Sexual Abuse Insurance Update

Scouts Canada cancels insurance against sex abuse
'Just couldn't afford it'

Jon Bricker
National Post

Scouts Canada has quietly cancelled the part of its insurance that protected it against sexual abuse claims, a move officials say they were forced to make after soaring insurance prices made the coverage unaffordable.

The decision led the organization responsible for Canada's 150,000 boy and girl scouts to introduce rigid screening procedures for volunteers this year.

The decision also raises the spectre that the thousands of youth-service organizations operating in Canada may soon begin scaling back "high-risk" scouting activities.

Youth-service officials also warned yesterday that more organizations across the country are considering following suit.

"It's really something alarming that all of these organizations are facing," said Jennifer Austin, a Scouts Canada spokeswoman. "The cost was prohibitive and we just couldn't afford it any more."

She warned, however, that the decision means any lawsuit by a Scout molested by a Scout leader could force the century-old organization to close its doors permanently -- the same fate now faced by several of the Anglican and Catholic dioceses that operated residential schools at which thousands of natives allege they were sexually abused as children.

"As an organization, we want to be around in the years to come," Ms. Austin said.

She said Scouts Canada hopes new screening procedures that prevent anyone with a criminal conviction from volunteering and new guidelines set out to limit risk involved in scouting activities will make lawsuits against the Scouts unlikely.

But Paddy Bowen, executive director of Volunteer Canada, an umbrella group for Canada's voluntary sector, said the problem extends well beyond the Scouts and that thousands of other youth-service organizations are struggling to respond to rising insurance costs.

She said the steep insurance increases are the result of cases such as those involving residential schools cases and Scouts Canada, which also been rocked by multiple high-profile molestation cases in recent years.

"Insurance companies are getting spooked," Ms. Bowen said.

She said many organizations have already had to cancel some activities in order to keep down the costs of insurance, which rose 300% for Scouts Canada this year, and sexual abuse coverage, which has risen by as much as 80% for groups continuing their coverage.

Still, Ms. Bowen said, that's better than the alternative -- risking multi-million-dollar lawsuits with the potential to close an organization's doors altogether.

"We haven't had that happen to a big charity yet, but it's probably only a matter of time. This has the potential to wipe out the entire movement."

She said youth service organizations have only just begun to come to grips with rising insurance costs, but she expects a concerted push from such groups for help from insurance companies and governments.

However, one outspoken critic of Scouts Canada said its decision to stop its insurance for sexual abuse reflects not financial problems but the organization's failure to get its priorities straight.

The Kitchener woman whose son was molested by Brian Durham, a former Scout leader convicted last year of abusing 20 young boys, said she was shocked to learn the Scouts had stopped the coverage.

She said the Scouts cannot completely prevent more incidents of sexual abuse and, without insurance, Scouts will not likely be able to guarantee future victims support or counselling.

"It really upsets me. We're talking years and years of counselling that these kids need," said the woman who, under a court order, may not be identified. "For Scouts to not have liability is to say we don't care if it happens again."

jbricker@nationalpost.com