CANADA
The Southern Gazette
Barb Sweet
Published on April 05, 2016
The first of four former residents of the Mount Cashel orphanage to testify at a civil trial to determine whether the Roman Catholic Church Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s, is liable for actions of the Christian Brothers, is being cross-examined today by the church’s lawyer.
Toronto lawyer Chris Blom tested the man, now in his 70s, this morning on his memory of certain events, on his feelings toward his father for putting him and his four brothers in the orphanage and on his reasons for not pursuing a PhD in teaching.
The witness, 77, said he left the orphanage at age 15 with his best friend on Boxing Day 1955. The pair had no winter coats and dragged their few belongings in a cardboard box, tied with a rope, through the snow to the friend’s grandmother’s house. There had been a blizzard the night before and his friend was late getting back to the orphanage. According to the witness, his friend was held by the throat by one of the Brothers and got the “bejesus” beat out of him because of that tardiness.
The witness took a chair and hit the Brother to defend his friend and the two of them were ordered out on Boxing Day, he said.
But Blom pointed out to the court that the movie the witness said the orphanage residents watched that night — said to be “Gunfight at the OK Coral” — was not released until a couple of years later.
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