Family says Christian Brothers abuse led to death of loved one in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
CBC
WARNING: This article contains details of abuse, disordered eating and suicidal ideation.
It's been one year since Paddy Munro held her son as he shivered, emaciated, in a hospital waiting room. A full year since he slipped out of the observation room and back to a dilapidated hotel on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. One year since the worst day of her life — when she got a phone call saying her son was dead.
Sean Munro fought to vanquish his intrusive thoughts for more than 20 years, his family says. He struggled with obsessive-compulsive disorder, body dysmorphia, alcoholism and more. At the root of it all, his mother says, was what happened in a small office at a Vancouver private school in the 1980s — with a teacher who they believe never should have been there.
"I want to go back and I want to do more," Paddy says. "I wish I could have done more."
Sean Munro went to Vancouver College in Grade 8. It was a long bus ride, about an hour each way, but he passed the time with his twin brother, Aaron. The men in their family were Vancouver College alumni, Irish Catholic to the core, and their parents felt it was the best move for their education.
Sean and Aaron had been inseparable up to that point, indistinguishable even to their own aunts. Grade 8 was the first time they'd been split apart and put in different homeroom classes. Their mother was happy about the chance for them to grow individually, to meet new people and have new experiences.
About a month into the school year, however, Sean stopped coming home on time.
"We found out that Sean had detentions," Paddy says. "He was with Joe Burke."
Burke was, by all accounts, a towering figure at Vancouver College. A burly man with red, curly hair, he was a former star of the school football team. He joined the ranks of the Christian Brothers after graduation and returned as a teacher in the early 1980s.
The Christian Brothers weren't ordained as priests, but they wore collars and robes, and took an oath of celibacy. They ran schools and orphanages around the world, and often left a trail of broken boys, wounded faith and court cases in their wake.
Vancouver was no different. More than 60 men are now part of a class-action lawsuit alleging they were abused at Vancouver College and nearby St. Thomas More Collegiate by six Christian Brothers between 1975 and 2009.
All six men were transferred to Vancouver from the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's — a place that later became synonymous with institutional child abuse.
Burke is one of those six. CBC News has tried to contact Burke by email and letter. He has not responded. The schools have not denied abuse happened, and have said they want the allegations to be "investigated and resolved."
The Munro family had no inclination anything was going on. Their first clue came two years after the boys graduated, when Vancouver College sent letters to alumni letting them know Burke was facing criminal charges in Newfoundland related to his time at Mount Cashel. The school was asking former students and parents to support Burke in his defence.
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