Shelburne School for Boys: Good intentions gone wrong? Or…?

Was the government’s compensation program crafted out of a well-intentioned desire to allow victims to tell their story “without a public spectacle” that would re-victimize them? Or in a desperate attempt to keep the public from ever learning the real story behind the abuse of children in care?

While pursuing something else entirely yesterday, I was reading through back copies of The 4th Estate, the lefty Halifax newspaper of the 1970s, and stumbled upon repeated references to the Shelburne School for Boys.

Tim Bousquet
“Morning File”
June 27, 2019

I was a reporter then. And there. But I’d forgotten — forgotten that The 4th Estate had been on top of that story before almost anyone understood it was a story, forgotten just how long it had taken after its first journalistic alarm bells about what had happened/was happening/would continue to happen for another 20 years to echo loudly enough to get the attention of the public and the powers that were in Nova Scotia.

And then…

What a mess it all became!

In 1995, 24 years after those initial reports, an official inquiry documented 89 cases of abuse at provincial institutions for children in trouble with the law, 69 of them at the Nova Scotia School for Boys in Shelburne. New Brunswick Judge Stuart Stratton, who headed the inquiry, found…

“… the Nova Scotia School for Boys at Shelburne was little more than a place for the warehousing of large numbers of wayward boys in inadequate facilities and in care of untrained and inexperienced staff; b) sexual and physical abuse took place at the School; and c) the staff of the School and officials in the Department of Community Services were aware that abuse was taking place.”

Consider just a few shocking examples of what was meant by “aware,” one from a decade before The 4th Estate first hinted at the scandal.

In 1961, the then-superintendent at the School complained to his boss about one of his counselors, Burton Smith, whose customary practice while lining up the boys in his charge was “to go down the line hitting each one on the head with a piece of broomstick or radiator brush.” The superintendent wanted the man fired or at least transferred. Instead, the local Tory MLA, James Harding — who’d help bring the job-generating School to small-town Shelburne in the first place — interceded with the then-minister in charge. “Mr. Smith is a longtime Conservative with a very large family of brothers and sisters,” Harding wrote, “and I feel that anything possible should be done for him to ensure not only his employment at the school but promotions when they come along.”

It was so… Nova Scotian.

Many of those who worked at the School in the sixties and seventies, in fact, were otherwise totally unqualified for their jobs and had been hired only because they voted the right way in the provincial election.

Huskilson

In 1975, Harding’s Liberal successor as MLA, Harold Huskilson — who was also the province’s minister of social services at the time — arranged for an admitted and then currently under-investigation sexual predator named Patrick MacDougall to be quietly transferred from his counseling post in Shelburne to a job as night watchman — with keys to the rooms where children slept — at a Cape Breton facility for profoundly mentally challenged youngsters.

MacDougall, of course, was a Liberal party supporter.

It took an official 1991 complaint from a man who’d been molested by MacDougall as a child to finally touch off an 18-month RCMP investigation that prompted other victims coming forward and blew the lid off the decades of abuse at the School and others like it in the province.

In response, the provincial justice department of the day created an alternate dispute resolution program to compensate victims. Ostensibly, the program was crafted out of a well-intentioned desire to allow victims to tell their story “without a public spectacle” that would re-victimize them.

Former residents could present un-sworn, un-cross-examined statements outlining abuse they claimed they’d suffered and collect compensation based on what became known as a “meat chart” of types and duration of abuse. Some of them even signed agreements stipulating that their allegations would not be investigated by the police.

While sensitivity in this pre-Me-too era may sound laudable, there was almost certainly another —and more to the point — explanation for the approach the justice department took. Given the reality that governments of both Liberal and Tory stripes had had a dark hand in the abuse, there was a desperate desire by all of them to contain the political fallout a fulsome public inquiry into the abuse would doubtless have generated.

More than 1,500 former residents eventually came forward with claims of abuse by nearly 400 current or former employees, who themselves were never offered a formal opportunity to respond to or refute the allegations against them.

