The Yukon government is being called on to reconcile with sexual abuse victims preyed upon by a former principal and foster parent in the territory.

Yukon NDP Leader Liz Hanson rose in the legislature Monday.

She referenced media coverage over the past weekend that brought to light “the deep and far-ranging impact of sexual abuse,” perpetrated by an individual named only as J.V.

The Toronto Star reported last Saturday that at least six people have filed lawsuits against J.V. and the territorial government for incidents of alleged abuse that spanned the 1960s to the 1980s.

This is the same J.V., according to Toronto Star sources, who was criminally convicted in 1987 of the sexual assaults of five children.

Hanson noted in the legislature that many of J.V.’s victims were Indigenous, “intergenerational victims of residential schools or of the ’60s Scoop.”

“To force a victim of sexual violence to a settlement or face the threat of having their own legal history used against them doesn’t recognize the long-term and intergenerational impacts of abuse,” Hanson said.

Criminal history

The Toronto Star reported that one of the victims with whom the government settled last winter did so because they “threatened” to put him on the court stand, and he feared his own criminal history would be used against him.

Hanson called on the government to take the “next step on the path of reconciliation.”

She asked it to establish a “non-adversarial process through which victims can seek the compensation they deserve while maintaining their dignity.”

Justice Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee told local media Monday that the government is open to resolving sexual abuse cases in a non-adversarial way.

“I would say that’s supported by the fact that these cases are being settled out of court,” McPhee said.

“It alleviated the requirement for the individual to have to go ... through a discovery process, through situations where they are questioned by lawyers beforehand, where they go to trial and testify, those kinds of things.”

Avoid re-victimization

“I think that settling these cases is a way in which we avoid some re-victimization of people, and that should be continuing.”

However, McPhee noted that making the legal process less traumatic for victims of sexual abuse does not mean more people will come forward with their own stories.

“There are lots of reasons, complex reasons, why someone would decide to proceed through a court process – civil or criminal – or why they may not,” McPhee said.

“Victims need to be able to make those choices on their own behalf.”

McPhee said she only knows of one case that’s been settled since the Liberal government assumed power last December. It was done so by way of an Outside insurance company, the minister added.

She said she cannot confirm how many of these sexual abuse cases have been settled, nor how much the government has spent doing so.

In the legislature yesterday, Hanson also accused the government of silencing survivors’ voices by demanding confidentiality agreements from the victims they have settled with.

According to McPhee, both parties in a settlement agreement have to agree to all its terms, including any confidentiality clause.

“If that’s what the victims asked for in these cases, I agree that’s the right thing to have done,” she said.