Proposed class action launched against former Anglican minister Ralph Rowe
TORONTO — A notorious former Anglican minister and scout leader convicted of sexually abusing dozens of indigenous boys over a 12-year period is among those named in a lawsuit seeking more than $100 million in damages for lifetimes worth of suffering.
Lawyers filed the class action suit on Thursday against Ralph Rowe, the disgraced former cleric who courts found used remote First Nations communities in northwestern Ontario and Manitoba as hunting grounds for young boys to sate his sexual appetites.
The suit also names the Anglican Synod of the Diocese of Keewatin in northwestern Ontario and Scouts Canada.
Rowe, who was ordained as an Anglican minister in 1975, spent the next dozen years flying himself in and out of isolated communities where he ran youth activities ranging from hockey games to overnight camping trips, usually in his capacity as either a priest or a registered leader with the organization now known as Scouts Canada.