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Agreement #40110541
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
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‘Father Phil’ guilty on one count, not guilty on three Kyle Slavin Black Press
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Pre-treaty agreements signed T’Sou-ke First Nation Chief Gordon Planes is pictured signing an Incremental Treaty Agreement on Tuesday. Feb. 26 at the BC Legislature. The agreement will provide economic opportunity as well as jobs in the Sooke region. The T’Sou-ke Nation will receive two 60-hectare land parcels at Broom Hill within their traditional territory in the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area. “I sign this Incremental Treaty Agreement on behalf of the T’Sou-ke citizens — of whom I have the honour of representing,” said Planes. “This transfer of land is an indication of the incredible determination and commitment the T’Sou-ke citizens have in our quest to regain our rightful place in society while protecting our territories and resources.” The T’Sou-ke Nation is currently in the final stages of the agreement in principle stage of the B.C. treaty process, which is the fourth of a six-stage process. Chief Russell Chipps signed an incremental agreement for the Scia-new (Beecher Bay) Band. The band will receive a land parcel of 67 hectares in the shared territories of the Scia-new and T’Sou-ke in the District of Sooke. The lands will be transferred in fee simple and will be subject to provincial and federal, as well as being subject to local government zoning anf taxation. Both the T’Sou-ke and Scia-new Nations are party to the historic Douglas Treaty that was signed between 1850 and 1854.
Father Phil Jacobs has been found guilty of touching a young person for a sexual purpose, but not guilty on three other counts of molestation. Justice Miriam Gropper handed down her verdict Feb. 25 in B.C. Supreme Court after a trial that spanned December and January. Three young men and former students of St. Joseph the Worker School testified that Jacobs molested and sexually touched them during his tenure as parish priest at the Saanich Catholic school in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The guilty charge stems from a witness who testified that during tutoring sessions at Jacobs’ house on the school grounds, he ended up in a position of laying on the couch with his legs over Jacobs’ lap. During testimony in December, the witness told the court that Jacobs’ right hand would slide up and down the witness’s left thigh over his pants. Gropper agreed with the Crown’s assertion that Jacobs’ touching of the victim’s genitals was “deliberate,” and not an accidental brushing. The judge found Jacobs not guilty on two counts involving the main complainant, charges of sexual assault and sexual touching of a person younger than 14. During the trial the
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Father Phillip Jacobs young man told the court Jacobs fondled him in a room behind the church altar prior to a school mass and during a time when books were moved between the church and the priest’s residence. Gropper doubted that witness’s claim of being an alter server during school mass more than once, which threw into doubt his assertions of being molested multiple times by Jacobs, as stated during testimony. The judge also doubted the accuracy of the book moving incident due to issues with the victim’s testimony, and defence evidence from two witnesses that cast doubt on the context, details, timing and circumstances of the incident. Jacobs was also found not guilty of sexual touching of a person younger than 14 involving a complainant who testified to an incident of Jacobs tickling him. “Naturally, my client is disappointed,” said Jacobs’ defence lawyer Chris Con-
sidine. He added, however, that Jacobs is pleased the judge found him not guilty on three of the charges. Jacobs could face a prison sentence of up to 10 years for the guilty count. The court ordered a psychiatric risk assessment on Jacobs, meaning sentencing likely won’t take place until June. A date for sentencing will be fixed March 6. Considine said it’s too early to comment on an appeal, as sentencing hasn’t yet taken place, but added: “Obviously we’ll be reviewing all legal aspects of the case in due course.” Jacobs, now 63, worked part-time from 1996 to 1998 at St. Rose of Lima in Sooke before before taking the position of parish priest at St. Joseph the Worker in 1997. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria hired Jacobs despite knowing he had been relieved of his duties at a church in Columbus, Ohio, in the early 1990s after admitting to inappropriately touching a teenage boy in the 1980s. Jacobs admitted during testimony in Victoria court that he had sexually abused two boys in Ohio, but had attended therapy to control his compulsion to instruct boys on masturbation. In a press release from 2002 regarding hiring Jacobs, the diocese had deemed “Jacobs was not a pedophile nor an abuser and he was no threat in the future.”
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