“now is the time to come forward”

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I received a copy of the following letter which is apparently circulating amongst former students of the various Basilian-run schools where Father Hod Marshall taught.  It is an excellent letter with timelines, allegations and information not previously in the public domain. 

Perhaps those who attended one of those schools in Toronto (St. Michael’s College School), Windsor (Holy Names HS and Assumption College School), Sudbury (St. Charles College School), Sault Ste. Marie (St. Mary’s College HS), Saskatoon (St. Thomas More), Houston (St. Thomas HS) could email the text to former classmates?

Check the Father William Hodgson Marshall page for new information regarding timelines and locations .  I am adding them as they become available.

This is the text of the letter:

______________________________________

Please read the following and pass it along to as many people as you can.  This is not junk mail or spam but a matter of utmost seriousness and importance.  You are reading this because you may have had contact with, or may know someone who had contact with the Basilian priest Fr. William Hodgson (Hod) Marshall.  The man is a sexual molester of children.  This is not an accusation or a claim but a fact.  This message would not have reached you if there was any doubt of that fact.  I trust I need say nothing further to convince you to read all of the following.

Here is some history of Hod Marshall’s whereabouts and positions over the years to assist in determining who should be aware of his activities.  A few dates may be off a year or two but this is the best documentation we have currently available.

2010:              Charged in Windsor, Ontario with sexual abuse of a minor.

1997/98  –     Current:  Basilian Centre retirement home of some sort in downtown Toronto presumably in close proximity to their other properties and St. Basil’s church.

1990 – 1997:  St. Lucia doing missionary work and running or establishing a school.  Likely would have been principal of this school.

1985 – 1989:  Principal of Holy Names High School, Windsor, Ontario

1981 – 1985:  Principal of St. Mary’s College High School, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

1980/81:         Principal of St. Charles’ College School, Sudbury, Ontario

1970s:             Teacher and Principal at St. Charles’ College School, Sudbury, Ontario

1960s:             Possibly teacher and/or basketball coach various years at St. Charles’ College School in Sudbury

1959:               Teacher, St. Thomas More College School, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Late 1950s:     Teacher at St. Thomas High School, Houston, Texas

1954 – 1956:   Teacher and basketball coach Assumption College School, Windsor, Ontario

1950 – 1954:   Teacher and basketball coach St. Michael’s College School, Toronto, Ontario

1951:                  Ordained

Here are some of the facts regarding Hod Marshall that are either officially recorded or strongly confirmed and waiting to be revealed.

•           May, 2010:  Charged in Windsor with one count of sexual abuse of a child in the early 1980s.  Retained prominent defense lawyer Andrew Bradie who also defended Rev. Charles Sylvestre (found guilty of 47 counts of sexual abuse of girls aged 7 to 15 between 1954 and 1986).

•           May, 2010:  Remanded in court for appearance on June 02.  Story published in newspapers across Canada including: Windsor, Sudbury, Montreal, Regina, Vancouver, Sault Ste. Marie and Calgary.

•           June 02, 2010:  Court date postponed to July 14, 2010 presumably to deal with new victims having come forward subsequent to the publication of the newspaper stories.  One victim is from the early 1950s and the other from the late 1980s.

•           Has been confirmed as a “known sexual predator and molester” by students while at St. Michael’s College in Toronto early 1950s.  Students have confirmed the existence of a “protected list” of students who were not to be sexually abused.  Presumably anybody not protected was free to be molested.

•           Confirmed sexual abuse of two students while teaching at Assumption 1954-1956.

•           Confirmed sexual abuse of three students while principal at Holy Names 1985-1989.

•           Confirmed sexual abuse of one youth while principal at St. Mary’s College.

•           Confirmed sexual abuse of one student while principal at St. Mary’s College.

•           Confirmed sexual abuse of at least one student while at St. Charles’ College.

•           Confirmed that there are currently men in counseling in the year 2010 who were abused by Hod while at St. Michael’s.

