Alberta RCMP investigate abuse allegations at bible college

CALGARY ? RCMP are investigating allegations of abuse dating back several decades at a Central Alberta Bible college.

Mounties in Three Hills, Alta., began probing the allegations this week after administrators at Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills directed the RCMP to rumours swirling on the Internet.

RCMP Sgt. Tim Taniguchi told the Calgary Herald Friday night that the investigation is very new, but the allegations are not.

"It's an historical abuse case, but I am not sure of the circumstances of the abuse," said Taniguchi. "It's with the RCMP and the local detachment is looking into it."

It's a difficult time at the Christian college, said Linda Brinks, a member of its board.

"Nobody wants to hear that maybe hurtful things happened to anybody and any time and there's a sense of grief that there's people out there maybe carrying pain around and have for a long time," said Brinks, who has been appointed by the board as a contact person for the public and other potential abuse victims.

Brinks would not speak to the number of possible victims, although one website that is dedicated to getting to the bottom of the allegations says there are as many as 80 cases and the abuse includes physical, emotional and sexual allegations.

"Our desire is to be as open and transparent as possible and we're not desiring to cover anything up, but so far they are just allegations," Brinks said Friday.

She said school officials are confident in the investigation.

"The RCMP are the right people right to now investigate," she said. "We trust that anyone who is still hurting will get some closure in their life whether through pressing criminal charges or through dialogue with the school. We hope the investigation will provide answers to questions about who was abused and who was guilty of it."

President Mark Maxwell posted a letter on the institute's website stating the alleged incidents date back several decades.

"The individuals purportedly involved are no longer at Prairie," reads the letter, dated Tuesday, Nov. 15. "Nevertheless, we feel it is appropriate to respond and to emphasize our commitment to seeking truth and transparency."

The president said in an interview he's not aware of any criminal activity in the school's history, but he believes the online allegations seem "real enough" to warrant concern about the school's past.

"I want to know the truth," said Maxwell, who has been the school's president for about a year and a half. "I want to know who's been injured. I want to know who did it, and help bring that to resolution."

Catherine Darnell, 56, started the Facebook group in September for alumni of PBI, located 125 kilometres northeast of Calgary. Darnell says that as a child, she suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse from staff at the non-denominational Protestant school, which for many years was known for its strictness and insularity.

"(I started the group) to open up dialogue regarding abuse and hopefully to get people to come forward if they've been impacted," said Darnell, who now lives outside Fergus, Ont. She says her abusers are now dead.

Linda Fossen, a Prairie alumnus who has written about being abused by her father, who was a student at the school, says she has heard from more than 80 victims, mostly staff kids who were sexually abused.

Earlier this week, Fossen, who now lives in Florida, filed her own a complaint about the abuse with Three Hills RCMP.

In addition to the Facebook page, Fossen keeps a website in which she has posted all the correspondence she has exchanged with school officials.

In one posting dated Nov. 11 she told Maxwell "the game was over" and she was going to make the allegations public.

"Like Penn State University has found, there is a day of reckoning," she wrote. "The day for Prairie Bible Institute survivors has come."

The RCMP's Taniguchi said Friday he didn't have any information on the number of victims.

Last week, Maxwell put the content of the Facebook group on a flash drive and walked it across the street to the Three Hills RCMP detachment. The school put a statement on its website Tuesday saying it had invited RCMP to investigate and would co-operate fully, an effort to "achieve healing and reconciliation" if abuse has occurred.

The move has prompted more fiery discussion on the Facebook page in question. Fossen believes giving the Facebook page to police is "a veiled attempt at intimidating the survivors, because now everyone knows their information is subject to being downloaded."

Throughout the debate, some people commenting have cautioned against discussing such weighty matters in a public forum where anybody can listen in. "I think it's had some good impact and some bad," said Darnell of the group. "There's been a lot of very upsetting comments made about individuals . . . I think it's caused a lot of people to feel revictimized, all the more reason to shut down. On the other hand, it just brought it out into the open."

Brinks said she is available to speak with anyone who feels they were victimized at the school.

"My role is to be a contact person for anyone who might want to tell their story," she said. "Maybe there's people out there who never had a chance to make it right and I grieve for those still suffering from something that happened so long ago."

It remains unclear to what extent abuse occurred at Prairie, and Maxwell says the school needs more facts to go on. "I'm looking at it going, If there's real stuff here, we have to get to it. If there's no real stuff, then the people that are saying all this (on Facebook) need to be called on that," said Maxwell.

Both Darnell and Fossen want Prairie to involve a Virigina-based organization that deals with child abuse in church groups, but the school has balked at that option. "The biggest reason not to go there is they're not Canadians, so they don't know Canadian law," said Maxwell.

The institute, founded by L.E. Maxwell, first opened on Oct. 9, 1922. Since then, the Christian post-secondary institute has expanded to include Canada's oldest Bible College, Prairie Bible College, known for its missionary training program, as well as the Prairie College of Applied Arts & Technology and the Prairie School of Mission Aviation.

According to its website, the bible-based institute has helped prepare over 17,000 students to become "faithful servants of Jesus Christ," many who have worked in more than 114 countries worldwide. Its mission is to serve the Church and "live according to the biblical standards laid down by Jesus Christ."

Calgary Herald

dtetley@calgaryherald.com

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