It has been said that trust is the glue of life – the essential component for building and maintaining healthy relationships in our lives.
As young children, we usually first develop a sense of trust while interacting with a parent or caregiver. If we feel safe while being uniquely vulnerable, we learn that our most basic needs, including security, can be met by a trusted person. Our capacity to trust grows with us, and extends not only to other individuals, but also in institutions that serve us and our loved ones.
When a person in a position of power violates that trust by committing sexual violence, the detrimental effects are far reaching and can cause long-term damage to a person’s well-being.
Sexual Assaults and Institutional Sexual Abuse
Sexual assault is an umbrella term in law used to encompass all non-consensual sexual acts in the Criminal Code of Canada. Although “sexual abuse” is not a specific offence in Canadian law, it is generally used to describe the harmful effects of non-consensual sexual acts.
Institutional abuse can be defined as the harm caused when non-consensual sexual acts occur between people who come into contact while in the care of a public or private organization, or while participating in structured group activities. While most often the abuse occurs between a perpetrator who is in a position of power over their victim(s), it can also occur when an institution’s negligence facilitates conditions which allow people in their care to commit sexual assaults against other people in their care.
What Are Some Examples Of Institutional Sexual Abuse?
When we think of public or private institutions where sexual abuse can occur, schools, hospitals, long-term care homes, overnight camps, sports facilities, religious institutions and correctional facilities might come to mind. But institutional abuse can happen beyond the bricks and mortar buildings associated with these organizations if they involve activities organized or overseen by them. Institutional abuse may even extend to abuse occurring outside of the organization altogether, most often conducted by a person in position of authority.
In addition, institutional sexual abuse can also occur if people in positions of authority are negligent in their duty to take reasonable steps to prevent people in their care from suffering harm, or if they intentionally facilitate conditions which allow sexual abuse to take place between people in their care.
The following are examples of what may be considered institutional sexual abuse:
- a teacher sees clear signs of inappropriate sexual relationships or grooming among students but fails to take action
- a sports coach knows or learns that players are engaging in non-consensual sexual activity and fails to take steps to stop this activity
- a correctional officer facilitates conditions which permit sexual violence to occur between inmates
Institutional Sexual Abuse Cases In Law
Should a survivor of sexual abuse wish to hold the perpetrator and the institutions that allowed the abuse to occur accountable, both the criminal and civil justice systems are available to them.
If a survivor reports the abuse to police, criminal charges may be laid by the Crown (the government) against the perpetrator and/or the institution. In a criminal case, the Crown has the burden of proving the charges “beyond a reasonable doubt”. The penalties can include fines or imprisonment.
A survivor may also file a claim for damages in civil court. Since civil courts do not have the power to imprison the perpetrator/institution, the only remedy available is financial compensation for such things as pain and suffering, treatment expenses, and income loss. The plaintiff must prove their case “on a balance of probabilities” (i.e. a lower threshold than a criminal case).
In addition to, or in place of these legal options, a survivor may be able to file complaints with regulatory bodies for professions (for example, teachers, nurses, or doctors) or pursue action within the institution (religious tribunals, ombudsmen for medical facilities).
How Do Institutional Sexual Abuse Cases Differ From Other Personal Injury Cases?
For most personal injury claims, a plaintiff has only two years from the date that the harm occurred to file their Statement of Claim. In contrast, there is no limitation in sexual abuse cases. The majority of survivors of childhood sexual abuse do not disclose the abuse as it is occurring and rather come forward years – even decades – later when they are ready to process the trauma and consider their options.
The absence of a limitation is certainly an acknowledgement of the complexity of historic abuse. However, this poses some challenges from an evidentiary perspective requiring the expertise of a lawyer with experience advancing these types of claims. The passage of time can, naturally, cause memories to fade, perpetrators to pass on, institutions to disappear and documents to go missing. An experienced personal injury lawyer will canvas the evidence from the outset to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that the case is presented with consistency, credibility, and that corroborating evidence is collected in a meaningful way.
Pursuing a civil case against an individual perpetrator of sexual abuse is not always viable because they may lack the financial means to pay the damage award levied by the court. If an institution shares liability for what happened, plaintiffs often stand a better chance at accessing, through their insurance, compensation that acknowledges the harm done to them and helps them deal with how it has affected (and may continue to affect) their lives.
Hope Starts Here
When someone you trusted or should be been able to trust commits an act of sexual violence on your person, it can be very difficult to trust again.
As personal injury lawyers who handle institutional sexual abuse cases, we work hard to build trust with a trauma-informed approach to this work. We take pride in being both compassionate listeners and fierce advocates.
Sexual abuse can take away a survivor’s sense of autonomy, control over their body, and even control over their life.
At HSH, Hope Starts Here: we want to empower survivors to regain a sense of control, make decisions that are right for them, and pursue both compensation and accountability from their perpetrators and the institutions that allowed the abuse to occur.
If you or someone you love is a survivor of institutional sexual abuse, HSH is here to support you. You can reach us by contacting:
