Mother Shares Tale of Son's Life, Shattered by Sexual Abuse at Hands of Hockey Coach

I wonder how many more junior hockey coaches are pedophiles?

Or ball coaches, swimming coaches, skiing coaches, etc., etc.

Canada is desperately in need of an inquiry into institutionalized

child sex abuse. We have no idea how much is going on.

With settlement pending, Ruth Ellis describes son's downward spiral after having John Garland as

hockey coach

By Simon Nakonechny, Jonathan Montpetit, CBC News 

Ruth Ellis, holding her son's Doug's hockey sweater. (CBC)

As a young boy, ​Doug Ellis showed those early flashes of brilliance on the ice that catch the attention of NHL scouts.

But as he was setting scoring records playing peewee hockey in Westmount, Quebec, Doug began a downward spiral from which he was never able to recover. 

Doug Ellis, seen here in his Westmount peewee hockey days, never recovered from the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his coach, John Garland, his mother said. (Submitted by Tori Riley)

That "33-year journey into hell," as his mother described it in a Montreal courtroom on Monday, included depression, recurring trips to psychiatric wards, electroshock therapy and a stint in Ontario's Millbrook Correctional Centre.

Doug Ellis died in 2015, at the age of 45, of complications from the medications he was on to treat his psychiatric illness.

There is no question in Ruth Ellis's mind about what precipitated her son's troubles: it was having John Garland as his hockey coach.

"In my mind, it all started with Johnny Garland and ended with Johnny Garland," she said.

Garland, who died in 2012, was a fixture in Westmount for decades. He worked in the upscale municipality's parks and recreation department between 1953 and 1987, along with coaching its peewee hockey teams.

'It all started with Johnny Garland and

ended with Johnny Garland.'

- Ruth Ellis, mother of Doug Ellis, who died in 2015

But in 2015, Matthew Bissonnette — one of Garland's former players — filed a lawsuit in Quebec Superior Court, claiming Westmount officials turned a blind eye to complaints that Garland was sexually abusing young boys. 

Earlier this year, the city reached a settlement with Bissonette and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The parties were in court Monday providing a judge with details of the settlement. If the judge approves, each claimant will be eligible for a $100,000 payment.

So far, at least 15 victims have come forward, including Ellis and Bissonnette. 

John Garland, left, died in 2012, three years before the death of his former peewee hockey player Doug Ellis, right. Ellis's mother blames her son's lifelong struggles on the sexual abuse he suffered

as a preteen at Garland's hands. (submitted by Tori Riley)

A life shattered

As part of Monday's court hearing, Ellis delivered a victim impact statement in which she detailed the effects of the abuse her son suffered.

"I've waited a long time to find an opportunity to be Doug's voice, to express the kind of child he was and then the devastating change that overtook him at a very young age," she said.

She described her son as a "free spirit" who was absorbed by sports at a young age. He skated with a grace that made some coaches emotional, she said. The family was approached by scouts for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

But after returning from a hockey tournament in Finland and Sweden, Doug began to show signs of deep distress. He wet his bed, fought with his brother, then started taking drugs. 

"Mom, please help me," Ellis remembered him saying at one point. 

Doug Ellis died just shy of his 46th birthday, in September 2015. His mother, Ruth Ellis, said her son never recovered from the sexual abuse he suffered as a peewee hockey player in Westmount. (submitted by Tori Riley)

As Doug's substance-abuse problem grew worse, he resorted to ever more desperate measures to obtain drugs. He robbed a bank, only to be caught and sentenced to two years less a day in jail. 

He attended his grandfather's funeral shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit. He was unemployable upon his release, Ellis said.

"Mother, what have I done with my life?" he asked her.

As Doug careened from crisis to crisis, his mother was oblivious to what was eating him inside. Then, not long before he died, Doug called his mother, telling her that he had been abused by Garland.

"It all fell into place and finally made sense," Ellis told the court. 

Her statement left Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc De Wever visibly moved. 

"What was said and heard by this court stands on its own," De Wever said, as he choked back tears.

"I wish I had the proper words ... "

Thanks for doing the 'right thing'

Of the victims who have come forward, both Ellis and Bissonnette have expressed their appreciation with how Westmount has handled the lawsuit. 

Bissonette, who is now a Hollywood film director, thanked the city "for doing the right thing" in his statement to the court.

Matthew Bissonnette, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, thanked Westmount for its handling of the allegations. (Elias Abboud/CBC)

Westmount opted to forego challenging the plaintiffs' claims in court and instead conducted its own investigation into the allegations.

