A $3.4-million settlement has been reached between a man sexually abused by a member of the notorious Christian Brothers and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George and Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate.
The complainant, known as John Doe in a B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim, alleged O’Grady Catholic High School teacher Alfred Patrick Quigley sexually and psychologically abused him from 1991 until 1994.
“Abuse such as that which I endured has silenced not only victims but families and communities for generations as the traumatic injuries endured confound and wound in measures that are still being fully understood,” Doe said in a statement released to Glacier Media by his lawyer Sandra Kovacs.
“With this settlement and the work that has gone into reaching it, my communities now include a slice of the legal community that has demonstrated an understanding of trauma and its impacts on both sides of the courtroom aisle.”
Doe said he remains acutely aware of the inequities in the civil and criminal legal system “along gendered and other antiquated lines.”
“I am now more hopeful than ever that other such survivors will continue to come forward as I and others have been empowered to on their journey toward healing and meaningful justice," the statement said.
Kovacs stressed such settlements are not lottery wins for abused people.
“The plaintiff carried the burden of proof,” she said. “Medical, vocational, occupational and economic evidence was marshalled to prove the severity of John Doe’s injuries and economic losses,” Kovacs said.
She said the criminal justice system alone cannot solve the issue of sexual violence against children.
She said tort law in the civil system provides restitution to innocent people who have been injured and allows for institutions to be held vicariously liable.
The case
Quigley was one of eight defendants named in the claim. Other defendants include a former Prince George bishop and the archbishop of Vancouver.
Doe, a Victoria medical technologist who was raised in a devoutly Catholic family, alleged Quigley groomed him in such ways as being unusually attentive, going for naked steam baths after sports, isolating him from family and friends, and ‘play touching’ and tickling.
It was on a 1993 trip to tour Burnaby’s Simon Fraser University (where Doe had won a scholarship) that Quigley allegedly arranged for the two to share a room at Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate where Quigley was a former teacher, the claim said.
The room had one small bed, which Quigley allegedly invited Doe to share.
“The plaintiff felt Quigley start to touch him,” the claim said. “The plaintiff felt Quigley’s beard against his cheek. The plaintiff froze at first, then pushed Quigley’s arm away and moved to the floor, tense and panicked. The plaintiff remembers crying staring at the crucifix above the door and praying.”
The settlement between Doe came Feb. 10, a day before a trial in the civil case was due to begin in B.C. Supreme Court.
The defence team said the Prince George diocese and St. Thomas More did not contest the fact of the abuse in the case but denied any liability in the situation.
The team said Quigley initially filed a response to the notice of civil claim but later failed to appear for discovery in the case. As such, his defence was struck by the court.
Doe later removed claims against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver and did not pursue a claim against the Archdiocese of St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador. The latter decision was made due to the archdiocese’s filing for bankruptcy in the wake of filing of lawsuits amid the Mount Cashel sex abuse claims.
Quigley was a member of the Christian Brothers from Newfoundland’s sexual-abuse ridden Mount Cashel orphanage.
The defence statement said Doe was the first of several men to come forward alleging Quigley had sexually abused him.
Mount Cashel orphanage
The claim, filed Aug. 16, 2021, said Quigley had been a teacher at the notorious Mount Cashel orphanage. As a member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers, he was a non-ordained member of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church and took a vow of celibacy, the claim said.
In 2020, Newfoundland and Labrador's highest court ruled the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John's was financially liable for sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1950s. That meant a $2-million payout to the four lead plaintiffs with liability imposed on the archdiocese for the conduct of five Mount Cashel Christian Brothers.
The orphanage closed in 1990 and was demolished two years later, but the scandal rocked the province and horrified Canadians.
The Doe claim said Quigley had allegedly abused or was at risk of abusing boys at Mount Cashel.
Further, it said, a deal with police and Newfoundland’s Ministry of Justice not to charge possibly offending clergy allowed the church to move clergy out of province “undetected, unsanctioned and without any adequate warning to the recipient jurisdiction.”
The claim said Quigley told Doe he had been at Mount Cashel at the time of the alleged abuses and that he was worried about being called to testify in court. And, it said Quigley was part of movement of people associated with abuse between different areas of Canada.
He had been sent to St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby prior to going to Prince George.
The claim said Vancouver’s archbishop had responsibility for St. Thomas More and had power over transfer and removal of Christian Brothers. It said the archdiocese ought to have known of allegations against Christian Brothers, including Quigley.
The suit said all the defendants “were complicit in a culture of entrenched clericalism and distorted beliefs that implicitly promoted the psychosexual immaturity of priests and religious institute brothers and the perpetuation of sexually deviant behaviour and/or a victim-to-perpetrator cycle.”
No record, Vancouver archdiocese said
In a statement to Glacier Media at the time of the lawsuit’s filing, the Vancouver archdiocese said there is no record of Quigley having worked for it.
“We can clarify that the accused was employed in Prince George at the time reported,” the statement said. “We have deep regret for the harms any victims have experienced as a result of sexual abuse or assault.”
While the archdiocese did not comment further as the case is in the courts, the statement did encourage anyone who has experienced sexual abuse by a Catholic cleric to call professional counsellors at an independent complaint line at 604-363-7338 or go directly to the RCMP.
Initially named as defendants in the case were:
- Quigley;
- The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Prince Rupert also known as the Diocese of Prince George, British Columbia;
- Bishop Emeritus Gerald Wiesner;
- The Catholic Independent Schools Diocese of Prince George, formerly the Catholic Public Schools of the Vicariate of Prince Rupert;
- Prince George College, also known as O’Grady Catholic High School;
- St. Thomas More Collegiate Ltd., the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver;
- The Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver Archbishop; and
- The Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of St. John’s.