Some of the abuse claims were almost certainly false. But which ones? And how many? And what did that mean for the other allegations of abuse?

Rummaging among the ruins of what had happened — and what had not — eventually led to a fascinating dueling war of perspectives and investigative reporting in the local daily newspapers of the day.

The late lamented Halifax Daily News championed the cause of the children who’d been abused — the paper and two of its then-journalists, reporter David Rodenhiser (now a senior communications advisor to Nova Scotia Power) and columnist Parker Donham (now a curmudgeonly conservative blogger), won a Michener Award for meritorious public service for their coverage — while the establishment Halifax Chronicle Herald mostly sided with the School’s employees, many of whom stood accused of abuse with no way to clear their names.

An internal government report that cited the lack of required corroboration later concluded “the Compensation Program was a catalyst for what appears to be a huge number of unsubstantiated allegations against both former and current staff… We believe that a strong possibility exists that many complainants have colluded or collaborated in the giving of false statements in order to receive compensation.”

Anne Derrick, who at the time represented more than 400 of the claimants and would later become one of the province’s most progressive judges, disputed the report’s conclusions in words that feel familiar in today’s sexual landscape:

“In the section where they talk about a lack of corroboration, there’s no analysis in the report at all about the nature of this kind of injury, no analysis about why people don’t come forward, why they might not have disclosed when they were children. There’s no contextualization of some of the inherent difficulties with respect to historic abuse cases. To suggest that the majority of these people have lied about what happened to them — I don’t accept that for a minute.”

To try and finally, once-and-for-all sort out the mess it had itself created with its flawed compensation process, the province eventually appointed yet another outside jurist, retired Quebec judge Fred Kaufman, to make sense of it all. He couldn’t. After two years and a 681-page report,  Kaufman concluded in 2002: “This report cannot begin to separate true and false claims of abuse,” he said. “In the end, everyone suffered…”

Everyone did. The guards, who could never crawl out from under the cloud of suspicion they were among the abusers even if they weren’t. And the former residents themselves, who are even to this day more likely to be regarded as scam artists than real child victims of sexual abusers, even when they were.

It is now nearly 50 years since those first stories appeared in The 4th Estate. And it all still feels somehow unsatisfying, unfinished.

You can find a fascinating photo essay on the long-since abandoned Shelburne School for Boys at https://www.urbexplayground.com/rurex/shelburne-abandoned-youth-centre

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 2, 2019.

  1. my uncles were all in here and were fucked up for years after! I wonder if you knew any of them, last name Rushton.

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  2. I was sent to NSSB in August 1956 as a 10 year old deemed an “incorrigible juvenile delinquent” . Spent most of the next six years there. Had not much o a home life, so Shelburne was more or less an oasis for me – better clothes, food and direction. Privileges were based on merit.
    Of the supervisors who were there during my stay, a few stand out in my memory.
    Burton Smith was a First Class Prick a mean and cruel M.F. but a fucken coward! I confronted him shortly before I left in June ’62 . I was 16 YO at the time and had been going to Grade 10 in town at Shelburne Regional High School, leaving for good at the end of school in a few days, so I was ready for him. He threatened to beat me, I said lets go, Mr Don Higgins who was Chief Supervisor & Russ McLeod came running in and pulled me away leaving Smith sputtering threats at me. Never saw him again. Hope the prick died a horrible death!!!
    I should point out that I had excellent relationships with George Guy, Don Higgins, Rick MacDonald who taught grade nine, Ray Harris who taught grade 7 & 8, Tom Poole, George Skipper,Vern Dorey who taught Industrial Arts, A.J.Sands was the school superintendent.
    I did not see or experience any sexual abuse during my time at NSSB. Physical abuse by certain supervisors Burton Smith for sure, but mostly for me it was building baseball diamonds mowing grass in summer, snow shoveling in winter and inside chores every morning

