Growing pressure on Bentley

 

Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley is facing growing pressure from across the province to halt a controversial plan for male survivors of sexual abuse.

Both the lead commission counsel and an expert advisor for the Cornwall Public Inquiry on abuse — which recommended how the government should develop services — told The Free Press the province’s plan is flawed.

“It wasn’t what was intended,” lead counsel Peter Engelmann told The Free Press. “It comes up short.”

The Ontario government has to delay plans until male survivors get a chance to weigh in, added London psychiatrist Peter Jaffe.

“In the London area, we have hit a brick wall,” said Jaffe, an advisor to the inquiry.

Opposition politicians are also starting to take notice of the plan, which many male survivors criticize for ignoring their wishes and potentially giving money to the agencies that wronged them in the past.

The government has given agencies across Ontario until Nov. 1 to apply for $2 million to set up and operate for 15 months a province-wide crisis service, and four regional counselling networks for male survivors of abuse.

Only existing non-profit agencies operated by boards of directors will qualify to be lead regional agencies, shutting out many fledging support groups and counselling services run by men for male survivors.

Some Catholic-based agencies have applied for funding, alarming survivors who were victims of Catholic priests.

“It seems imperative that if justice is going to be done, the victims of abuse have to be players in determining how the money is going to be spent,” NDP justice critic Peter Kormos said Thursday.

Tory justice critic Ted Chudleigh said the government is revictimizing people who have already suffered.

“He (Bentley) won’t listen to male survivors. It is unfathomable he won’t do it,” said Chudleigh.

In Southwestern Ontario, a flashpoint for the controversy, a leading sexual assault agency in London is abandoning plans to join the provincial effort.

“The province has not provided enough time for consultation, especially with male survivors,” Louise Pitre, executive director of the Sexual Assault Centre of London, said.

Pitre said she’s written to Bentley seeking a delay in the process to allow men the chance to direct development of services.

But Bentley said Thursday the province will push ahead with plans.

“Some men have been waiting much of their lives for services,” he said. “We need to get those services out as quickly as possible.”

Some survivors also object to women-only agencies getting the money, saying these agencies ignored calls for help in the past.

The province’s plan differs from December 2009 recommendations of the Cornwall inquiry, which recommended the province take time to study the best way to develop services and listen to male survivors before doing anything.

“The commissioner very much wanted survivors to have an opportunity to speak,” Engelmann said.

“The hope was this would be studied and together with studying it, there would be a public awareness campaign.”

London survivor and advocate John Swales has a meeting scheduled for Friday with Bentley.

“It is unanimous across the board the province has not followed the recommendations of the Cornwall inquiry,” Swales said.

E-mail randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca, or follow Randyatlfpress on Twitter.