------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 07:14:05 -0800 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (S.I.S.I.S.) Subject: BC's Round Lake Treatment Center Sex-abuse Case NATIVE DRUG CENTRE FACES SEX-ABUSE SUIT Vancouver Sun, August 28, 1998 by Stewart Bell [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] An Agassiz woman is claiming she was raped repeatedly by her counsellor, Charles Andrew, while attending the centre as a teenager. She also says a staff member acted as a look-out during the assaults. Wayne Christian, executive director of the Round Lake society, said the allegation by De Roux is the first of its kind in the 20 years the society has been operating. More than 5,000 aboriginal people from across Canada and the U.S. have been treated at the centre, which is on Okanagan Indian reserve land near Vernon. Eight out of 10 completed the intensive program, which combines the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous with traditional aboriginal healing beliefs. Two-thirds have stayed sober. "It changed my life," said Anita McPhee, a North Vancouver resident who went to Round Lake in 1994 to deal with her alcohol and drug problem. "It was one of the most positive experiences of my life." But Annette De Roux says she was sexually assaulted "in my room, in his office, in the gym bathroom, in the storage room in the basement and at other places on the site of the Round Lake Treatment Centre premises." De Roux, now 23, has launched a lawsuit against Andrew, who has not been seen since 1993, and the Interior Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Society, which runs the Round Lake facility. The case will be in court in Vancouver Sept. 8 to schedule a trial date. The case is part of a trend in which victims of abuses are seeking to make institutions liable for the alleged misdeeds of their employees. The courts appear to be moving in that direction, having found, for example, that the United Church was partly responsible for the abuses of a residential school supervisor. Christian said the centre thoroughly checks out prospective employees and keeps close track of clients during their stay. But De Roux, who also claims she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, John Wells, beginning at age three, tells a different story. De Roux lives on the Sea Bird Island Indian reserve and has a daughter she says was fathered by Andrew. On the advice of her lawyer, Theresa Stowe, De Roux declined to be interviewed. "No comment and no picture and no thank you," she said. De Roux was born on May 27, 1975, the daughter of Sharon and Clayton De Roux. She lived in remote Hendrick's Lake until age two, when she moved with her mother to Vancouver. Her mother lived in a house on Quebec Street with Wells, then at a place on Welwin Street. It was at this home, and at nearby Clark Park, that de Roux claims the sex assaults began. The abuse continued after the family moved to another home on Broadway, she claims. Wells, who is also named as a defendant in her lawsuit, denies the allegations. At age 12, De Roux became a ward of the province and moved into a Maple Ridge foster home. She was discharged to her mother the next year. That Christmas, during a visit to Wells's home, she claims in her suit, she and Wells had intercourse for the first time. In the new year, she went to another foster home, but soon went absent without leave, a pattern that continued at various foster homes throughout Vancouver over the next three years. She went to Templeton secondary school, but left after a week. At age 16, she moved in with Wells in Hope. It was 1992. She attended the Hope Alcohol and Drug Program. "During my stay with him, Wells sexually assaulted me on a daily basis," she says in her court statement. She left after eight months. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, she arrived at Round Lake on Nov. 2, 1992 for an intensive treatment program. De Roux's drug and alcohol counsellor was Andrew, the adopted son of a retired RCMP officer. He started work at Round Lake two months before De Roux arrived. During the Christmas holiday, De Roux returned to Wells's home and Andrew visited. She alleges Andrew sexually assaulted her at a Best Western hotel in Vancouver, then again at a motel in Kamloops. After she returned to Round Lake, the assaults continued "on frequent occasions" the suit says. "Members of the Round Lake Treatment Centre were aware of the sexual assaults," she says in her suit. She says she has suffered posttraumatic stress disorder, headaches, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, depression, anxiety and suicidal periods. She further claims that Andrew took advantage of her vulnerable condition, and that she was legally an "infant" as defined by B.C. law and therefore unable to consent to sex. Andrew, she says, knew or ought to have known she "was suffering from psychological problems and addiction to drugs and alcohol, and was a particularly vulnerable child." She also claims the society that runs Round Lake was negligent because it failed to protect her, didn't properly supervise Andrew and didn't adequately check into his qualifications as a counsellor for addicted children. According to Christian, Andrew didn't show up for work one day in January 1993 and hasn't been seen since. Following his departure, the entire adolescent treatment program was dropped following an internal review that questioned its effectiveness, Christian said. No one has been able to locate Andrew, but he is believed to be living on an Interior Indian reserve. The need for a treatment centre for aboriginal people was first recognized in 1977, when Okanagan court workers and community leaders saw the connection between alcoholism, crime and family violence. They formed the Interior Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Society, secured a site on seven hectares of Okanagan Indian reserve land and lobbied for government funding. B.C. offered money, then Ottawa followed suit. The doors opened in 1979. At first, the centre was a 24-bed facility in construction trailers left over from the Mica Dam project. Then, with a $2.2-million federal loan, the society built a permanent 36-bed facility in 1984. The society gets close to $2 million a year in government funding, about 60 per cent of it from the federal government and the rest from the province. Clients also pay a $36 daily fee, but those who can't afford it can pay in kind. The centre is filled with artwork offered by clients in lieu of payment. Christian said the centre is helping aboriginal communities sober up, although the job is far from over. In some cases, he said, it is getting worse, as victims of residential schools begin coming forward with long-suppressed stories of abuse. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: Letters to the Vancouver Sun - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: James Craven Dept. of Economics,Clark College 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. 98663 [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tel: (360) 992-2283 Fax: 992-2863 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." (Northwest Ordinance, 1787, Ratified by Congress 1789) Those who take the most from the table, teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined, demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill, speak to the hungry, of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss, call ruling difficult, for ordinary folk. (Bertolt Brecht) *My Employer has no association with My Private and Protected Opinion* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
