Victim says doors slammed in his face

Saturday, October 28, 2006
Cornwall Standard Freeholder

Terri Saunders

Saturday, October 28, 2006 - 10:00

Local News - Jason Tyo doesn't know for certain but he's pretty sure he might not have sexually abused anyone if he'd just gotten a little bit of help. In testifying at the Cornwall Public Inquiry recently, Tyo said he reached out for help after he was sexually abused, but found nobody was there.

As a victim of former Newington bus driver Jean-Luc Leblanc, Tyo said he felt doors were slammed in his face in the years after he disclosed the abuse, something he said was the story of his life.

During inquiry testimony he heard evidence officials with the Children's Aid Society did intervene in order to protect him, but he wonders if perhaps more could have been done to save him and those he would go on to abuse.

"I grew up all my life to a big lie that they (CAS) were never involved, but (through) my understanding and common sense, I know for a fact they were involved," said Tyo.

Tyo was shown documents he admitted proved a greater level of CAS involvement in his matter than he had been led to believe by his mother.

In the years after he was abused by Leblanc, Tyo would go on to abuse others, crimes for which he would plead no contest.

He suggested his actions may have been altered by early intervention on the part of public institutions such as the CAS.

"I wouldn't be in half the trouble that I'm in now if people would have intervened," said Tyo. "If I would have been encouraged to go to counselling, I . . . possibly (would) not have abused (others)."

Tyo was the sixth child sexual abuse victim to take the stand at the inquiry, following in the footsteps of men with similar tales to tell.

As children, they had been sexually abused by older men and suffered lifelong trauma ranging from constant feelings of suicide to deep depression to the perpetuation of the cycle of abuse.

Since evidentiary hearings began Oct. 3, the inquiry has been delving into what sort of abuse these men suffered and how the public institutions put in place to protect and serve them responded.

When Alain Seguin took the stand it was something of a full-circle move. Having suffered repeated sexual abuse at the hands of Robert Sabourin, a former city high school teacher, Seguin spent many years in silence trying to cope with the emotional effects of the acts committed on him.

He eventually disclosed the abuse and was one of several complainants in a criminal case which resulted in Sabourin being sent to jail for just under two years in April 1999.

As the world entered a new millennium with the start of the year 2000, Seguin began to enter a new phase of his own life, one which would ultimately result in the calling of the inquiry. Seguin joined forces with other people in the community who felt the justice system and other public institutions had failed the now-adult survivors of child sexual abuse, and the government needed to answer one question - why?

Finally Seguin got the chance to talk about his own experiences, his perceptions on how the system failed him and the best way for institutions to handle similar matters in the future.

"I feel that Crown attorneys, lawyers, judges . . . but mostly police officers should all be encouraged to point out the flaws in our justice system," he said. "Who better to know the problem than the ones who have to make it work? That's you guys. You know the problem.

That problem was, and it still is, the unwillingness of our public institutions and justice system to see the seriousness of the abuse perpetrated against our young. Don't you understand? Nobody was doing anything. That's why people did what they did. And you're going to hear it again because there's more coming."

Seguin was right. There were more coming, including Andre Lavoie, a 53-year-old man who was sexually abused by Sabourin over several years beginning when he was just 14. In speaking about the institutional response to his abuse, Lavoie said he felt the police didn't do enough to keep him in the loop and he had often wondered in the months between his disclosure of abuse in early 1996 and Sabourin's case making it to court in late 1998 whether anyone still cared.

"A simple phone call saying, 'Andre, how are you doing? Yes, we're still working on it,' would have been quite sufficient," said Lavoie.

John Callaghan, an attorney representing the Cornwall Community Police Service, said police officers were required to follow different laws around the time the abuse would have occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s which affected the way cases were investigated.

"Unfortunately the law in the period you were assaulted required the police to address the issue of consent," said Callaghan.

"And it's not as simple as it is today, thank God, and that the issue of consent is important."

Callaghan said while he was not trying to suggest Lavoie in any way consented to the abuse, his intention was to illustrate why things were handled the way they were so many years ago.

"I am just trying to educate you and the public that that makes it difficult," said Callaghan, "and I didn't know whether you were aware of that going through the process."

Lavoie said the very fact he was not made aware of the process at the time is indicative of the change he believes is essential to helping victims navigate the system.

"Well, I appreciate you telling me this a few years later," said Lavoie. "It would have been interesting for me to know a little bit about it at that time."

The inquiry will resume hearings Monday.