I cannot attend the below Court hearing. However, p lease PM me and let me know if you are going (or if you know me, give me a call and leave a voice mail). I will be away until Monday morning. So in your PM or voice mail if you can give me a number where I can reach you on Monday it would be great!
Thanks for your help in advance and see below
hawk
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As per our telephone conversation I am alerting you of the following information as based on what the Court told me:
The Sentencing Hearing for Mr. Gower Palmer (Vicki's dad) will be at
2:00 PM
on
Monday, August 29, 2005
at Superior Court,
10 Louisa Street,
Orangeville,
Ontario
The Hearing should take place in Room 245 but may change.
Please contact the Court office at 519-941-5802 and ask for the Superior Court for further information on the Courtroom number
Background:
Ms. Victoria Boer sued her former Religious Institution, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada Inc. (the Jehovah's Witnesses) over forcing her into an abusive meeting to confront her father, Gower Palmer, who had sexually abused her as a child.
In a July 2004 landmark decision, covered by the media, the Court found the organization negligent in allowing its untrained elders to hold an abusive confrontation meeting between a child sexual abuser and the survivor that resulted in emotional harm to Ms. Boer. The Court awarded Ms. Boer 5,000 dollars in damages but in a strange use of law, the Court allowed the Watchtower to seek and win legal costs of more than 147,000 dollars from Ms. Boer in September 2004. By November 2004 and due to the public outrage, the Watchtower relented in seeking the costs.
To hold Gower Palmer accountable for his actions, Ms. Boer then had the courage to have her father charged with sexual abuse. In June, 2005 the Court in Orangeville , Ontario convicted Gower Palmer of many counts of sexual abuse in part due to the testimony by Ms. Boer.
On August 29, 2005 the sentencing of Mr. Palmer will occur in Orangeville and will close a major chapter in Vicki's life with the knowledge that an independent body believed, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she was harmed.
By going public, Ms. Boer has brought attention to the terrible harm caused by the Jehovah's Witnesses policy of child abuse with a hope that the Witness leadership will change their policy on reporting all known abuse to the police, will stop abusive confrontations or face civil suits, will allow all victims to speak out over what happened to them and will force them to enact policies to protect children from known child abusers as they take part in bible studies or door to door contact with an unknowing public.
For further information on the cover up within the Jehovah's Witnesses on its child abuse policy please go to the Internet site www.silentlambs.org or Email them at [email protected].