'It's validating for my clients': Lawyer for Waterville class action suit

The lawyer for a class-action lawsuit alleging historical sexual assaults at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre in Waterville says the RCMP’s announcement of its investigation into the claims is “huge.”

“It’s validating, it’s validating to my clients who for a long time felt that their experiences wouldn’t be believed and they would be forced to suffer in silence,” Mike Dull said.

The class action lawsuit against Nova Scotia, the operator of the youth detention facility, began in 2019. The suit alleges a swim instructor at the centre committed acts including sexual interference, inappropriate touching, and sexual assault, between 1988 and 2017.

Wednesday, the Nova Scotia RCMP announced a hotline as part of its investigation into allegations of sexual assault during that time period at the centre, though it did not give any information about any potential suspects.

No charges have been laid, but the RCMP say “Operation Headwind” has taken statements from 70 men who said they were allegedly sexually assaulted while staying at the centre as adolescents.

Police also said, based on their investigation so far, they believe there may be more than 200 alleged victims in total.

Dull said that number does not surprise him.

“I have spoken with approximately 200 individuals, separate individuals, all of whom have made allegations that range from… sexual interference to quite severe sexual abuse, so those numbers are not surprising to me at all.”

“And unfortunately, what we know about childhood sexual abuse where there is a predator in an institution is that it doesn’t end with one,” he said.

“This particular alleged abuser worked there for decades and had access to many vulnerable youths in a closed facility,” he added.

In its notice of defence filed with the N.S. Supreme Court in July 2020, the Crown denies the claims, and “denies it was negligent, systemically or otherwise.”

It also states the province “had in place at all material times management and operations procedures to reasonably prevent alleged sexual abuse or sexual misconduct by persons including the former employee.”

In a statement provided to CTV, a spokesperson for the province’s Department of Justice writes, “As this is an active criminal investigation, we are limited in what we can say at this time. The safety and security of those in our custody remains a priority.”

“The department reported the allegations to the RCMP when we became aware of them, and we will continue to cooperate with the RCMP on this investigation. The individual referenced in the class action lawsuit is no longer an employee of the province,” Deborah Bayer said.

“As that matter is before the court, we are not able to provide further comment at this time.”

Dull, the lawyer on the case, said he took it on about six years ago, when he received a call from a man in prison.

“What he told me was every boy that entered that facility was warned about (the swim instructor), that it was a sort of open secret in that facility,” Dull said, “and it really did snowball from there. I started receiving dozens of calls a month, and word spread… that someone was taking their allegations seriously.”

Dulls said several of his clients later called the RCMP to report the allegations, leading to the police investigation.

“I know that the civil suit… definitely gave them the courage to take it a step further and go to the police.”

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