RWB knew nothing of Monk’s alleged nude photo shoots, internal investigation reveals

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The Royal Winnipeg Ballet says it had no knowledge of inappropriate-conduct allegations against one of its veteran instructors until police got involved.

The RWB has completed an internal investigation into accusations by former students against 28-year RWB dance instructor and photographer Bruce Monk, and found its staff didn’t know anything about them until after police informed the renowned ballet company of an ongoing investigation into nude photos of young dancers, said RWB executive director Jeff Herd.

The Winnipeg Police Service has been investigating Monk since January, looking into accusations he photographed nude or partially nude dancers who may have been underage. The investigation is still active, police said, but no criminal charges have been laid.

“We should not be investigating Bruce, specifically. We should be investigating our own environment. What we did find here is that people were not aware of this going on and we’ve even looked at some people who had worked here in the past who were not aware of it, as well,” he said.

The RWB placed Monk on paid administrative leave Jan. 8, after police informed staff of the investigation, and fired Monk in April after Maclean’s magazine detailed the accusations against him in a cover story that said five former ballet dancers had gone to police about photos taken in the 1980s and 1990s. In a follow-up, the magazine reported more former students had come forward. According to Maclean’s, Monk called the accusations “ridiculous.”

Herd said the RWB has heard from a couple of former students who shared second-hand information about what they had heard over the years.

“We’ve heard from some of the students — somewhat anecdotally, not directly — when there’s been an anecdote about (the allegations), we’ve asked them if they don’t want to tell us anything, certainly to contact the police, and we believe that has happened.”

Herd said he had read in media reports that at least one alleged victim said the school had been informed, “but we did not find that here.” The school has not made changes to its policies in the wake of the accusations, but Herd said it will continue to review its policies.

“We have pretty strict policies about our relationship with our students and things like that. We believe they cover the grounds that this would encompass, but we will look and see if we have to add anything to it to be more blatant.”

Police gave the RWB enough information about the broad scope of the allegations, without compromising the criminal investigation, for the school to conduct the internal review, Herd said, “but the rest, I think, is between the Crown and Bruce.”

“We took the action we took. Bruce is no longer with us, and the information that we were given allowed us to do our internal investigation. We’re satisfied that we have our checks and balances in place,” he added. “I’m sure if there was anything else, the police would let us know so we could investigate it further. So I don’t know that I’m expecting anything different, but of course if we ever did hear anything different, we would pursue and follow up appropriately.”

Child pornography wasn’t defined in Canada’s criminal code until 1993, and charges can’t be laid retroactively for offences committed before then.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca