St. Mike’s probe could span decades

Police seek information about any sexual assaults at all-boys school

There’s no limit on how far back the investigation at St. Michael’s College School into incidents of alleged sexual assault and assault among students will go, Toronto police say, and they are interested in hearing from anyone who has been a victim — no matter how long ago the crime occurred.

“Fifteen, 50 years, it could be anything,” said Const. Caroline de Kloet, who said the police are interested in hearing about incidents at any other schools, too.

Almost three weeks in, little has changed in the scandal at the elite all-boys school; police continue to investigate six incidents at the private Catholic institution at Bathurst St. and St. Clair Ave. W. These include two alleged sexual assaults, three alleged assaults and one incident involving threats being made.

The crisis began when two videos surfaced on social media, one showing an alleged sexual assault in a locker room, the other a young teen being thrown into a fountain by a group of other teens.

Six boys were charged with assault, gang sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon last week in the episode shown on the locker room video. Police said the video, itself, meets the definition of child pornography. Those charged are cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

There haven’t been any charges in any of the other incidents police are investigating. De Kloet said it’s taking inspectors some time to identify the people in the videos. Insp. Domenic Sinopoli of the sex crimes unit previously said more than 50 witnesses have been identified in the investigation.

De Kloet said anyone with information can contact the Child and Youth Advocacy centre at 416-808-2922 or Crime Stoppers.

“We don’t want other people to be suffering from (post-trau- matic stress disorder) by seeing this type of video. If they feel that they’re also a victim, because of what they saw, then they can contact us, and we’ll make sure that they get the appropriate help that they need,” she added.

Police have said they have four videos. The two others relate to an alleged assault with a belt and threatening, respectively.

The school’s principal and president resigned last week and the institution has commissioned an independent review to examine its culture.