Former Pastor Sentenced for Assaults on Youths in "70s
By Stephane Massinon
It's a story that's haunted Jake for over 30 years. And in April 2011, the 46-year-old Red Deer man took some paper to a quiet field near his Red Deer home and began to pen a letter to the Canadian Sunday School Mission and the Evangelical Free Church of Canada. By his own admission, his life was in turmoil. "My life was spinning out of control with personal is-sues," Jake says. "I had a lot of problems with guilt, violence, shame." It was a story he once sought to suppress. In the late 1970s, at the age of 14, he was sexually molested by the manager of Camp Silversides, a Christian summer camp run by the Canadian Sunday School Mission. His abuser, Mark Archibald, was in his mid-20s and Archibald was his pastor, his mentor and his friend when he sexually assaulted him at a Calgary motel. "When this happens inside a faith, I mean, my father was a pastor. It was embedded in me. It was part of my DNA. I was a youth leader," says Jake (not his real name), who can't be identified because of a court publication ban. "You question your sexuality; sometimes, you question your manliness. You question your godliness. You question your place in the world. You question everything. Why" More than three decades later Jake decided to tell church authorities because even now he's dealing with the ramifications of keeping it bottled in. He figures his wife almost left him three times, and she was urging him to act. "I was basically given an ultimatum by my good wife: you either do something about this or me and the kids are gone. And so I did." Once finished, that letter would lead church authorities to contact police and an investigation ensued. Another victim was found. And another. Once the case made it to court, Jake's experience was described as a "major sexual assault." The other victims experiences were described as, comparatively, less serious. Archibald was charged with the historic crimes of indecent assault and committing a gross indecency against all three. He pleaded guilty to indecent assault and on Fri-day was sentenced to a year of house arrest. Jake's family walked out of court angry at the sentence and said, despite Archibald's claims to the contrary, they've never received an apology. While Jake, who was not in court Friday, looks forward to some sense of justice, some-thing still seems wrong to him. Both of the victims identified in the RCMP investigation were friends of his at the time, with whom he had lost touch. If they could both be victimized, too, could there be others? And once the charges were laid, one of the victims, Thomas (who also can't be identified because of a publication ban) said he came forward to the church years ago. Archibald resigned in 1997 after he did so, but the mission did not go to police. Jake wanted to know why not. Jake and Thomas, who have since reconnected because of the court case, sat down for an extensive interview with the Herald. They hope people learn from their story. Thomas's decision to come forward with his allegations was made out of necessity. Sitting in his family's living room on a day in 1997, the family conversation turned to the subject of a popular figure in the local church community, Mark Archibald. The local church was looking at hiring him. Thomas hadn't told his family about the sexual abuse he suffered at Archibald's hands when he was a young teen, so the idea of seeing Archibald regularly made him uneasy. The hiring could never hap-pen, he decided. Within days, Thomas came forward to another pastor and said that he had been sexually assaulted by Archibald. When word of the accusation reached Archibald, Thomas said Archibald called to apologize and ask forgiveness. The call was so unsettling, "my wife says I shook for two days," says Thomas. Archibald would lose his job but no one reported the event to police. "Keep in mind that these are all religious institutions and, as such, the church wanted to deal with this according to their scriptures and deal with Mark in almost a scriptural way and restore him back into the church later," says Jake. The friends say Archibald carefully groomed the people he abused. He spent thousands of dollars on his victims. He took them to football games. "See, my dad died when I was 15 years old and you go through all that and it was shortly after that that Mark approached me and things happened," said Thomas. "He was an extremely gifted speaker, extremely gifted teacher. He was my mentor and he was my friend. He taught me how to drive," adds Jake. When these incidents happened, Jake and Thomas both thought they were the only ones. But looking back, Thomas notes Archibald's behaviour toward Jake was always peculiar. He was often jealous of him. Their conversations often turned to girls and sex, with the suggestion that the kids should avoid both. So when Thomas heard the church could be hiring Archibald, he decided that he could no longer hold the secret and told his pastor. After Archibald left, Thomas says he got a phone call from a lawyer representing the church. "He told me very specifically, it was a Sunday morning before church, and he said: 'If you want to pursue this in the courts, we'll make a victim of you all over again.' Right from the church lawyer," says Thomas. He then sat down and wrote a resignation letter. "I wanted nothing to do with the Evangelical Free Church ever again," says Thomas. "That was the last straw." As chairman of the camp's board in the late 1990s, John Hand says he was shocked when Archibald turned in his resignation. "We were, of course, very surprised to have Mark's resignation. He did provide full disclosure for the reason for his resignation, which shocked the board," Hand said recently. The board made no disclosure to police and neither did Archibald's employer, the Canadian Sunday School Mission. "Mark, as I understand it, offered apologies to the family and to the young people, to these