TRURO — A male guard with the Nova Institution for Women in Truro is being accused of “systemic sexual misconduct and abuse” against three inmates at the facility.
Mike Dull, a partner with the Halifax law firm Valent Legal, has filed three separate lawsuits against the attorney general of Canada at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax.
Information contained in the suits alleges that the first woman involved notified Nova staff in 2013 that correctional officer Brian Wilson had made sexual advances toward her that later led to sexual abuse.
“The Defendant became aware of a complaint that Wilson had initiated unwanted sexual contact with her, and had been exploiting his power over the Plaintiff,” the suit says.
Upon receiving the complaint concerning Wilson, the suit says that Nova’s “store manager” was assigned to interview the inmate.
“During the interview, the store manager berated the Plaintiff. The Defendant chose not to procure any outside investigators to conduct an investigation. The Defendant also chose not to report the sexual assaults to the police.”
Wilson remained an employee following the allegation, the suit says, “thereby permitting him to continuing to exercise his power and control over the female inmates.”
The suit further alleges that documentation pertaining to the woman’s complaint “have been hidden or destroyed by employees of the Defendant.”
Shortly after the complaint was lodged, the suits say, the woman was transferred away from Nova to a regional psychiatric centre in Saskatoon where she was placed on “high dose antipsychotic medications” against her will and in direct response to her sexual assault complaints.
After several years, the woman requested a transfer back to Nova to be closer to her children and family. But before she was allowed to return in 2018, the suit says the woman was required to apologize to Wilson for lodging the complaint.
“The Plaintiff did so in tears,” the suit alleges.
The second suit alleges that Wilson sexually assaulted another woman “on multiple occasions” during the summer of 2018 while he worked the night shift in the prison’s structured living environment (SLE).
After those allegations were reported to prison authorities, the suit says Wilson was removed from the SLE but continued to be employed at the facility.
“After a few months, Wilson resumed the night shift in the SLE, unrestricted,” the court documents say.
Wilson was then accused of sexually assaulting a third woman in December 2018.
“Sexual assaults perpetrated by Wilson were reported to persons in authority at the Nova Institution at different times without subsequent investigation or rectification,” the suit says. “Alternatively, this investigation and rectification was not carried out or implemented in a timely, adequate and appropriate manner by the Defendant. In this manner the Defendant was negligent and failed to meet the standard of care.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court and a phone call to the Nova Institution for comment was not returned on Wednesday.
And while the women involved were all named in the lawsuits, The Chronicle Herald is not disclosing their identities as a matter of principle relating to alleged sexual assault victims.
Dull said while no criminal charges have been laid against Wilson, a criminal investigation is underway.
Dull said Wilson was placed on leave during the past few months while a workplace investigation was taking place but he has since retired.
“By disregarding evidence of sexual assaults, the institution placed women at risk of harm,” Dull said in an earlier news release. “It takes a lot for victims of sexual assault to come forward, especially when the perpetrator is a male guard in a correctional institution.”
A subsequent news release from the Elizabeth Fry Society said it has also been working closely with women at Nova Institution who have reported sexual assaults by a correctional officer.
“The women launching these lawsuits suffered egregious harm at the hands of a predator who operated without reprisal, for many years, within one of our government institutions,” said Emma Halpern, executive director of the society of mainland Nova Scotia.
“These women reported the abuse to authorities at Nova and were ignored, transferred and made to apologize for the harms perpetrated against them. This is a clear example of the way prisons fail to keep women safe and highlights the need for women to be out of prison and receiving supportive programs in community.”
Halpern said the lawsuits will serve as a “catalyst to create much-needed changes to Canada’s policy of locking up its most vulnerable women in oppressive, toxic environments that are ripe for abuse of power.”