•           Suspected connection with at least one suicide of former student.  (Name, time period and high school withheld out of respect.)

•           Sent for treatment as a sexual molester in the Washington D.C. or Boston area by the Basilian Order in the year 1997 or 1998 under the guise of treatment for cancer.

•           Left St. Lucia missionary school abruptly and never returned to the country.  (Draw your own conclusion!)

•           Sent to Houston in the 1950’s – location known among the legal community dealing with sexual abuse to be a “treatment centre” for sexually deviant priests and religious.

•           Sent to Amherstburg (St. John’s church) in the summer of 1955 for recovery from “nervous exhaustion” at 32 years of age.  Draw your own conclusions again!

•           Had use of a Basilian camp property outside of Sudbury in the 1970s where he could take students, players or family friends for weekend retreats/getaways.  Known to promote nude saunas and skinny-dipping in the lake.

•           Sued for sexual abuse in 2002 in Sudbury Small Claims Court.  Found guilty and damages awarded to victim.  Case was subsequently appealed but never appeared in court and no further information was ever revealed.  Once more, draw your own conclusions.  The case was neither dismissed nor overturned just …. disappeared.

•           Known to sexual abuse boys in return for positions on his high school basketball teams.  Particularly liked to “check their muscles”.

•           Known to both the Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury police departments as being associated with many stories, rumours and accusations of sexual abuse over many years.  Investigated in both cities without charges being able to be made partly due to reluctance to put victims on the stand who had become drug addicts, petty criminals, mentally unstable or alcoholics because of the abuse they suffered.

•           Upon being informed of the investigation into his actions by the Windsor Police Department he responded “That may very well be.  I’ve done many bad things in my life.”  No denial of sexual abuse of a minor was offered.

These are the things that are known to date.  Experts in the study of sexual predators have predicted that abuse such as this would have gone on uninterrupted over his entire adult life!  That means there are many more details, instances and victims yet to be revealed.

Please, if you are reading this, and you know anyone who at any time had or may have had contact with Hod Marshall through any of the schools listed or in any other way through the Basilian order, camps, basketball, missionary work, it is of great importance that this information be passed along.  This must be spread to every single person who may have been a victim of this man.  Pass this along or speak to any person you may remotely consider to have a connection to him or to know someone who may have a connection.  It does not matter if you have not spoken to this person in thirty years even.  Everyone must know.

Do not limit yourself to people you feel could be victims as there is absolutely no way to know who was abused.  It is for each person to decide on their own what course of action they wish to take.  But if anyone else knows anything or was a victim, now is the time to come forward and let it be known.  As a victim, your identity does not have to be revealed.  What must be revealed is the extent, scope and duration of the abuse that took place.  If you have any information to add, you need only contact your local police department and advise them charges are already filed in Windsor and you want your information included and investigated if need be.

Hod Marshall should not face one count of sexual abuse of a child, not even three.  He should face a charge for each and every young man he molested over fifty to sixty years.  He should face dozens, even hundreds of charges.  Please do your part and ensure every former student of these schools, their siblings, their parents and/or children knows of these crimes.  Yes, his molesting even carried from one generation to the next; he molested even the children of his former students.

This is asked of you because it is the right thing to do, it is the least that can be done for his victims, and it will help prevent future victims.

Much information can also be gained at http://www.theinquiry.ca/wordpress/

9 Responses to “now is the time to come forward”

  1. Ron Cormier says:

    Hod Marshall sexually abused me at St. Charles College in Sudbury. When I failed grade 9 he hauled my parents in and changed my marks as a favour to them and told them he couldn’t understand why I failed because I was so bright!

  2. Sylvia says:

    I am glad Ron that you are speaking out. That is a big step. I commend you for that.

    Have you gone to police ? If not, are you thinking of going?

  3. reginald savoie says:

    you mentioned that i’ve been molested by father Gagnon in Robertville but i can assure you that i did not write that e-mail but i still beleive they are covered up for example father Yvon Doiron his court was on no publish newspaper how much money did he stole if he was an ordinary man he would been in all papers now i hope you see my point.

