‘He has a broken spirit,’ lawyer says of client

The lawyer of the 34-year-old plaintiff involved in a civil suit against the Yukon government asked for more than $1.2 million in damages during his final submissions in Yukon Supreme Court Wednesday.

The lawyer of the 34-year-old plaintiff involved in a civil suit against the Yukon government asked for more than $1.2 million in damages during his final submissions in Yukon Supreme Court Wednesday.

Dan Shier spent the morning reviewing his client’s case and arguing the government should be held responsibile for his client’s subjection to child sexual abuse.

“Why would a 34-year-old man burn himself, cut himself, tear out his toenails?” Shier asked the court.

The breakdown of the damages being sought are: $850,000 for the plaintiff’s lost future income, $221,000 for past lost income, $150,000 for damages, $25,000 for punitive damages, and another $25,000 for future treatment.

“(The plaintiff) only asks that you come up with a number that is fair and reasonable,” Shier said to Justice John Richard.

“He has a broken spirit. This is just as harmful as a broken bone.”

Shier argued the government should have been more conscientious in preventing sexual abuse amongst children who were wards of the state.

The plaintiff alleges he was abused by four people as a child, including a family friend, a janitor, his school principal, and a babysitter who was a state ward from the time she was three until her 18th birthday.

The babysitter, who testified on the first day of the trial, suffered from repeated sexual abuse at a group home she lived in as a girl.

She inflicted abuse on the plaintiff as a way of making someone else feel her pain, testified the babysitter, who is now 42.

Shier argued that the babysitter’s sexual precocity, a vaginal infection she incurred at age 11, and a doctor’s recommenation that she take birth control pills at age 12 were “red flags and should have been followed up.

“Where were the social workers in all this? No one took the least step to find out what was going on,” said Shier.

Regarding the testimony of the former principal who the plaintiff says sexually abused him, Shier said it is “very unlikely that anyone could be so certain of events (from) 30 years ago.”

Shier said the former principal was an “incredible witness” and gave “evasive answers.”

“There are huge holes in his evidence,” said Shier.

In his submission, defence lawyer John Henderson made several points he said weaken the plaintiff’s case.

He pointed out that there have never been any criminal proceedings launched in relation to the abuses described by the plaintiff.

He also referred to the testimony of two expert witnesses who conducted psychological assessments of the plaintiff, who agreed the plaintiff’s test results indicate a tendency to exaggerate symptoms.

The expert witnesses also testified the plaintiff shows signs of anti-social personality disorder.

Henderson said manipulation and deceit are hallmarks of this disorder and that the plaintiff has exhibited these behaviours in the past.

The plaintiff has admitted to stabbing himself after stabbing someone else to make the attack appear as though it was done in self-defence, said Henderson.

The plaintiff provided misinformation to nurses and other health care staff for his own benefit, said Henderson.

Henderson also called the accuracy of the plaintiff’s testimony into question, given the length of time that has lapsed since the alleged abuse took place and the plaintiff’s young age at the time.

“This is a memory recovery situation,” said Henderson, who added that memories recovered after a long period of time are subject to embellishment and contamination.

Henderson said there are “striking similarities” between the plaintiff’s descriptions of abuse perpetrated by the janitor and by his school principal.

“A question you have to ask is: is it accurate?” said Henderson, who suggested that the plaintiff’s memories of the abuse are intermingled.

“(The plaintiff) is prepared to say things which are not correct,” he said in reference to inconsistencies in the plaintiff’s allegations.

In contrast, said Henderson, “there are no real significant issues that challenge (the former school principal’s) credibility.”

Henderson also pointed out that the YTG implemented a Child Abuse Protocol in 1981 to help social workers identify and treat cases of abuse.

At the time of the plaintiff’s alleged abuse in the late 1970s, the protocol was still in its “embryonic” stages, said Henderson.

In her submission, Henderson’s co-counsel, Lorena Harris, said many other factors such as bullying, a learning disability, parental separation, parental alcoholism, and sexual abuse unrelated to the YTG could be the cause of the plaintiff’s psychopathology.

“Given the vagueness, the changes, the inconsistencies in his evidence, given that it’s a recovered memory, the court needs to be very cautious,"the former principal’s counsel, Keith Parrkari, said in his final submission.

Parrkari described his 70-year-old client as an “elderly gentleman” who is a “thoughtful, caring person.”

Richard’s final decision in the case is pending.