No probation for child sexual abuse: Victims

Project Truth inquiry told stiffer sentences needed in such cases

Ottawa Sun

20 October 2006

By Canadian Press

CORNWALL - Child sexual abuse survivors say they have clear ideas on how public institutions could better handle such cases.

“Stiffer sentences, not probation,” Scott Burgess said Thursday at the public inquiry examining institutional responses to allegations of sexual abuse throughout this eastern Ontario city. “When he got probation, I was afraid he would come after me.”

Burgess was referring to Jean-Luc Leblanc, a former bus driver convicted in 2001 of sexually assaulting a number of young boys and sentenced to 8 1/2 in prison, followed by 10 years of strict supervision.

Leblanc had pleaded guilty to two counts of gross indecency in 1986 and received probation, but no jail time.

Burgess said he received little information as Leblanc’s earlier matter made its way through the court system and was not in court when his abuser was handed the probationary sentence.

“I was not told anything,” Burgess said.

Trusting the word of a child should also be paramount in abuse investigations, he suggested.

“Kids should be believed when they have something to say,” he said, “until proven otherwise.” During cross-examination, Burgess, now 35, admitted he may have had more dealings with the Children’s Aid Society than he can recall.

In his previous testimony, Burgess said he was dissatisfied with the response of public institutions such as the CAS, but an attorney for the agency pointed to historical records which show a greater amount of contact than Burgess can recall.

A CAS worker met with him at a school he was attending after he had disclosed the abuse to a teacher, and there are records which show meetings were also held at his childhood home.

Burgess was not the only witness Thursday to express dissatisfaction with the way institutions handled abuse allegations.

Jason Tyo, another of Leblanc’s victims, said he felt let down by the CAS after he made a disclosure of abuse during a phone call.

Tyo said he can’t remember the date of the call, but he knows it was a Friday evening.

“I told them I was being physically abused at home and sexually abused outside my home,” Tyo said. “The response I got was not good.”

Tyo said he can’t recall any followup to the phone call.

“Nothing else happened,” he said, “until I talked to my teacher.”

Tyo and Burgess both disclosed to their teacher, Dawn Raymond, they were being abused by Leblanc. Raymond’s involvement ultimately led to the CAS becoming active in the case and charges being laid by the Cornwall Community Police Service.

Years later, Leblanc would go on to abuse again, eventually being charged by the Ontario Provincial Police’s Project Truth team.

The inquiry will resume Oct. 30, when it’s expected Tyo will complete his evidence and the commission will hear from Raymond.