Oblates not vicariously liable for abuse, says Canadian high court

Published: 2005-11-01

OTTAWA (CNS) -- The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Oblates of Mary Immaculate are not vicariously liable for sexual assaults by an employee of a British Columbia residential school during the 1950s and '60s. The Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling Oct. 28 said that the Oblates are not liable because the employee in question was not hired to supervise children. The Oblates still can be held negligent by a trial court. Martin Saxey, an employee at the Christie Residential School on Meares Island, lured a student to Saxey's private residence with a promise of candy, court documents said. The student was 7 years old when the abuse began in 1957 and 11 or 12 when it stopped. He did not tell anyone at the school, and none of the religious workers at the school detected anything wrong with Saxey's behavior toward any student, said a Supreme Court summary of the case. The court ruled that Saxey, who worked as the school's baker, motorboat operator and handyman, did not have direct supervision of children, nor did his work "involve any degree of intimacy."

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