Yukon government response to 2019 Hidden Valley sexual abuse case 'inadequate,' review confirms

Parents at Whitehorse's Hidden Valley Elementary School are "justified" in their anger at the Yukon government for its "inadequate" response to the case of an educational assistant who sexually abused a child at the school in 2019.

That's one of six key findings in a final report by lawyer Amanda Rogers, whom the government hired to conduct a review after mounting criticism of its handling of the situation — and in particular, the failure to notify parents about the case. 

The report, which also contains seven recommendations, was shared with parents Monday evening and made public shortly after. 

"In my view, there is no one person to be held responsible for the Government's failure to communicate with parents earlier. Assumptions and mistakes were made that impacted how the [William Auclair-Bellemare] matter was handled," Rogers wrote, referring to the educational assistant at the centre of the controversy. 

"Unfortunately, we cannot undo time. The best we can hope for is to learn from these mistakes and ensure better processes are put in place to ensure families' trust and confidence in the public education system and its ability to educate children and keep them safe while at school is restored."

Auclair-Bellemare was arrested in November 2019. He later pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference, but neither Yukon education officials nor the Yukon RCMP informed parents or the public about the criminal proceedings.

Instead, the information only became widely known after CBC News reported on a lawsuit filed by the victim in July 2021. The news drew outrage from parents, led to police laying new charges against Auclair-Bellemare for the alleged abuse of two other Hidden Valley students, and quickly became a political quagmire for the Yukon government. 

Besides finding that the government responded inadequately, Rogers' other findings included the fact that the government lacked a "co-ordinated approach" in addressing the situation, that Hidden Valley staff had a duty to report a concerning incident involving Auclair-Bellemare in the 2014-15 year but didn't, and that Auclair-Bellemare's lack of training as an educational assistant contributed to "the concealment of his criminal behaviour."

The report's recommendations include implementing policies for interdepartmental co-operation on significant events and for addressing serious school incidents; providing better on-boarding for new education employees; ensuring school staff receive annual training on their duty to report and document suspected abuse; developing a policy with the RCMP on information-sharing; and fully implementing recommendations set out in the 2019 Auditor General of Canada's report on the Yukon's education, especially the ones related to inclusive education.

There are currently three other Hidden Valley-related reviews or investigations underway — one by the Yukon child and youth advocate, one by the Yukon ombudsman, and one on the Yukon RCMP's 2019 investigation. 

'I am truly sorry that this happened'

At a press conference Tuesday, Premier Sandy Silver said his government had accepted all of Rogers' recommendations and would start working on them "immediately." 

"I know that there's a lot of anger and frustration, legitimate anger and legitimate frustration, and I know people want to see action taken to address what's happened," he said.

"On behalf of the entire government and as the premier, I apologize ... I am truly sorry that this happened and I do know that we need to do better."

The policy and communications failures, Silver continued, are a "critical gap that needs to be addressed immediately."

He said he'd instructed Stephen Mills, the deputy minister of the executive council office and "the top-ranking public servant of the Yukon government," to create a deputy ministers' committee to oversee implementation of Rogers' recommendations. 

Mills will also present an action plan to cabinet by Feb. 18, Silver said, and education minister Jeanie McLean has invited Hidden Valley parents to form their own advisory committee as well. 

'No one feels good' about the situation

Although Rogers' report and recommendations focus largely on the education department, Silver said it had implications for "all levels of government." He described the case as "one of the worst things I've heard of in my 10-plus years as a politician happening in a school system," and that the Yukon government would "make sure that we implement all of the recommendations."

Rogers, at the press conference, said everyone she spoke to as part of her review, including various levels of current and former government employees, were candid and honest, and that "no one feels good" about how the situation had played out. 

"I could see that there was this collective desire to learn from this and be better and do better … Unfortunately, it does sometimes take a situation to reveal the lack of policy or training or preparedness to deal with something," she said. 

Rogers also said she believed there was a genuine desire from people in leadership to address the issues she'd uncovered.

"I wouldn't have done this review if I didn't think that there were going to be changes made out of it and I didn't believe the recommendations were going to be implemented," she said.

Problems with information sharing, training

While the report said the responsibility of identifying other potential victims — and the failure to do so earlier — ultimately rested with the Yukon RCMP, Rogers identified several specific shortcomings within the government. 

No publication bans or privacy legislation, for example, prevented education officials from telling parents about Auclair-Bellemare's arrest in 2019. However, employees across the education and justice departments as well as the public service commission got bogged down in concerns about what information could be shared with the wider public, resulting in nothing being shared at all.

The matter of communicating with parents was never revisited until the CBC story on the lawsuit. 

While information was shared internally, including with the communications branch and a government lawyer, the report says the education department's deputy minister and minister as well as cabinet were largely left out of discussions about informing parents. 

That meant that while minister Tracy McPhee, who was in charge of both the education and justice departments at the time, was given briefing notes about the RCMP investigation, "nothing in any of these materials indicating a decision had been made not to communicate with families or why."

The report noted, however, that deputy education minister Nicole Morgan was more closely involved, personally met with Auclair-Bellemare to discuss his termination of employment and signing off on the briefing notes for McPhee, among other things.

"Simply put, it seems the significance of this event was not recognized by those tasked with responding," Rogers wrote, adding that in "hindsight, those in leadership roles ought to have more proactively inquired into the department's response," though it was "not surprising" that they didn't.

Education department particularly 'siloed'

Rogers also identified systemic issues with the education department, writing that it was particularly "siloed" because "much of its leadership comes from an education background rather than a governmental one." As well, she wrote that parents reported children with special needs across the Yukon "are being removed from classrooms too frequently as a result of poorly trained [educational assistants] who simply do not know what else to do."

Auclair-Bellemare, the report says, only had the "minimal credentials for the position" — finishing high school — and the 2014-15 incident wasn't recognized as abuse "because the teacher believed his conduct could be explained in part by his lack of experience and training."

One part of the situation that was "well-handled," the report says, was labour relations — Auclair-Bellemare was immediately removed from the school after the first abuse allegation and was placed on unpaid leave until his conviction, at which point he was fired.