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Scouts failed to report 65 suspected abuse cases: audit

By: Heather Scoffield

Posted: 06/26/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

OTTAWA -- An independent review of six decades of Scouts Canada records revealed the organization failed at least 65 times to report allegations of sexual misconduct to authorities.

Not all of those are ancient history.

Thirteen of the 65 incidents came to the Scouts' attention since 1992, when it became mandatory to report everything suspicious to police, said the report by investigators at KPMG. The review was released on Monday.

"I guess the most troubling part of the report is there are times where our processes and procedures and our policies and our people failed," Steve Kent, the chief commissioner of Scouts Canada, said. "We failed to follow our own policies and procedures."

As soon as the auditors pointed out the unreported incidents, Scouts Canada gave police all the records it could find, Kent said. "I can now say confidently that every record we have, related to suspected abuse, has been shared with law-enforcement authorities across the country."

The youth organization has touched the lives of 17 million children in Canada since 1905. In 2011, it had 102,609 members and about 24,000 volunteers. In its heyday in the 1960s, the organization had almost 320,000 members.

Scouts Canada asked KPMG to go through 64 years of records after a CBC investigation last fall uncovered dozens of confidentiality agreements that essentially prevented victims from speaking out over the years.

At first, the organization told KPMG there were 350 instances that needed reviewing. Then, as the auditors dug in and found more evidence, that number grew to 468.

But KPMG said the records are so inconsistent, poorly kept and disorganized that it can't be sure it has uncovered everything.

"The state of these important corporate records was surprising to both KPMG and Scouts' current management," the report said. "It is clear from the state of the files that Scouts was not managing these matters centrally or learning corporately from past mistakes."

But shoddy record keeping does not mean malicious intent, Kent said.

"I think one of the most positive findings is that the report didn't reveal any systemic attempt to cover up or hide any information relating to incidents that occurred in the past," he said.

"So, I'm relieved by that. It really confirms what we've been saying... all along."

There are still 64 cases of suspected sexual misconduct in which KPMG is still not exactly sure what happened. Kent said Scouts Canada has contacted every single organization across the country, required affidavits and "left no stone unturned" to collect more information and hand it over.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 26, 2012 A9

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