WARNING: The following story may be upsetting to some readers as it includes disturbing accounts of childhood sexual abuse.
Crisis Services Canada, a 24/7 hotline, is available for victims of sexual violence at 1-833-456-4566. Local support can be found through the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres web site and youth under 18 can contact Kid’s Help Phone online or at 1-800-668-6868.
Decades of shame and guilt prompted a former Sault Ste. Marie man to seek justice through the courts after coming forward as the earliest known victim of a convicted pedophile priest who once served at St. Mary's College in the 1950s and 60s.
Father Robert Whyte was hired at SMC in 1957, the year after it was founded by the Basilian Fathers as an all-boys secondary school located at the top of the hill on St. George's Avenue. The motto of the Basilian order is derived from Psalm 119: "Teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge."
When SMC opened its doors in 1956, two Basilian priests oversaw a total of 72 boys in only two classrooms. Grade 10 was added in 1957, and along with the increase in students came a need for additional staff. Whyte transferred to the city that same year from his teaching post at Assumption College School in Toronto.
There is no doubt that Whyte preyed on children during his time as an educator. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to 18 counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted indecent assault for acts against boys aged 11 to 17. Those incidents occurred in Alberta and British Columbia between the years of 1962 and 1982, beginning one year after he left the Sault.
The Basilian Fathers of Toronto, who oversaw SMC at the time Whyte taught there, recently settled a lawsuit launched by a man — now in his late 70s and living in southern Ontario — who says he was sexually assaulted by the priest in the early 1960s. That case was settled in April of this year.
When reached for comment about the civil case, Father John Huber, vicar general for the Basilian Fathers, said "the matter was resolved to everyone's satisfaction."
SooToday does not publish the names of sexual assault victims. Instead, we are using the pseudonym Phil to identify the former student.
Phil told SooToday he was unaware of the criminal proceeding against Whyte at the time the matter was making its way through the courts almost 35 years ago. As such, Whyte never stood trial for the allegations made by Phil.
As a result of pleading guilty to 19 offences, Whyte received a sentence of four years in prison — but served less than a year and a half behind bars.
Phil said he finds no comfort in knowing that Whyte pleaded guilty to offences against other boys, especially because those charges stemmed from incidents that occurred after his encounters with the priest.
"I would love to have met him face to face," Phil told SooToday.
About 10 years ago — decades after the abuse — Phil found out about the criminal trial and Whyte's 2014 death through an internet search. Two years ago, he began pursuing a civil case against the Basilian Fathers of Toronto.
"All I can hope for is that it's an opportunity for someone to recognize if they are a victim they're not alone and that they have a choice of coming forward or not," said Phil.
As a young boy, Phil says his family was immersed in Catholic life and he attended a Catholic elementary school. That is where, at the age of 13, he first encountered Whyte.
Phil was a member of his elementary school's basketball team when he attended a tournament organized by Whyte.
"Each school sent a basketball team of boys to go in this tournament, but in preparing for the tournament we got to use the high school gym, which we thought was very cool," said Phil.
The statement of claim says Whyte directed the boy to an office in the school under the guise of providing sexual education and counselling. Whyte instructed him to partially disrobe before he was fondled and forced to endure other sexual acts by the priest.
Phil told SooToday that to a young Catholic, priests were the ultimate authority.
"We were a devout Catholic family. I was an altar boy," he said. "As a kid, it's like: 'Yes, Father, whatever you want, Father. I'm happy to help you.'"
"Some people have used that to victimize people and that's the situation here," he added.
Phil also noted that disobeying a priest at that time could mean receiving the strap, exposing a vulnerable young person to a space where they want to please an authority figure who had the power of corporal punishment over them if they didn't.
As a result of the abuse, Phil suffered physical pain, mental anguish, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and loss of enjoyment of a fulfilling life, among other losses.
"The plaintiff was deprived of a normal healthy adolescence as a result of the actions or in-actions of the defendant," said the statement of claim against the Basilian Fathers. "The life of the plaintiff was fundamentally and forever changed by the above-noted behaviour."
The claim, which was settled for an undisclosed amount, sought a total of $5 million in damages.
In 2018, a jury trial resulted in an award of $1,588,781 for past and future income loss and $500,000 in punitive damages for a former student of Rev. William Hodgson Marshall, who was appointed by the Basilian Fathers at a school in Windsor, Ont. An appeal of that award by the Basilian Fathers was denied by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2020.
In that case, the Basilian Fathers was aware Marshall had abused boys prior to his ordainment as a priest. He taught for 36 years and was moved repeatedly when new sexual abuse complaints arose.
Whyte left SMC in August 1961 to teach in Alberta. The first incident he pleaded guilty to occurred the following year, in 1962.
As part of his guilty pleas in 1990, Whyte admitted to abusing boys over a span of 20 years — between 1962 and 1982. The alleged assault against Phil occurred right before that, a fact he has been struggling with in the years since finding out the priest went on to abuse others.
Phil can't help but feel that if he came forward as a child, maybe the abuse against other boys could have been stopped.
"Part of what I am dealing with in my ongoing counselling — now it's once a month — is the regret and the shame and the guilt about that," said Phil. "I'm doing this today so maybe someone who reads it will feel like they're not alone or might even decide to do something if they had been harmed."
Phil's civil case against the Basilian Fathers was filed by his lawyer, Rob Talach of Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers.
Talach said the Basilian Fathers have a notorious track record for covering up sex abuse within its ranks.
"I have tried to assure him even if he did come forward and was believed, they would have covered it up," Talach said. "It's not a lot of solace for a guy who carries the weight of all these other victims."
Talach notes that a number of other criminal and civil cases have been filed against priests who have passed through the halls at St. Mary's College. He said Phil has nothing to atone for, but his client feels a duty to speak so others may have the courage to come forward.
"It's the other part of that guilt he feels from not stepping forward then — that he feels he needs to put up the bat signal now," said Talach. "Whether it helps someone else who's a victim of this particular perp or any particular perp, to take some positive step forward or even to quietly in their own mind know they're not alone."
Crisis Services Canada, a 24/7 hotline, is available for victims of sexual violence at 1-833-456-4566. Local support can be found through the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres web site and youth under 18 can contact Kid’s Help Phone online or at 1-800-668-6868.