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  3. Father Danny Mills.Patrick McDougall.Victor Williams.I too suffered extreme trama due to the sexual abuse of these predators.While incarcerated at the Nova Scotia school for boys.My life has been affected emotionally mentally and it’s caused an unstable as well as dysfunctional problem’s.To be exposed to the molestation and rape as a child from the hands of the Nova Scotia Government employee’s made my life a living hell.Would any apology fix what occurred?I’m 59 yrs old and to date I’m still suffering.47-48 years since being subjected to the most horrible occurence a young teen could ever face.Those of you who never faced such torture,could never realize how disturbing this is to my emotional and mental well being.I believe I was sent to the reform school,because of childhood problems by a prince Edward Island judge.I never imagined that the suffering I faced was part of my juvenile sentence.What if anything can change the abuse and torture.I had to face one of my abusers in Shelburne N.S.courts.As a witness against (Victor Williams) Which was regarding his own Grand Children.I today would like some answers as to why I was victimized.

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  4. Is it trued that teachers lost their careers over this?

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  5. Hi, my name is Paul keefe I was in the boys school from 1976 tell June 1980 I was in every group , Nova Scotia schooner, bluenose Atlantic and ocean, The worst gut to me, was Charlie Mahoney, in Scotia group, and in schooner it was Eddie spurr, John Bingham, And in the school , was mr mcGuinness. Mr campbell was the best, the best guy to me was Les belong, in Atlantic, mr blades mike Thornton, mr green, Vic Williams would grab your balls steady he was a queer, as was father mills, Mr Clarke was a great guy. So was mr filmore , there were lots of good guys that worked there too, it was bad sometimes. I was in the hole with ronnie ashford mike bland and Charlie Fischer for 102 days. That was the worst of it for me, I have lots of Costa phobia problems now. That’s it Lee keating was a asshole also.

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  6. My name is Joseph Lorne Laviolette. I was there too and I was molested by that fucking piece of shit Patrick McDougal,everytime he had a chance to be near me in his office,in the lockerRoom at the pool at the Naval Base,in the back room at the old Naval gymnasium and in the back of the bus going to the Ice Capades in Halifax ,where different people put on a Ice Skating show on ice,he sat beside me with a coat covering us and he jerked me off and had me jerk him off right there with all the people sitting next to and all around us,he also
    took me camping with the Boy scouts many times,as he was the head Boy Scout leader,and raped me,he would make me such him off, and he would suck me off,then he would stick it in my ass,this shit happened from when I was 11 years old until I was 15 and ahalf, It was in 1972 until 1976,I was in cabins ,Scotia,Schooner and Bluenose,I remember being racked up is what they called it thrown against the Wall or beat with a pool cue,and also made to clean urinals and toilet bowls with Bon Ami and a toothbrush,and he would make the other guys come in and urinate in them and on me at the same time as I was cleaning them,by Eddie Spurr the asshole goof. And I remember the head of the Boys School at the time this happened was Barry Costello.For years I was ashamed to tell anyone,as I thought I was a queer for this happening ,I had a hard time to have relationships because of this,eventually I told my wife who I finally found, and ended up having children of our own,I was in and out of jail many times because of the mental,physical and sexual abuse,which caused me to become a dysfunctional person.i still have nightmares of that place,it was he’ll on earth.

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    • same here joe remember me lawrence pushie same year same time leaving also ill never forget what i saw what they did too me those fuckin molesters destroyed a lot of good guys minds no wonder were ball so fucked up anyways thanks a fuckin lot childrens aid for sending us all there

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  7. I have just come across this article and I started reading it to my husband who went there in 1968… He also remembers this man and said he would grab him at the back of the neck and ear and he remembered having head aches for days . He also remembers being put into fights…He doesn’t talk about it much but he said it sure didn’t rehabilitate him and he will never forget or forgive.

