Yukon RCMP didn't search for other potential victims during 2019 Hidden Valley sex abuse investigation

Despite early recommendations, the Yukon RCMP failed to search for other potential victims while investigating sexual abuse allegations against a Whitehorse educational assistant in 2019 — or at least failed to document efforts to do so.

That was among the preliminary findings of a review examining the first criminal investigation into sexual abuse at Hidden Valley Elementary School, during which police arrested William Auclair-Bellemare for abusing a student but didn't identify two other alleged victims. 

Speaking during a virtual press conference Tuesday, Yukon RCMP Chief Supt. Scott Sheppard said the review, which is being undertaken by senior members of the British Columbia RCMP,  hadn't uncovered any "new revelations" so far. However, he said that "if I had to narrow down where things went off the rails, it was a failure to supervise." 

"There's a reason why we have oversight on these files and it's to make sure that we don't overlook these things … and yet it still happened, and that will be something that bothers me for some time to come," he said. 

"But we are making steps to address that." 

Advice on creating communications strategy also not acted on

According to the preliminary findings, Supt. Chan Daktari Dara, the division's criminal operations officer, gave other high-level officers investigative recommendations on Nov. 26, 2019, days after Auclair-Bellemare was arrested after a Hidden Valley student told his father that Auclair-Bellemare performed a "body check" on him at school.

The recommendations included considering ways to identify other potential victims and creating a communications strategy with the Yukon education department in order to share information about the situation with parents and the public.

Dara emailed his recommendations to the outgoing and incoming officers in charge of the Whitehorse detachment, the corporal in charge of the specialized response unit and the commander of the plains clothes unit, but the recommendations either weren't acted on or actions weren't documented properly. 

Neither police nor education officials ever told Hidden Valley parents about Auclair-Bellemare's arrest, nor the fact he later pleaded guilty to one count of sexual interference. The situation only became widely known last July after the CBC reported on a lawsuit filed by the 2019 victim and the associated criminal proceedings, which triggered a public outcry and led to additional alleged victims coming forward. 

Police re-arrested Auclair-Bellemare on allegations that he sexually abused two other students between 2014 and 2018. His trial on the new charges has yet to happen. 

Review 'much more lengthy process' than first envisioned

While Sheppard initially told media when he announced the review last September that he expected it to be completed in a matter of weeks, he admitted Tuesday it was a "much more lengthy process than I first envisioned," with the B.C. RCMP looking at "every statement, every notebook, every journal entry, every document of which there are now thousands." 

He also said police were also only "recently" able to secure a court order requiring the Yukon education department to hand over relevant documents, but added that he'd "made it known that I would like to see this thing wrapped up within the next month or two." 

"People are tired and impatient," he acknowledged. 

Areas still under review include the division's operational policies at the time, and whether those policies and associated guidelines were followed; best practices for conducting investigations involving vulnerable populations; and whether any legal or investigative techniques could have been used to help identify other potential victims while still protecting the privacy of known victims and their families. 

Sheppard added he didn't think the final report on the review's findings would "provide all the answers that people want." 

"Frankly, I hope that ... the other reviews are as thorough as ours, and I hope they get to ask the questions that need to be asked, and I hope they're allowed to provide the information that people want to know," he said.

There are currently three other reviews or investigations underway on the Yukon government's handling of the situation and its decision to not tell parents about the criminal proceedings —  one by a government-hired lawyer, one by the Yukon child and youth advocate, and one by the Yukon ombudsman. 

Responding to a question about government officials emphasizing the Yukon RCMP's admissions of error when speaking to media or in the legislative assembly about Hidden Valley, Sheppard said he didn't think the framing of the situation was necessarily fair.

"We're not strangers to being thrown under the bus —  it happens on a fairly regular occasion," he said. "Does it feel good? Absolutely not… But you know what? We have broad shoulders, and when we make a mistake, we own it and we take responsibility for our actions." 

He also said that while police had made a "mistake of a significant nature," there wasn't "a person that works in this office that doesn't care deeply about their work," and that the people who worked on the Hidden Valley file were as upset about the shortcomings as he was. 

"There's not a day goes by that I don't think about this file or those kids," Sheppard said. "I drive by [Hidden Valley] twice a day, and it's always top of mind for me."