Reading judge’s decisions becomes a frequent part of a journalist’s job. Not all of them make you sit up astonished at what you’re reading.
So, when the wording is as strong as what’s used in the decision regarding the systemic and decades-long abuse of students that took place at Grenville Christian College, it’s hard not to wonder: What more is there to know?
In 2020, a judge ruled in favour of the roughly 1,400 students who filed a class-action lawsuit alleging life at the Ontario boarding school, which closed in 2007, was not only tough but also brutal, with seemingly endless examples of physical and emotional abuse meted out as punishment.
The school didn’t operate far from public view. The Anglican Church flew a flag there. And the school had ties to another religious group based in the United States called the Community of Jesus. The school had at one time counted prominent Canadians among its board.
Six months ago, we set out to answer the question: How could this have gone on so long?
We methodically began calling people connected to the school, including lawyers, police officers, journalists, former teachers, administrators and more than 30 former students.
We developed confidential sources and people who had never spoken publicly agreed to share their stories with us. Two people in particular took the courageous decision to share their stories on camera. Grace Irving and Michael Phelan had never spoken publicly about what they endured. They told us they did it because they wanted people to know what really happened behind the imposing stone walls of a school that was for many years their home.
Our research also revealed allegations of sloppy police work, written warnings ignored by the Anglican Church and strong connections to a mysterious and abusive Christian cult in Cape Cod, Mass.
And what of the role of the man who was the school’s final headmaster? He had been a teacher there for years. And what questions were asked of him by his new employer, the Canadian military?
The result is our documentary, airing tonight at 9 p.m. on CBC-TV, School of secrets: The church, the cult and the consequences.
-Timothy Sawa
Producer, The Fifth Estate
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