The head of Scouts Canada acknowledged on Friday that police might have not been informed about all past allegations of sexual abuse within the organization, reversing claims made just two months earlier.
Chief Commissioner Steve Kent said a third-party review of records relating to abuse has turned up a number of cases in which it is unclear if police were notified. He said those cases are now being referred to authorities.
“We’re talking about, for the most part, cases that I would consider historic,” he said. “The reality is that there are bad people out there in the world and some of these incidents ... took place in a different time. We were perhaps more naive back then.”
The third-party review, being conducted by private auditing firm KPMG, comes in response to a report in December by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp alleging that Scouts Canada maintained a list of suspected pedophiles dating back at least to the mid-1980s and did not share it with authorities.
The organization — the Canadian version of Boy Scouts with over 100,000 members in Canada — had denied the allegations. The case has raised troubling questions about how the organization dealt with past cases of sexual abuse and prompted Scouts Canada to try to assure Canadians that the organization is “providing an extremely safe and healthy environment.”
Kent’s revelations comes two months after he apologized to anyone who might have “suffered harm” at the hands of volunteer leaders and insisted any information on suspected pedophiles was shared with police.
“The statement I made in December was absolutely true, based on any cases that I had awareness of,” Kent said. “I’m surprised at some of what’s being discovered. I’m also very sorry and while I can’t be held directly responsible, I assure you that I do take responsibility for confronting our past completely.”
Kent would not say how many cases were suspected of never being reported to police. He said most involved allegations that occurred years ago, some going back six decades.
Kent said some files currently being turned over to authorities may have been reported to police in the past, but because there is no record of that, the organization is “erring on the side of extreme caution.”
The Ontario Provincial Police has reportedly started to investigate, but they did not immediately respond to messages.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was