P
ractising law can bring weird and unwanted surprises. Even so, John McKiggan never imagined he might have a day like the one that unfolded on Oct. 1, 2009. Two months earlier McKiggan — a part- ner in the small Halifax law firm Arnold
Pizzo McKiggan — had secured an extraordinary, $15-million settlement in the class action lawsuit that he and his client, representative plaintiff Ron Martin, had filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish. There had been weeks of difficult bargaining, yet the church had taken the rare step of accepting responsibility for the sins of its past and agreeing to compensate hundreds of men allegedly
26 J A NU A R Y 2010 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com
Unsettled
A priest's child porn charges and the opposition of some victims are casting a pall over a groundbreaking agreement between the Diocese of Antigonish and sexual abuse victims.
By Richard Foot
DAN CALLIS
