By Andrew de Souza

Civil suit against Sask Rivers moves forward

Nov 12, 2012 | 5:07 AM

The Saskatchewan Rivers School division is being taken to civil court for damages claimed by the former student of a teacher who was found not guilty of sexual exploitation.

Former teacher Bonnie McLachlan was found not guilty of sexual exploitation on Nov. 11, 2011, but the saga continues as the alleged victim is now taking the school board which employed McLaughlin to civil court.

On Tuesday, the parties started with mediation. The parties were unable to come to an agreement and the civil case will now move to discovery, which is the first preliminary step to trial.

Tony Merchant, the lawyer representing the claimant said mediation was unsuccessful in its preliminary state.

Merchant said he and his client felt the attitude of the school board was not conducive to coming to a mutual agreement in the mediation stages.

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“If the school division had been prepared at all to talk about money and apologies and the things that matter to my client than we would have gone further into discussions, but that wasn’t what happened,” he said.

“Our belief is that the school board approaches sexual wrong doing with by a female teacher and a male student different than they approach sexual wrong doing with a male teacher and a female student and that mandate or affects their thinking and what they’re prepared to do.”

Merchant said there was no decision on what kind of damages him and his client would eventually seek, saying it was more important to go through the preliminary stages of the civil trial first.

“We really haven’t given any thought to that. In part this is about damages and in part this is about justice and fairness as our client sees it and a recognition of wrong doing,” he said.

Merchant said it was important to his client to proceed with the civil case. That’s because a judge instructed the jury to ignore some evidence provided at the McLachlan trial. Merchant said a civil case would have much more information and provide a fairer look at the entire story.

“The evidence that the judge would not allow to go before the jury in the criminal trial will be considered by the judge in this matter, so there will be a far more complete indication of what happened over a longer period of time,” he said.

CLICK HERE TO READ PREVIOUS STORIES ON THE MCLAUCHLIN TRIAL

Merchant said it would also provide a better chance for his client to have a semblance of justice because the standards for juries to come to a decision are different in a civil case compared to a criminal case.

No date has been set for the civil trial.

Counsel for the school board declined to respond to the case until it goes before court.

adesouza@panow.com

On Twitter: @DrewdeSouza