CANADA
The Telegram
Barb Sweet
Published on June 16, 2016
A lawyer’s cross-examination of a forensic psychologist Thursday in Newfoundland Supreme Court challenged the expert with other potential causes of some Mount Cashel survivors’ life problems, including anger over corporal punishment, accepted by society in the 1950s as a form of disciplining children.
Chris Blom, one of the lawyers representing the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s at the civil trial, pointed out to William Foote — an expert from New Mexico brought into the case by lawyers for a group of former orphanage residents — that one of the John Does was physically abused by certain Christian Brothers for several years before he was sexual abused, suggesting the physical trauma was more likely to blame for his anger issues.
Blom also questioned Foote about the likelihood of a child of alcoholic parents developing their own substance abuse issues — the John Doe who went into the military had parents with drinking problems and the atmosphere of soldiering in his day was also hard drinking.
After court Thursday, that John Doe told The Telegram the lawyer was off-base about why his military career, though long, earned him a retirement with a low rank. He said later in his career, he learned to be a good soldier, but by then it was too late to rise through the ranks and he attributes his anger to Mount Cashel.
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