B.C. man says son conceived in residential school abuse, both sue church

CTV News

10-07-2025

The Law Courts building, which is home to B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, is seen in Vancouver, on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia father and son are suing the Anglican Church of Canada, alleging the son was conceived as a result of sexual abuse by a female employee of St. Michael's Indian Residential School in Alert Bay in the late 1960s.
The lawsuit says the father was 14 years old when he was victimized by a school supervisor in 1968, and he settled a lawsuit with the church in 2008 over the alleged sexual assault at the school on Cormorant Island, northeast of Vancouver Island.
Court documents filed this week in B.C. Supreme Court say the plaintiffs only recently found out they were related, leading to a 'traumatic reunion,' and their relationship has been confirmed by DNA testing.
The notice of civil claim says the father, now 72, 'had no idea' he had a son that was given up by the woman to a non-Indigenous family months after his birth, and the son, now 56, was traumatized by the 'shocking revelation' he was a child conceived through the rape of his biological father.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs contacted the church this year about compensation, but were allegedly told the church considered itself 'completely absolved' of liability due to settlement of the father's earlier legal action.
The allegations have not been proven in court and the Anglican Church of Canada has not filed a response to the lawsuit, and the plaintiffs' lawyer and the church did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The civil claim says the plaintiffs were 'left with no choice' but to sue the church for damages in order to 'seek closure and healing from these traumatic events.'
This report by Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press, was first published July 10, 2025.