When James and Tony Charlie first arrived at Kuper Island Residential School in British Columbia, they were given identification numbers to sew on their clothes and put on chores. “Sometimes it wasn’t even our names, it was just the number,” Tony said. The siblings, born just 14 months apart, started going to school in 1964 when Tony was 13 and James 12. They are now among the many children abused by Catholic clergy in boarding schools across Canada. “I have to live my life today with all these pains and all these memories, all these incidents, forever, every night, every day,” Tony said. Kuper Island was administered by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Catholic battalion that operated 48 of Canada’s residential schools. Some have referred to the secluded island – located between Vancouver Island and the west coast – as far away as Alcatraz, Canada.
Listen to the new CBC podcast at Cooper Islandwhich includes documents and testimonies from survivors and witnesses detailing years of student abuse.
James and Tony are among the many children abused by Catholic clergy in boarding schools across Canada. They attended the Kuper Island Residential School off the coast of British Columbia. (Submitted)
9 sex offenders find refuge in Ottawa
The infamous school, the White Cross and its bell tower were destroyed by bulldozers in the early 1980s. The journey to reconciliation is not over. In an effort to track down Glenn Doughty, the Oblate brother who abused young boys on Kuper Island, CBC News has uncovered an Ottawa nursing home offering Catholic clergy convicted of sex crimes a place to live after their release. The CBC has confirmed that at least nine convicted sex offenders – men who abused children in schools, indigenous communities and various parishes across the country – have taken refuge in the Oblates-owned Springhurst residence. It also provided shelter for those awaiting trial, and in the past included indicted Catholic priests outside the order. Regardless of the situation, or the crimes committed, Springhurst residents meet their needs for the rest of their lives. The head of the Oblates says he is part of their care and supervision after his imprisonment. Oblate’s ex-brother Glenn Dauty has been convicted of sexually abusing children at two former home schools in British Columbia and until recently lived in an Oblate home in Ottawa. (Glenn Doughty / Facebook)
Reconciliation with abuse
Critics say survivors, including those who have been reduced to a number in their childhood, do not have such support or security after the crimes committed against them. The Charlie brothers were forced to live on separate floors in a boarding school, but now, decades later, they share horrific memories of the abuse they suffered. Tony, walking with a cane, still remembers his introduction to Brother Doughty. Within days of Dauty arriving on Cooper Island, he picked up the boy in his room and invited him to his bed. Sometimes he got drunk and we all knew every night he was going to be a sex predator.- James Charlie “It was very shocking that this happened, because I just met him,” he said. Dauty kept looking for other boys. “Sometimes he got drunk and we all knew every night he was going to be a sex predator,” said James Charlie, who still lives on the island. “The next morning, the poor man could hardly walk. But no one said anything because it could be his turn tonight.” In 2002, Doughty was sentenced to three years in prison for his historic crimes at a Kuper Island school, including indecent assault on a man, blatant indecency and a class of cases involving 11 different victims. These were the laws of the books when crime took place in the 1960s and ’70s. James calls Dauty’s prison on Cooper Island “nothing.” It was Doughty’s fourth conviction for child crimes in various parts of the country. Tony, left, and James recently visited the site of a former Kuper Island residential school with CBC reporter Duncan McCue. (Duncan McCue / CBC)
Series of convicts
Originally convicted in Thunder Bay in the late 1980s, Doughty was later found guilty of sexually abusing young students at a residential school in Williams Lake, BC. Dolores Pflanz, who worked at Kuper Island Residential School in 1970, says she saw Doughty’s misbehavior with students. He was in the courtroom when the judge spoke harshly to Doughty and the Oblates in 2002. He said to the priest of Oblate: “If you want to take care of him, there must be someone in his presence at all times. You have to take the door out of his bedroom. He can not even go to the toilet alone “”. Pflands remembered. Dauti apologized and expressed remorse. It became a responsibility that the Oblates say they took seriously. Ken Thorson, head of the Oblate Battalion, said Doughty had been “living in Springhurst” since his release. Springhurst Residence is located in central Ottawa, in the middle of a residential neighborhood, just 200 meters away. from a city park. Over the years it has housed many clergymen who have been accused or convicted of sexual crimes. (Julie Ireton / CBC)
“I want to die in peace”
But at the end of 2020, after nearly two decades of living with free room and meals, Doughty left Springhurst and the order completely. He is still active on social media, including Facebook and Instagram. When the CBC arrived with him by phone last fall, he was at the Rideau Center, a mall in downtown Ottawa. Dauti did not want to talk about the time he spent on Cooper Island, saying: “I am very sad about this … I have had so much suffering, so much pain … I want to die in peace.” In a subsequent conversation, Doughty said that his lawyer and psychologist advised him not to speak further with the CBC. While it seems Doughty is still living in the nation’s capital, he is no longer actively monitored by Oblates or other authorities. “Glenn chose to leave Oblates despite my strong encouragement,” Thorson said. “He was adamant he had to leave. Under Canadian law, I can not force an adult to stay somewhere he does not want to stay.”