young men several times. There was forgiveness asked and apparently forgiveness given, but I'm not sure exactly how and why it gets to criminal charges getting laid, but obviously it's something that some folks have not been able to get over or work around," says Hand. Hand said what Archibald did was "inappropriate" and "hurt some young people," but repeatedly said the case should be seen as a chance for forgiveness. "I think part of what is missed here is the ability that we have to offer grace, forgiveness and the ability to let people change; to, in fact, become better as we go through life and we learn. I believe that some of the ability to forgive and to grow in that forgiveness is somehow missing in this particular instance." Hand said he thinks Archibald made a mistake and has paid for it for too long. "Again, we all can make mistakes. When we make mistakes, that we apologize sincerely for those mistakes and we offer to make restitution or to do what we can do to make amends. Sometimes those things just aren't good enough for the people that are out there. I believe that Mr. Archibald, Mark, did offer several times to the families of the people that he wronged restitution of one type or another. Again, there seems to be an unwillingness to forgive and to grow and to move on from where people are at. I think that's why it comes back so many years later. I don't understand the role of the victim in this instance." Hand said in his opinion, Archibald did not reoffend and he believes there are no other victims. "I can only speak for what I know and in terms of Mark's life, I see a very responsible individual. I see a man who loves his family, who has worked in his community and in his church very diligently over a substantial number of years. I also see an individual that's lost two or three job positions of employment because of these recurring allegations. "I agree that Mark did something that was inappropriate, he hurt some young people, yes, but you can also see that this man has endured a great deal of public shame and humiliation through all of these events, as well. "I guess I come away asking: When is enough enough, when we shouldn't just forgive and move on?" Before the charges became public in 2011, Archibald was the chief administrative officer for the Lacombe Foundation, an organization the provides seniors with housing. He worked there from 1999 until last year. He's well respected in Lacombe and 41 people wrote letters of support to the judge. Standing outside the courtroom after sentencing, Archibald said he was "very sorry for his actions" and that he felt "no satisfaction" from only getting house arrest. He said there aren't more victims. "I'm not a pedophile. It happened when I was a single adult and I regret it deeply," said Archibald. Don Collins, national director of the CSSM, said he was familiar with the case and read the letter that Jake wrote, but referred comments to Cliff Pedersen, the CSSM's provincial director for Alberta. Asked why he did not call police, he said it was the responsibility of the victim. "My understanding is when the victim has become an adult, then the obligation is on the part of the victim," said Collins. But asked if it's a moral ob-ligation, Collins said: "Um, I guess in some situations there would be. Um, I think it would be better if there was just one person talking to you on this from our perspective." Looking at Archibald's file, Pedersen said Archibald resigned from the position of managing the camp. "We deeply regret the fact that these incidents happened. We were totally oblivious to what had happened until a month before this surfaced in whatever year that was, when the first thing came to light, it was in 1997, and he resigned - let me put it that way, once this surfaced. If he had not, he would have been fired." The decision of whether or not to report the matter to police can be contentious and difficult. Danielle Aubry, executive director of the Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse, said the best advice for any organization that receives this kind of complaint is to report if the person is in contact with children who could be victimized. "If you know this person does have access or could have access to other children, you need to report that at least to child welfare," said Aubry. "Child welfare, because it's outside of the family, may not do anything. Do they have a legal obligation (to report to police)? No. Do they have a moral obligation? Yes" Sitting in a Red Deer hotel days before Archibald's guilty plea last year, Jake and Thomas say the pair decided to come forward and tell their story because they worry they aren't the only ones who were victimized. If the pair, and a third friend who did not wish to speak with media, could all be victimized without their pals knowing it, and if Archibald stayed in his position of power and trust for another two decades after they left the camp, they worry others were hurt, as well. That's why Jake wrote the letter that would later bring about the criminal charges. "That was lighting the fuse. And when I lit the fuse I said: You know what? This isn't just about me, there's other people involved and there could be other people involved. These people had no idea what happens when one incident, two incidents, three incidents happen to a person and the effect that it has on their lives. And not just their lives, but it's a ripple effect," said Jake. "I never really thought of it criminally because I didn't really look at it that way. I looked at it more humanly. Somebody robs you, that's a crime. Somebody steals your car, whatever, you understand that. But when something like this happens to you, I think a lot of times for the victim, you don' think of it as a crime because it's more personal than that. They take a little bit of your soul. I don't want to sound cliched, but it's true." Contact: smassinon@calgaryherald.com
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