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  8. I was there in 1967&68

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  9. I have a friend who went there in the 1960’s off and on I think for 3 years. His name was Ernie Herring and he told me he suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse there. Ernie went on to become known as Ernest Lee, an outstanding blues, country and rock musician despite having an uphill battle with various problems through the rest of his life. Unfortunately Ernest passed away in Sept. 2019. A couple of years before that he asked me to record and video a special song he wrote called Survivor. He hoped others who attended the school may hear it and get some help from it. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KftCiG5Ef1M&t=126s. Ernest also recorded a spoken introduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSON8AQr1Lg&t=45s

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  10. My mother worked there in the kitchen and later in the sewing room. She even took my infant sister there while she worked (around 1952) and I myself had visited her at work. My older sister worked in the office after graduating from high school. The boys attended churches of different faiths in town and were often taken to the local movie theatre. The girls in town flirted with them when we could. I heard reports of boys being strapped for misdemeanours which was not an unusual punishment for the times. I myself was strapped by a teacher for talking while attending the local school. The incident of Patrick MAcDougall was terrible and fostered by political people wanting to sweep things under a rug. Today that man would have been sent to jail and to transfer him to a place where he had access to children who were even more vulnerable was deplorable. However having said all this I believe that the boys were clothed and well fed and offered a good life there partaking in sports etc. Deviates are often attracted to these types of places so certainly there were abuses but hardly as widespread as pictured. Most counsellors were caring young family men who interacted with the boys in a healthy positive way. My mother who was rather naive was not aware of the abuses but she did tell that corporal punishment was used. If boys ran away or stole something this would probably be their punishment. That type of punishment was not unusual and was accepted in homes and regular schools at the time.

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  11. Not sure of the year- (about 1951) but-I was there for almost one year. It was heaven to me. Three meals a day-a warm bed and plenty of clothing. NEVER at any time was I approached by any staff member to engage in any type of sexual behavior. Never was I beaten or abused. The Principal at the time took me home different times to meet his family and even offered to adopt me. I had a family already. I can personally give the experience a score of nine out of ten. I cried when I had to leave and go home.

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  12. My name is Neil Gary Cogswell. I was in Shelburne N.S. from
    1974 -1976. Twice at the group home there and once at the Boys School. Eventually I moved in with one of the Councillors (Barry White)
    His wife and two young children. The whole two and a half years were unbelievable to a 13 -14 or 15 year old boy. I was not informed by an government agency concerning my story. Of course it’s not something I talk about….ever. still, resolve is hopefully still obtainable . Thanks for your succinct writing.

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    • Hi my name is Carmen MD I was there for a a stretch in 91-92 . This place has left me with demons that I can’t get away from. I can’t believe I’m seeing all these articles. This coming to public view has just come to my attention due to running into a old friend that was there with me .he just died in a armour truck robbery gone wrong. RM , Rest his soul . I wonder how many of us from the “hill” are still alive or in jail. From the early 90’s I can remember a few good people from that time and a few dirty mean sadistic men . I tried to take my life there and ran once . “ Boy you won’t do that again “ that old mean prick speers with the three and a half fingers beat me all the way to SAU and big Holmes , He was a mean bastard too . He’s set up fist fights and wouldn’t let us stop . Even when we were through. And that little skinny diddling pos belavoe . I’ll never forgive that dirty bastard for as long as I live. That place left a lot of scars as did the cbyrc. Worst three years of my life . I’m at the point in my life that I’m no longer ashamed and closure Is a Necessity. I’ve hid this from my wife and family for far too long . Since I’ve seen this article yesterday I’ve been a total wreck . I was never told anything by anyone and heard nothing on the news or tv about how widespread this was . I’m floored . People need to hear this .

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      • Couldn’t have been the 90’s because it closed in 88′. Don’t doubt you were there though because I can confirm what a prick Eddie Spurr was. Threw a cue ball at my head once.

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        • Was there in 82 and I remember that prick too, and little Fisher, had small man syndrome . Some of my worst memories there

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          • My name is mel van horn .
            Holy zshit i remember that spurr prick also .what a royal prick lol . I think i was there in 84-85
            Þhere is a few things that haunt me also from that fuckin shithole that i do not repeat to anyone

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