Victim's tale of horror rivets inquiry

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

02 November 2006

Terri Saunders

Front Page - The drop of a pin would have been audible at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Wednesday as a woman took the commission on a heartbreaking journey through her own personal hell.

As tears streamed down her face, Cindy Burgess-Lebrun read aloud a victim impact statement she said she wishes she could have personally delivered during the sentencing hearing of Jean-Luc Leblanc, a former Transport Canada Training Institute employee and Newington-area school bus driver.

Leblanc was convicted in 2001 of abusing several young children, including Burgess-Lebrun.

"To this day there isn't any freedom from what this man has done to me," said the 36-year-old woman. "His face manages to creep up and take over the faces of the people I love."

Burgess-Lebrun said she was just 12 years old when Leblanc began to sexually abuse her. At the time the abuse occurred, Leblanc was also abusing other children, including two of her brothers and one of her brothers' friends.

The abuse, which she said lasted for about three years, has had lasting effects on her life.

"Growing up, I watched my friends lead normal lives while I hid behind a wall of shame, guilt and fear," she said. "I resented a lot of people while I was growing up because I expected them to help me and though I had never said the words, I had hoped with all my heart that someone would read it in my eyes and stop the awful things he was doing to me."

Leblanc pleaded guilty in 2001 to a variety of sex crimes and in 2002 was declared a long-term offender. He was sent to prison for eight and a half years and upon release will have to live in society under strict conditions.

Burgess-Lebrun said she kept the abuse she suffered hidden for many years and it wasn't until shortly after she got married in late 1989 she finally told someone.

"I told my husband," she said. "I wanted to make sure everything in my life was put forward."

That disclosure came in early 1990. It would be a decade before Burgess-Lebrun would again speak of the horrors of her childhood. Living in Prescott with her husband, Burgess-Lebrun didn't expect the knock which came on her door in 2000.

On her doorstep were two men dressed in suits who identified themselves as investigators with the Ontario Provincial Police.

"They asked me if I knew Jean-Luc Leblanc," said Burgess-Lebrun. "It was like a train hit me."

Burgess-Lebrun said the rest of her life began on that day. She would go on to provide information to police about the abuse she had suffered at the hands of Leblanc even while trying to come to terms with how the abuse had affected her and its impact on her family.

"I have three kids and I'm very over-protective," she said. "My oldest is 15 years old and I can't even let him go three blocks away from me."

Burgess-Lebrun said she makes it a point to talk to her kids about the dangers of people like Leblanc.

"When I was a little girl, nobody taught me anything about staying away from certain people," she said. "I talk to my children all the time and I make sure to ask them, 'Is anyone touching you? Is anyone hurting you?' I guess that's the one good thing that came out of all this - I've been educated enough about abuse and abusers to know how to protect my own kids."

Burgess said public institutions such as police forces and the justice system should consider reviewing some procedures and policies. She said a "softer" approach could be used when approaching victims for the first time in an investigation and she believes individuals who commit sexual crimes against children should be jailed. Leblanc had previously pleaded guilty in 1986 to two counts of gross indecency and received a suspended sentence and three years probation.

"As far as I'm concerned, they should put probation (sentences) up a tree," said Burgess-Lebrun. "If you do the crime, you do the time."

She said police officers could carry with them information cards to give to victims containing information on where they can go to seek counseling, and school boards should introduce education about sexual abuse into school curriculums.

Burgess-Lebrun said she was curious as to why nobody asked her during the course of the 1986 investigation into Leblanc's actions if she was abused by him, something she believes should have been a no-brainer for police after they learned two of her brothers had made complaints.

"If one child in a family is being abused, talk to all the kids in the family," she said. "Also, there should be better background checks for hiring people. Jean-Luc Leblanc was hired as a bus driver. How was (his criminal background) missed?"

In delivering the final portions of her victim impact statement, Burgess-Lebrun said her self-esteem was shattered by the abuse she suffered and she struggled for many years with feelings of worthlessness.

"Why would a nobody like me even try to become a somebody?" she said, her voice shaking. "(Leblanc) took away my future by killing my childhood."

Neil Kozloff, an attorney representing the OPP, said his client would take under advisement the recommendations Burgess-Lebrun made to the inquiry, but told her he took exception to her comments about being "a nobody."

"You are not a nobody," Kozloff said. "You have a loving, supportive husband and you have given life to and nurtured three children. You have shown heroism in baring your soul, and in coming here and sharing with us some not-so-pretty experiences. On behalf of my client, I salute you."