This article contains descriptions of the abuse and sexual assault of minors. It is a cold January night in 2018, in a gym at Sackville High School. Justin Trudeau is holding a town hall meeting, one of a series he will hold across Canada. Outside, protestors have gathered to resist the deportation of Abdoul Abdi, […]
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 price they paid
As Ellen Page and so many others tell their terrible truths, let's pause to remember those destroyed by sexual abuse.
Entertained and inspired by actor Ellen Page in Juno (2007), I was determined to pen a feature profile about the Halifax native when I moved to Nova Scotia from B.C., in 2012. My proposal green-lighted by an editor at a national magazine, I mailed a formal interview request and samples of my work to a […]