Bullying the Bullies of William M Leahey

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William M Leahey is Fighting Against Abused
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William M Leahey is living proof that the
political spectrum is not a straight line but a
circle walk for enough out on the right wing and
you'll met someone coming at you from a left
wing. Leahey, 43 is a self-described ""tenacious
and aggressive litigation lawyer and partner in
the firm Leahey Nearing. With the force and
conviction of a successful courtroom lawyer he
lectures reporter on how government should stop
being so intrusive get out peoples lives, lower
taxes, and let them get on in life by being
responsible for themselves. If he were
interested in political he says with a laugh that
it would be with the Reform party and you know
how much support I'd get. We could fit the whole
party in here, " he says referring to the four
setter Barring Street Offices. But i am not he
adds i am not a member of any party. I have no
inside connections. I'll never be a judge. He
laughs again and that's just fine. Leahey has
become every corrupt politician's worst
nightmare(and in Nova Scotia that covers a lot of
ground) a righteous man with a mission.
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Since 1992 he has been vigorously pursuing the
provincial government for compensation for men
and women who were sexually and physically abused
at children's while they were wards at
provincially run homes for girls in Truro and for
boys in Shelburne. Leahey discovered the issue
when Gail Roose came to him in 1992 for help with
her marriage breakdown and added she was also
trying to get over the psychological damage of
having been beaten and kept as a sex slave by a
guard at the truro home when she was 13. The
Guard is now a prison but Leahey and Roose wanted
more. He wanted damages and she wanted to be able
to get up on the stand face those people and tell
her story, " Leahey says. They rejected an out of
court settlement and won 75,000 in the
compensation. That was raised to 85, 000 on
appeal including 35,000 in punitive damages but
Leahey wanted more. He wanted - still wants
because the case is wending its way up to the
Supreme Court of Canada - more in punitive
damages for his client and this is at the heart
of what is turning into a crusade for the
mild-mannered articulate lawyer.
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Punitive damages are rarely awarded in Canada
because a complainant in this case Roose has a
prove not only negligence but also that the
circumstances were so callous and shocking (in
this case that others knew she was being beaten
and raped and did nothing) that the court must
punish those people with additional damages. Both
sides are taking the case to the country's top
court. Despite all the publicity and court
action about child abuse in schools and
institutions in recent years. Leahey says this is
the first time court has upheld the principle
that when the government acts as the protector of
last resort for a child such as Roose - Whose
only crime was her mother died of cancer and her
father abandoned her - it does have a
responsibility to look after the children it
takes into its care(Lawyers for the province
argued Roose was willing participant in her
beatings and rapes) It established that there
were an atmosphere of toleration of pedophilia by
the male guards toward the female children Leahey
says and that is the crux of the issue "You can't
change pedophiles
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They are what they are he says but as far as I'm
concerned the people who protected (them) are
worse by far. They who professed to be good.
God-fearing Christians condemned these children
to a life of psychological torture and
personality disorders Using Roose as a fulcrum
and his male clients from Shelburne as a level
Leahey has begun prying the lid off RG-72 the
huge secret file that is the accumulated records
of the Department of Community Services and its
predecessor departments. The Abuse is a given
What Leahey wants to establish is the same sort
of ugliness that came out of the recently aborted
Somalia hearings what the chain of command knew
and what if didn't do about it. Leahey can't
disclose information that hasn't been presented
in court but says he is close to establishing
links up through the school administration all
the way to the minister's office. When it's over
Leahey says he hopes no longer will be able to
say "Hire this person and keep him in that job,
regardless of what he's done because he's a good
party worker. It's a tall order considering that
proponents of Nova Scotia's ingrained patronage
system recently drove a sitting premier to
resign. What's for Leahey? has be made enough
money to be able to take on large number's of
indigent abuse victims? No I can't afford it, and
my partner has reminded me of that fact more than
once he says Basically he says, " I hate bullies.
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Leahey was an asthmatic weak-ling when he was
growing up in Dartmouth the fourth of seven
children of a commercial traveler and his stay at
home wife and although he started talking judo
lessons at 11 outgrew his asthma at 13 and joined
the military reserves at 16, Leahey like his
abuse victims never got over being bullied as a
child. As a good guilt-ridden catholic he want
to St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish
and studied. economics. He met and married his
wife the former Jane Anne Mackinnon at the end of
his second year. They now have four children
between the age of 10 and 18. After the
graduation in 1976 she supported them working as
a nurse while he studied law at Dalhousie law
school and afterward until he established a
practice. Leahey says he had no grand plan when
he become a lawyer other then to have a career.
He started in real estate law with Spencer and
Co. in Halifax in 1980 with the idea that it
would enable him to meet a lot of people. It did
but he found the work boring and gradually
switched to litigation work, where he could put
his public speaking sills - learned as a reader
at church and in school debating societies - to
good use.
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