The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50817
family felt cheated, because there was no one to be held accountable for what was going on here. So in 2004, he and I filed a claim for compensation on his behalf." That lawsuit prompted at least 20 other Bishop Raymond Lahey, Ron Martin, and John McKiggan at the August 2009 formal announcement of the agreement in Antigonish, N.S. historic 2005 decision to compensate more than 70,000 former aboriginal students out of a $1.9-billion fund — the largest class action settlement in the country's history. While his residential schools work was underway, McKiggan was contacted by Martin. His brother David had committed suicide in 2002, and left a note behind accusing a retired Cape Breton priest, Hugh Vincent MacDonald, of abusing him as a child. Although Martin had never discussed the past with his brother, he had also been abused by MacDonald. The suicide convinced Martin to go to the police. An investigation ensued, and the old priest was charged with 27 sex crimes, but the trial was delayed for years when the Diocese of Antigonish moved MacDonald into a nursing home and argued he was too sick to appear in court. He eventually died before his trial. Denied the chance to see justice done through the criminal system, Martin and his family approached McKiggan to discuss the possibility of a civil claim against the diocese. "They had no intention of suing, it wasn't even on their radar," says McKiggan. "If MacDonald had gone to trial in the criminal courts, that would have been the end of it. That would have satisfied Martin. But the men, identified in the police investigation as childhood victims of MacDonald, to ask McKiggan to file claims for them as well. As he read through the voluminous police files on MacDonald — and a handful of other Cape Breton priests who had earlier been convicted of sex crimes against chil- dren — McKiggan also realized there were dozens of other survivors in the diocese, many of whom had told police they would never testify against the church in open court. "Many were from small, strongly Catholic communities in Cape Breton and they didn't want their family, their neigh- bours, and co-workers to know that they had been raped," he says. Talks with the church to resolve Martin's lawsuit were not going well. As it became apparent that any civil claims against the diocese were eventually heading to court, Martin won- dered what could be done for the dozens of victims who either wanted no part of the court process, or were will- ing to sue but might never be compensated because of the chance that Martin's lawsuit, along with other early claims, might bankrupt the diocese. "Ron remains a strong Catholic," says McKiggan, "and for him this has always been about not just his own quest for justice, but also about his church. He takes the view, very strongly, that the problems the Catholic church is having retain- ing its members, and the scandal-plagued brush that all priests are now tainted with, stems from the fact that the church has never acknowledged its responsibility to survivors. Ron feels very strongly that in order to renew itself, the church needs to acknowledge that, by com- pensating and apologizing to all its victims. It certainly would have been easier to pursue his own claim, get a judgment, and move on." Instead, inspired by the residential-schools claims McKiggan had quarterbacked, Martin asked him to file a class action on behalf of all survivors. The claim was issued in the summer of 2008, and the diocese did not react charitably. Lahey responded with an affidavit vowing to aggressively oppose the action. Both sides prepared for a difficult negotiation. McKiggan hired as co-counsel his friend Russell Raikes, a partner in the London, Ont. firm Cohen Highley LLP. Like McKiggan, www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com JANU AR Y 2010 29 Photo courtesy of The Casket Printing and Publishing Co.