And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: DATE: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 17:46:24 From: "Frank S. LaFountaine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The following article is from The Vancouver Sun newspaper in Vancouver BC. Its website is at http://www.vancouversun.com. Ottawa, church found liable for residential school abuse A B.C. native wins a precedent-setting lawsuit over sexual assaults dating back to the 1970s. Daniel Sieberg Vancouver Sun After suffering years of sexual abuse at a native residential school, Floyd Mowatt Sr. says he finally feels vindicated by a precedent-setting B.C. Supreme Court ruling that found the federal government and the Anglican Church directly liable. Madame Justice Janice Dillon ruled last week that although both entities were responsible for negligence, the church was deemed to bear "greater fault" because it attempted to cover up the abuse. The court assigned 60 per cent of the blame to the church and 40 per cent to the government. The decision was a long time coming, Mowatt, 39, said on Sunday from his home in Hazelton, about 200 kms northeast of Prince Rupert. He was just nine years old when the incidents of sexual abuse began. He said the ruling has allowed him to sleep easier at night and helped him feel "reborn." "My life of horror started when I was very young. And why this was even allowed to go on, I have no idea." Mowatt is among many former students to file individual or class-action lawsuits to obtain damages for their suffering. But this is the first time a church and the government have been found directly liable because they failed in their duty to protect a student. It is also the first time the church has been held responsible for the majority of the blame. Allan Early, one of Mowatt's lawyers, said Sunday that during a previous, similar case in B.C., a court found there to be "vicarious" liability, but didn't conclude there was evidence of direct knowledge and a cover up. Early hopes the Mowatt case, although not binding, will lead to similar rulings in the future. "It is a very important decision," he said, noting that it emphasized that law and morality are not exclusive ideals. "Clearly, according to Madame Justice Dillon, the two are not inextricably divided," said Early. "The law and morality come together when the church undertakes to be in charge of somebody's moral upbringing and to protect them and then fails to do so." Early would not disclose the amount of the settlement under terms of the agreement. Mowatt said he was forced to submit to countless sexual assaults from his supervisor, watched other students attempt suicide and experienced fights and aggression throughout his turbulent time at St. George's Indian Residential School in Lytton in the 1970s. Derek Clarke, Mowatt's dorm supervisor, has since been jailed for the molestation incidents. "These people convinced me that I was not a good person," said Mowatt of his time at the school. "I've got a battered body now, but I'm alive. I'm still kicking hard. That's one thing they couldn't take away from me -- my will to live." In her decision, Dillon stated that: "Both the Anglican Church and the Crown failed unreasonably to protect the plaintiff from harm." Dillon also cited the behaviour of Andrew Harding, the principal of the school. She said Harding was molesting students too and attempted to cover up Clarke's activities. The ruling went on to say the "social architecture" of the school and "Anglican hierarchical ethos" allowed Clarke to prey upon the nervous and shy new students. No one from the Anglican Church of Canada or representatives of the federal government were available for comment Sunday. The article you just read is from The Vancouver Sun newspaper in Vancouver BC. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
