Scouts Canada Apology

Scouts Canada Chief Commissioner Steve Kent addresses Scouts' commitment to children and youth protection, apologizing to former Scouts who have suffered harm, and announcing actions being taken to ensure a safe and secure environment for all Scouts.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Scouts Canada
• Scouts
• Boy Scouts
• Cub Scouts
• Commissioner
• Steve Kent
• Safety
• Apology
• Scouts Policy
• Scouts Policies
• Abuse
• Allegations
• Scout Safety
• Child Safety Scouting

[IzMyFashion]

When I heard first about all the stuff going on with Scouts Canada, what it might do to the program I was concerned. I hope this clears everything up. I love being part of Scout Canada, and I hope it goes on for many many more years. It is a good program, but like any program, it can be abused. I love this program like crazy, but I know that it is not prefect and not all the people in this program are prefect either.

Always a Scout,

Me.

[scoutscanada]

@IzMyFashion Thank for the vote of confidence. As Steve said, we are constantly trying to improve to see how we can even better protect youth including having an independent panel evaluate our policies and suggest improvements. Even best practices sometimes can be improved upon, and we're always trying!

[nipbruce]

I am quite proud to be a Canadian that SC is one of the largest youth movement in the world. By having such protocols for PRC checks and other safety measures, SC have the toughest measures to keep bad people away. I haven't heard of another organization that follow such though protocols. And even so, people in cadets, for example, also face these similar bad people to targets youth. This isn't just a SC problem, it's a problem that exist currently in all youth movements.

[TheChristellar]

Sending all my best to the victims, and those affected in these cases. Thank you to Scouts Canada for recognizing the seriousness of this issue as well.

[MyAndrewPhillips]

@ipsofacto297 One would imagine pretty much every youth organization that was around then is in the exact same situation as Scouts Canada. The CBC has been most wonderful in forgetting to point out this obvious fact. One must wonder what their motives are, ratings are their primary motive I suspect.

I don't know about you, but I don't routinely look at files from the 70's. I don't know anyone who does. Actions in a different era were wrong, but considered ok by the standards of the day

[ipsofacto297]

This is kind of like closing the barn doors after the horses/child predators have escaped, is it not? We are no longer living in the 70's and 80's of being naive or deliberately blind of such matters. Yet SC (and who knows how many other youth organizations) chose to avoid any public scandal by handling it "in house", rather than phoning the cops. That in itself should be worth a decade or 2 behind bars.

[Lonewolf83ca]

It may not be Steve Kent's fault, however, everyone before him should have defended the children - the children! - and stepped forward and told the police and get adequate therapy for their children. Realize times have changed since the 70s and 80s but as a father I would go as far as needed for justice, and a bit farther because there is 'no real justice' for such crimes.

As a parent question everything and everyone.

[IzMyFashion]

@cantstoptheseeker AND IT IS WRONG, what happened. IN EVERY WAY SHAPE AND FORM it was wrong. Those people were horrible and awful and I am very very very very sorry on behalf of Scouts Canada. It is awful, and I my self apologize to everyone that was hurt.

[IzMyFashion]

@cantstoptheseeker *con't. And frankly, calling a person despicable over the power of the internet is just despicable. If I indeed had said that I thought it was alright for a person in charge to molest and rape children, then I WOULD be despicable. But I did not.

[IzMyFashion]

@cantstoptheseeker Excuse me. But as a child my self, I am not denouncing it. At all. ALL I am saying is this:

What happened is a result of the PEOPLE. I did not say that I was rationalizing that those men were wrong. They were wrong. Very wrong and evil. It was bound to happen, because as in ANY program that has children and teens as their main participant, there will be people who come and take advantage. It has happened before, sports teams, churchs, other child clubs. *con't

[cantstoptheseeker]

@IzMyFashion Rationalizing the rape of children without denouncing the victimizer->makes you a dispicable person

[kmscouts]

SC is taking the high road accepting all past responsibility. Before 2000 there was no monolithic Scouts Canada. Like many non-profits, SC had a "federated" structure with strong provincial councils, areas and groups. Local volunteers could ignore policies without fear of repercussions. So a group committee might get rid of a leader for suspected reasons but never tell the prov or national. Moving to a corporate NGO model made SC better able to set national policies to protect youth.