The house is “helpful to the common good,” says the leader
Thorson says he wanted Doughty to stay in the classroom because he believed it was the Oblates’ responsibility to provide “adequate support”. “I really believe we are doing something that is good for the common good, caring for the needs of our members who have this offensive history,” Thorson said. Doughty, now 84, has no criminal record since leaving prison about 20 years ago, but Thorson notes there are still concerns. “I’m worried about recurrence with any offender,” he said. Leona Huggins, pictured here in 2019, was sexually assaulted by a priest as a young girl in British Columbia. He is now an advocate for others who have been abused by Catholic Church clergy in Canada. (Doug Husby / CBC)
Network of survivors who were abused by priests
Over the years, Doughty would have crossed paths with another convicted sex offender in Springhurst. Father John McCann also lived in the house between the trials and after his imprisonment. Like Doughty, McCann served the Oblates throughout the country. When Leona Huggins was just 12 years old, she answered the phone and brought tea to the priests’ rooms while working in the parish of Oblate in New Westminster, BC, about 50 years ago. McCann paid close attention to her – he treated her and then sexually assaulted her regularly in the 1970s. “He started to stand out from me,” Huggins said of McCann. “He abused me for a long time.” In 1990, when Huggins was 29, she discovered that McCann still had access to children and reported him to police. Court documents show that the Oblates quickly transported McCann to one of their homes. I knew that if he formed a group of young people he would mistreat other people – Leona Huggins McCann was eventually convicted for six cases of sexual abuse of girls under the age of 16 and served 10 months in prison. For many years after his release, he lived in Springhurst. Then in 2011, Haggins blew the whistle again after discovering that he was still serving in an Ottawa church with children. At that time, the archdiocese said it did not know McCann’s record. “I knew how it worked. I knew that if he created a group of young people, he would be abusing other people,” said Haggins, now an advocate for the Network of Survivors of Abused Priests. McCann was fired from the ministry, but Huggins says she was convicted by the church of “ruining a man’s life.” “It’s hard to see these men being cared for so well when the survivors are not cared for,” Haggins said. “Not only did they ignore me, but they expelled me for something for which they finally had to thank me.” McCann has never faced other charges. He was 89 years old when he died in 2018 in a hostel in Ottawa, having spent many years in Springhurst. “For every victim who has the courage to show up, there are probably five who did not. And I can tell you, in the case of McCann, I know four,” Huggins said.
“It’s hard to see these men being taken care of so well”
Leona Huggins, who was sexually assaulted by a priest in the 1970s, says it is frustrating to see members of the clergy convicted of sex crimes well cared for in Ottawa when survivors are evicted.
Protection and monitoring of perpetrators
Springhurst is one of the many corporate holding companies formed by Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which has a stated goal of “providing health care, maintenance and other benefits to the needy, elderly or needy priests and brothers who are members of the Roman Catholic Church.” religious orders and …
