouts' honour? Hardly. Scouts Canada must own up to the sins of its former adult authority figures, in full and in public. Every time a lawsuit is settled out of court, the plaintiff should be free to say whatever he or she feels necessary, provided the statement is true to the agreed facts of the case. That should most certainly include the financial terms. Knowledge of those settlement amounts may persuade other victims to come forward if they feel the expense incurred while pressing their legal cases will be offset, at the very least. And there can be no debate that victims of sexual abuse should be encouraged to come forward, not persuaded by financial constraints to stay silent. There is no going back in time to remove the untold numbers of pedophiles who were allowed to become scout leaders and assistant leaders all across North America, but there is a duty to act responsibly whenever another victim comes forward. The CBC investigation unearthed 80 cases and 300 victims in Canada, dating back to the 1950s. Numbers in the United States are growing as 50-something former scouts summon the courage to tell their stories and file lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America. In April, a Portland, Ore., jury awarded a plaintiff $18.5 million in punitive damages and $1.4 million in compensatory damages, the largest award against the Boy Scouts of America to date. Citing evidence contained in the so-called "perversion files" kept by American organization for 70 years, the plaintiff claimed the Scouts knew his abuser had offended before and did nothing to prevent it from happening again. Plaintiffs in Canada have made similar allegations that have been denied publicly by Scouts Canada officials. It would be instructive to know what level of liability Scouts Canada has admitted in the cases settled out of court, if indeed they have taken anything more than a financial responsibility. In one particularly troubling case documented by CBC, Richard Turley joined the scouts in Canada and the U.S. after being committed to a California mental hospital for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old Canadian boy in California. He was released after 18 months and was able to work at a California scout camp a year later. He admitted to abusing several scouts in 1979 and was suspended by the American organization but returned to Victoria and worked with Scouts Canada. In 1996 in Victoria he was convicted of assaulting four boys, three of whom were scouts. He served five years in prison, seven more on supervised parole and now works at an Alberta motel and claims he has been rehabilitated through therapy. Predators like Turley seek out organizations like the Scouts because they guarantee easy access to children. Scouts Canada was not able to prevent that infiltration, a shame shared by the Catholic Church, and both have been forced to be more vigilant. The real sin for any insitution faced with such a malignancy is not in attracting the abusers, but in failing to notify police and warn potential victims when an offender is identified. On that front, both failed their youngest members. Scouts Canada only began requiring police record checks, reference checks and screening interviews for its adult supervisors in 1997. Their current policy regarding sexual abuse claims demands that the accused adult be suspended immediately and that police and a child protective service agency be notified. Scouts Canada has tried to remove the potential for harm by insisting that at least two leaders who have passed through the screening process are with scouts at all times. The intent of the lawsuits being filed by former scouts who were not protected properly is not to bankrupt the movement, only to make those organizations face the real costs - financial and psychological - of having morally bankrupt men in their midst. Shielding any part of that process from public view only makes it worse.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.