GN plays hardball with Horne victims

The Nunavut and Northwest Territories governments are using hard line tactics to fend off a lawsuit from a second group of Ed Horne’s sexual abuse victims, in a statement of defence that suggests some of Horne’s young Inuit victims may have consented to sex with their teacher.

“[T]he defendants say that if there was sexual contact between the Plaintiffs and Edward Horne, some of the plaintiffs who were over the statutory age of 14 consented to the sexual contact,” the territorial governments’ statement of defence alleged.

The GN and the GNWT also deny that Horne’s victims suffered “acute and irreparable psychological harm or other severe impairments and disabilities,” including substance abuse, physical and psychological pain, suffering and anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and continued stress caused by his memories.”

All that stands in marked contrast to the way the two governments handled the first lawsuit launched by Horne’s sexual abuse victims.

In 2001, 49 Inuit men, all claiming to be victims of Horne’s sexual abuse, launched a lawsuit against the Nunavut and Northwest Territories governments. The two governments responded by agreeing to settle the claim within a non-confrontational process called “alternative dispute resolution,” or “ADR.”

That alternative process, which did not require witnesses to appear in open court, produced a $21.5 million settlement, announced in October of 2002. By then, the number of men listed as claimants had grown to 82.

The territorial governments divided the costs under the terms of a 1999 agreement for splitting the NWT’s assets and liabilities: the GNWT paid 55.66 per cent of the cost, and the GN paid 44.43 per cent.

One of Canada’s most prolific child molesters, Ed Horne worked for the territorial Department of Education as a teacher, principal and consultant from 1971 until 1986.

After a first set of complaints came to light in the fall of 1985, Horne was convicted on at least two occasions of numerous sex charges involving Inuit boys from communities such as Sanikiluaq, Grise Fiord, Cape Dorset, Kimmirut and Iqaluit.

In 2004, a second group of people claiming sexual abuse, including one woman, stepped forward to launch a second lawsuit. That group now comprises at least 66 people.

Their statement of claim is virtually identical to the one filed by the first group, alleging that territorial government officials failed to protect them from Horne’s sexual abuse, and then failed to provide adequate care after the abuse was exposed.

Like the first group, they want money to compensate them for the damage they’ve suffered and to pay for healing programs.

At the time, their lawyer, Geoffrey Budden of Mt. Pearl, Nfld., hoped the second lawsuit would be settled in the same manner as the first: in an out-of-court, ADR process.

But this time, the two governments are playing hardball, forcing the Inuit claimants to prove every element of every allegation they make.

Their statement of defence alleged that even though Horne worked for the territorial government, he was not under their control when he committed any sexual assaults.

“[T]he defendants admit that Edward Horne was under the control, direction and supervision of GNWT in some respects, but deny that Edward Horne was under the control, direction and supervision of GNWT at the time of the alleged assaults,” their statement of defence said.

They also suggested that Ed Horne may not have actually assaulted some or all of the people listed in the lawsuit.

“[T]he defendants state that they have no knowledge, and therefore deny, that the Plaintiffs were sexually assaulted by Edward Horne as alleged, or at all,” their statement of defence said.

Budden said territorial government officials believe that some of the claimants listed on the lawsuit are “bandwagon-jumpers” – people who make false claims so they can cash in on a future settlement.

But he said there are other ways of weeding out false claimants, such as the use of “discovery” hearings. Discovery hearings, usually held privately in judge’s chambers, are held to sort out all the evidence alleged in civil suits, and to distinguish between what can be proven and what can’t.

Budden said his firm has already spent $200,000 on psychological assessments for about 50 of the Inuit claimants. Qualified psychologists have concluded that those people were sexually abused, he said.

The most objectionable part of the territorial government’s case, Budden said, is the allegation that some of Ed Horne’s victims may have consented to the sexual abuse.

He said this fails to recognize the power that non-Inuit teachers and principals wielded in small Inuit communities in the 1970s and 1980s.