A B.C. man who alleges a now-dead priest — one who inspired Margaret Craven’s ‘I Heard The Owl Call My Name’ — is suing Metro Vancouver’s Anglican diocese for sexual abuse by that priest.
In a B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim filed March 29, Simon James alleges the Synod of the Diocese of New Westminster allowed Eric Powell to become a trusted figure and allowed Powell the opportunity to abuse him.
The claim said the abuse occurred in the early 1970s. It only describes James as 'young.'
“The perpetrator engaged in a pattern of behaviour which was intended to make the plaintiff feel that it was unsafe to report the wrongdoings of the perpetrator,” the claim said.
It further said Powell wilfully and/or negligently inflicted pain and suffering, mental suffering, humiliation and degradation upon James, sexually assaulted him and interfered with his normal development into adulthood, and future relationships solely for the purpose of his own gratification.
The claim asserts the diocese had a duty to protect the plaintiff from wrongdoings of a sexual nature because of the close proximity its leaders have to the lives of the people in the community.
It claims it was the diocese’s policies that allowed Powell access to Simon. Twenty-one points of alleged negligence are listed in the court documents. Those points include the alleged implementation and maintenance of a system designed to cover up the existence of abuse if such behaviours were ever reported.
The claim said the alleged events have caused Simon “pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, permanent disability, loss of physical, mental, and emotional health, loss of earnings, past and prospective, loss of competitive advantage, loss of opportunity to earn income, loss of income earning capacity, loss of interdependency, and a shorted working life.”
It further said Simon has been required to undergo medical treatment and psychological and spiritual counselling and will continue to require those indefinitely.
The suit seeks general, special, punitive and aggravated damages.
Vancouver lawyer Joseph Fearon is handling the case. He did not respond to Glacier Media inquiries.
‘I Heard The Owl Call My Name’
One question Glacier Media has is whether or not the priest is the same Anglican minister whose ministry partly inspired Canadian writer Margaret Craven, author of ‘I Heard The Owl Call My Name.’
There, Craven modelled young Anglican minister Mark Brian on an Eric Powell.
The book drew on Craven’s experiences when she visited B.C. coastal Kwakiutl villages in 1962 with assistance from the Coast Mission of the Anglican Church.
A 1979 B.C. legislature speech by then-minister of health Bob McLelland puts an Eric Powell working for both the diocese and the mission.
“In 1961, he invited Margaret Craven, an author from Sacramento, California, to visit Kingcome and work with him on a story to preserve some of the local history as well as write the human story of life in an Indian village. The book I Heard the Owl Call My Name was completed in 1967, and in 1973 a TV film was produced based on this novel. The book and the film reflect part of Eric Powell's understanding of the coast, our last frontier, and challenged us to work together as people, sensitive to each other's cultures,” McLelland said.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The diocese has not responded to a request for comment.
