SD61 Sexual Abuse Victim Wins Case Against Former Tutor

The BC Supreme Court just awarded a record 2.3M$ in damages to a victim of sexual abuse left scarred for life by the predation of a now deceased tutor at School District 61, over a period of six years.

The complaint named both former teacher William Haisell and volunteer tutor Gary John Redgate. Allegations against the former were dismissed due to lack of evidence that he would know of the latter’s conduct.

Such large awards are rare in court cases in Canada, and this one may actually be the largest, at least according to the victim’s lawyer. It could have been even larger had the tutor not been deceased, since the judge declined to award punitive damages against his estate.

This is nevertheless small comfort for the victim, for multiple reasons. One, a monetary award merely puts a number on intangible and unspeakable suffering, it doesn’t make the perpetual loss of enjoyment and social dysfunction go away. Another is that the teacher died without facing any serious retribution. And then the claims of vicarious liability against the school district were dismissed, although the victim plans to appeal.

This isn’t the only case of sexual abuse at SD61 to make the news. Another teacher, Scott Clazie, also deceased, has also been the target of such allegations. These generated a huge polemic back then, especially since the school district refused to properly investigate the case and the government declined to press charges. This led to a string of demonstrations, one of which I covered last July, by protesters angry at the system for sweeping the problem beneath the proverbial rug.