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N.W.T. premier defends tough stand in teacher sex assault civil suit
BOB WEBER - CP
September 25, 2006
The Northwest Territories is right to argue the alleged sexual abuse victims of a former schoolteacher may have been considered adults in their Inuit community and old enough to consent to sex, says the territorial premier.
Joe Handley also stands by his government's contention in a statement of defence that the alleged victims might not have been harmed by any abuse. A few might even be making their stories up, he said.
In rare comments about a civil case before the courts, Handley backed his government's legal hard line against a lawsuit by 69 men who say they were abused by convicted pedophile Edward Horne.
"If some of this was consensual, if this was with adults, then it's a legitimate issue," he said Thursday.
"They are kind of hard-nosed, cold questions that lawyers have to ask as they dig into this."
Horne was employed by the N.W.T., from which Nunavut was later carved, between 1971 and 1985. He taught in communities including Sanikiluaq, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut and Iqaluit - all now part of Nunavut.
In 2000, Horne was sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty to 19 counts of indecent assault and one count of buggery. He faces further charges later this fall in Iqaluit.
In October 2002, the governments of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid $21.5 million between them to 85 of Horne's victims.
More men then came forward and lawyer Geoffrey Budden filed a second lawsuit on their behalf against both territories in 2004. None of the alleged assaults in the second lawsuit is the subject of criminal charges.
Handley, who was deputy minister of education at the time of Horne's arrest, argues that the government can't be held responsible for the activities of a teacher outside school hours or of people who weren't students.
"We don't know who goes to the teacher's house, if they're not school students, if they're adults, if they're people out of school," he said.
"It's hard to figure out how we should admit that, 'Yeah, we should have done something.'"
He also said that a young Inuk in the 1970s might have been considered fully adult and capable of making his own choices by the time he was 17.
"(A) 14-year-old, you're certainly dealing with someone who has not matured and may not understand what he's getting himself into. In the case of a 17-year-old, who's been operating as an adult - he's been hunting, he's been earning his own livelihood - (it) is a much different situation."
But Frank Tester, a University of British Columbia sociologist who has written extensively on Inuit life and history, said Handley misses the point.
"Just because they know how to load a komatik (sled) doesn't say anything about their understanding of somebody in a position of authority," he said.
"In the 1970s, Inuit feared white people with authority. Teachers, administrators were people you did not say 'no' to. If it gets to court, this will fall apart instantly."
Handley also suggested that some of the plaintiffs may have lied about the abuse they claimed.
"I wouldn't want to suggest that many of them are doing that, but there's a possibility that some are, and it's a reality that we have to deal with."
He added the same may have been true about some of the men who received compensation in 2002.
"From the little bit that I know of it, yes," he said. "It wasn't the majority by any stretch at all."
Budden points out that most of his clients have been interviewed by psychologists and 15 have gone through legal discoveries during which they testify under oath and are subject to cross-examination.
As well, all but a couple of his clients were clearly students at the time of the abuse, he said. Only a few, if any, were as old as 17.
Handley also said the alleged abuse wouldn't necessarily be the cause of any later problems.
"I'm sure there are specialists that can help determine . . . whether there is a causal relationship with the person's problems 20 or 30 years later, and what influence Horne may have had on them."
Handley isn't apologizing for his government's tough stand.
"We would like just as much as the individuals who are involved to have the Horne case behind us and resolved," he said. "But in order to do that we have to do it responsibly and there are the tough questions that the lawyers have to deal with."
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