    • JG says:

      Réginald,
      Did you know Leon Gagnon?…If you want to talk about it Sylvia can put us in touch ”offline”…I think we live within an hour of each other…You can call me.
      I may have some information which would interest you…

      jg

  4. Sylvia says:

    There is a “Reginald” who was abused by Father Gagnon, but his name is not Reginald Savoie.

    There is mention of a Father Savoie on the page for Father Leo Gangon. I think you may have misread the comments and thought the name of the victim is Reginald Savoie?

  5. Chris says:

    I went to St Charles in Sudbury in the late 70’s and at that time Fr Marshall had the nickname of “Happy Hands Hod”. I was an altar boy until grade 10 at my parish outside of Sudbury along with a couple buddies and often we were pulled out of school to serve funeral masses. Fr Marshall would drive us and none of us would sit in the front seat with him because of his reputation. Many times I recall seeing him touching students in class in an “overly friendly way”, but never in a sexual way. He never touched me inappropriately and I always thought he was a nice guy, but at the same time was always cautious and suspicious. I am so disappointed reading this. A few years after I quit being an altar boy there was a case of a priest at my parish molesting some of the altar boys. His name was rev Thomas o’dell. He was charged and served time in prison. One of the poor kids he raped sued the church and won but later commit suicide. This is such sick stuff and what is sicker is that the Catholic Church chose to cover these things up rather then deal with the predators they had hired. Personally I went from being a kid who seriously considered going to the seminary and becoming a priest to someone who has serious doubts that there is a god. After hearing about all this shit there is no wonder why…

  6. Gerald Potvin says:

    I am trying to find out what college in Sudbury my brother-in-law Cal Michaud attended….he became alcoholic and philanderer….family obviously suffered…i am convinced he suffered sexual abuse while in Sudbury….i though it was Sacred Heart College…he was going to become a Brother….he was from Windsor. Gerald Potvin.

  7. Philip Khattar says:

    I attended assumption high school in 1964 area and it ruined my life for good. I wanted to go to a school away from home so that I could focus on my work and become successful in life. My first marks in Latin under Mr fister
    was In the nineties but shortly after that two or three situations had crushed my dreams and ambitions. I witnessed under aged beatings with closed fists hitting my fellow students in the face with their arms held behind their backs. Everyday I faced brutal beatings, when eating my lunch in a cafeteria I had to see my fellow students get dragged out of the phone booth in the cafeteria and beaten with their arms held behind their backs while another large priest would beat them in their face. It was a Dailey occurrence which was a complete shock to my system. I remember something falling in my room at night and being accused of staying up past curfue time, the priest on duty took me ouside in the hard floor in the hallway and made me kneel straight up in the middle of the night without leaning for an hour. More than this happened and it set so much fear inside myself with no one to run to . I was in a panic and stress feeling so much that I ran to the phone booth feeling that my life was in complete danger , I phoned my mother knowing that I may be beat in my face. During lunch hour I called my mother collect crying to her to let me come home, the small priest grabbed my hand and I mind set my plan that I wouldn’t let the phone go out of my hands no matter what. I yelled at the small priest saying to him that my mother hears every word that he is saying to me and that she wants to talk to him immidiatley, it stunned the priest because my mother was a witness to the situation, my mother told the priest to allow me to go home back to nova scotia. I’ve held the visions of this terrible experienced inside myself all these years and no matter who I told my story to, I was the only one to live my horror with no one realizing that a fifteen year old boy had undergone a climatic experience that change my life for the worse. I’ve lived and relived this nightmare for over 56 years and had no empathy nor closure about my ordeal. No one understands how horrible it stunted my life in so many ways. I still remember the faces of horror about the smaller and larger priest that left a mark on my life forever.

  8. Sylvia says:

    Please contact the police Philip, and/or a lawyer.

    My thoughts and prayers are with you.

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