The city has also created a confidential process for other victims to come forward and claim their share of the settlement.

De Wever is expected to deliver a written decision about the settlement in the coming days.

Westmount Will Pay up to $2.5 Million in Hockey-Coach Sex-Abuse Case

Matthew Bissonnette is an L.A. film director from Montreal,

not the Navy Seal who shot Bin Laden

From Michelle Lalonde, Montreal Gazette

The city of Westmount will pay up to $2.5 million to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the late John Garland, a former director of Westmount’s parks and recreation department, in a proposed class action settlement agreed to unanimously by Westmount city council and abuse survivor Matthew Bissonnette.

Both Bissonnette and Mayor Trent deserve commendations for what they are doing. God bless you both.

Bissonnette was 12 years old when Garland, then his peewee hockey coach, began inviting him to his home and encouraging him to engage in sexual acts, and the abuse continued almost weekly for two years, Bissonnette claims in court documents. He believes Garland preyed on one or two young hockey players in this way every year for many years, and that authorities at the city of Westmount knew or should have known it was happening.

Westmount Mayor Peter Trent said the city investigated and realized the evidence was compelling. At a joint news conference with Bissonnette and lawyers for both sides, Trent announced a proposed settlement and apologized to Bissonnette and any other victims of Garland, on behalf of the city of Westmount.

“The city could have dug in its heels, hunkered down, gone into denial, taken the classical public sector response to such accusations,” Trent said. “Instead of doing that, we decided we should investigate, which we did, thoroughly. “

Garland worked for the city’s parks and recreation department from 1953 until his retirement 1987. He died in 2012, three years before Bissonnette launched his class action suit.

The proposed settlement will be submitted to the Superior Court of Quebec on May 1, if it is first approved as a class action suit in court next Tuesday. Four other people have so far come forward to be part of the claim.

Bissonnette thanked the City of Westmount for “doing the right thing here, and for doing it with great respect and decency.”

“The abuse that happened here is not particular to the city of Westmount,” Bissonnette said. “Unfortunately childhood sexual abuse occurred and is occurring in every community … (around) the world. Hopefully, the way this city has handled this will be a model to other communities to address the reality of childhood sexual abuse in their own communities.” 

Bissonnette, now 51 and a successful film director based in Los Angeles, said he hopes that by publicly denouncing his abuser, he will encourage other victims to break the silence that too often allows child abuse to go undetected.

“I would urge anyone who is suffering child sexual abuse, or who has suffered, to tell somebody.”

Bissonnette said he kept quiet about the abuse as a child and teen, because of the climate of secrecy and shame around such issues that reigned at the time. In 1993, when he was a law student, he did go to the Montreal Urban Community Police station in Westmount to report the abuse, but nothing came of his complaint.

Trent said Westmount has implemented a number of  preventive measures to try to protect young people from pedophiles, including background checks on all volunteers and staff members who come in contact with minors.

Mike Deegan, who took over as director of sports and recreation after Garland retired, said Garland was well known in the community and it has been hard for some to believe he committed sexual abuse.

“Definitely there was shock out there. Many people who played for John Garland contacted the city to say nothing had happened to them and they didn’t understand this.”

But Kurt Johnson, the lawyer who lead the city’s investigation into the matter, said that investigation involved “painstaking research into the city’s archives and multiple interviews with individuals who knew and worked with John Garland,” as well as former participants in Westmount’s sports and recreation programs, parents of participants, and volunteers.

He said that research, combined with Mr. Bissonnette’s “very transparent and credible” evidence, compelled the city to move forward with settling the matter.

 The amount of proposed compensation — $100,000 per eligible claimant — was set according to previous settlements and decisions rendered in such cases. If more than 25 eligible claimants come forward, the parties will meet to renegotiate the terms, said Bissonnette’s lawyer, André Lespérance.

Bissonnette described Garland as a “very broken and sick human being,” but said that after years of therapy he now feels “nothing” when he thinks about his abuser.

He hopes this case will remind people that if they suspect sexual abuse, they should speak up, and they should realize that if “something seems wrong, it probably is.” 

Mostly, he said, he wanted to encourage victims of sexual abuse, past or current, to report it, because this settlement shows that “There are answers, and there is hope and there is justice.”

Those who wish to make a claim under this potential class action should contact Class Counsel, Trudel Johnston & Lespérance. Names of class action members will not be made public and all communications will remain confidential.