Sex abuse ruined son’s life, mother tells court
Judge to decide shortly on class action settlement regarding city of Westmount
The sexual abuse 12-year-old Doug Ellis suffered at the hands of Westmount hockey coach John Garland poisoned his entire life and ultimately led to his death at 44, Ellis’s mother, Ruth, testified Monday during the application for approval of a class action settlement with the city of Westmount.
Judge Marc de Wever’s voice broke with emotion as he explained, after hearing the testimony of Ellis and others about the impact of Garland’s actions, that he will announce his decision on the class action settlement very soon. Victims can still apply to be a part of the class action for 90 days after the settlement is formally approved and a 30-day appeal period has elapsed.
Westmount has already agreed in principle to pay up to a total of $2.5 million to victims of Garland, who died in 2012, if there are between 10 and 25 victims. If there are more than 25 approved claimants, the city has agreed to renegotiate the total. So far, 15 victims have been accepted as members of the claim, which was brought by 51-year-old filmmaker Matthew Bissonnette.
Garland’s abuse of young hockey players on his teams spanned the four decades during which he was a hockey coach in the sports and recreation programs offered by the city of Westmount.
So far, the earliest incident of sexual abuse claimants have reported occurred in 1955 and the most recent was in 1986.
One 72-year-old claimant described in a written statement obtained by the Montreal Gazette how Garland preyed on him in the mid-1950s. He said he reported Garland’s sexual advances and inappropriate touching to his father, who informed the then-mayor of Westmount and a member of Westmount police, but Garland remained in his position for decades and went on to abuse others.
Garland’s abuse of Ellis began in the early 1980s, when Ellis was 12 and a promising young player scouted by the Toronto Maple Leafs. His family did not learn about the abuse until shortly before he died.
As a child, Ellis had been a strong student, a talented athlete and a happy child, his mother said. But when he was 12 and playing hockey on teams coached by Garland, all that began to change.
Ellis began wetting the bed, beating up his brother and failing in school. Drug abuse followed, psychiatric issues, hospital stays and even a prison sentence for a bank robbery. Still struggling in his 40s, Ellis learned of the class action suit Bissonnette was leading and decided to join it. This was when he finally broke his silence.
“I received a phone call from Doug on June 8 two years ago, the day of my birthday, and out of the blue, he started to tell me about his old coach John Garland and what happened to him,” Ruth Ellis told the court.
“The conversation hit me hard, after 33 years of wondering what was wrong, what could have happened to my wonderful son. After years of tears, anxiety and terror and gut-wrenching torment, the answer was given to me by Doug. It all fell into place and finally made sense.”
PSYCHIATRIC ISSUES
While preparing to make the claim, Ellis died of complications due to medications he was prescribed for anxiety, his mother said. She attributes his death and his long-term psychiatric issues to the abuse.
Ellis spoke of the need for more programs for male victims of sexual abuse, and support for parents of children who report sexual abuse.
Alexander Pless, a lawyer and a childhood friend of Bissonnette’s and Ellis’s who helped bring the case to the fore, said it was not easy to find a legal firm to take the case even though there was ample evidence and multiple victims. He said even firms who do a lot of pro bono work find that class action suits for sexual abuse cases are expensive to handle and the compensation awarded is too low.
Pless said Garland’s inappropriate behaviour was well known in the community, to the point where kids joked about it openly. In tears, Pless apologized to Bissonnette, to Ellis, and to other victims for his own failure to take the issue seriously when he was a youngster.
Bissonnette thanked his family, his legal team, and Pless for their help and support, and the city of Westmount for dealing responsibly and compassionately with the lawsuit. He spoke of the need for higher awards for victims, given the devastating long-term consequences of childhood sexual abuse.
“If we don’t assign value to childhood sexual abuse, it will continue, and the way we assign value in this society is we put a number on it,” he told reporters. “And that’s what pays for therapy bills, that’s what pays for people getting better ... If you look at what someone’s therapy bills would be, what their lost earnings would be, what the cost to a family would be when someone dies, when someone is incapacitated for 30 years. You can just look at other jurisdictions where the amounts are much more in line with the actual costs.”
The settlement provides for base compensation of $35,000 for each accepted claimant. Once lawyers’ fees and other costs have been deducted from the total settlement fund, the remainder will be distributed among those victims who have claimed additional compensation due to the severity and frequency of their symptoms or damages suffered. The maximum amount a single class member can receive is $200,000.
The settlement also includes a commitment by the city of Westmount to construct a memorial garden in honour of the abuse victims in the vicinity of the Westmount recreation centre.
“When the city conducted its investigation and determined that the alleged events did in fact take place, it had a choice,” said Kurt Johnson, representing the city of Westmount. “It could force Mr. Bissonnette and others like him to have to tell their stories (in court and) challenge them on a number of legal grounds. Or instead it could choose to find a way to resolve the dispute within parameters that are already established by our courts. So that is the very important choice that the city of Westmount made early on and that we believe is the right one.”
Anyone who was sexually abused by John Garland between 1953 and 1987 while participating in the sports or recreation programs offered by the city of Westmount can still join the class action suit. Information and claim forms can be obtained by contacting the law firm Trudel Johnston & Lespérance. Applicants are guaranteed confidentiality.