Uncover - S31 E3: Seeking justice | The Banned Teacher

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

More than a year after Robinson went to police, William Douglas Walker was charged with a sex crime. She alleged he groomed and controlled her when she was 16. After four and half years in court, a judge said there wasn’t enough proof she hadn’t consented to sex. The case was dismissed.

In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news, so I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with Season 3 of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy.

On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. I'm Detective Yarmuluk, badge number 813. We're in 55 Division in the interview room. And I am with, could you just state your name for the camera? Anne-Marie Robinson. That camera is perched high in the corner of a small square room. It's inside a Toronto police station.

This is being videotaped and audiotaped. Do you have no problem with that? No, not at all. Anne-Marie's hair is pulled back. Bangs characteristically fall onto her face. She sits across the table from the detective. She's dressed smartly in wool dress pants and a little jacket. You've come in today from Ottawa in relation to an occurrence.

It's a historical sexual assault. Is that right? I phoned on February 4th. Okay. Oh, you remember that? It's my birthday. Oh, really? Okay. So then you provided a statement, and I have reviewed that statement. There's a small desk in the corner with a computer, a phone, and a roll of toilet paper, presumably in case she tears up.

But I know she won't. She's in robot mode, unemotional, detached. I think she has to be to get through this. What do you think was the trigger that led you in this direction? When I saw him, I saw him 36, 35, 36 years after. Okay. And it just, I don't know. I know it's in your other statement too.

Could you just briefly describe that again? Well, when I first saw him, I thought, I guess I wanted reconciliation. When you're a child victim, you feel shame and remorse, right? I felt it was my fault, even though I knew better. And so it was just easier to leave it buried. Sure.

But when I actually physically came in contact with him, purely by accident, then I just couldn't breathe. I couldn't. I just couldn't. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't. I just couldn't. The Band Teacher I'm Julie Ireton. This is season two of The Band Played On. Anne-Marie Robinson is putting her faith in the criminal justice system, but it will be a difficult, lonely battle involving old sexist laws. We reenact what takes

place in court. I'm going to suggest to you, Ms. Robinson, that there was active participation in the intercourse. Is that correct? The argument ultimately from me will be that there was not consent. It was my way of finally telling the world what had happened to me. But will the antiquated sex crime laws of the 1970s be able to deliver the justice she seeks? Sexual assault convictions are tough to win at any time. And a historical case involving just one victim is even tougher to prosecute. Episode 3, Seeking Justice There's a large police file in front of Anne-Marie. She ordered it shortly after we got back from our trip to Toronto.

She initially went to the police a few years before she first contacted me, so she's catching me up. The police file includes that videotaped police interview. There's also a pile of documents chronicling her interaction with detectives over the years. The first page is on Toronto Police Service letterhead. The file starts with her first call to police on her birthday in February 2017. It was a birthday gift to myself. First of all, so I would remember the day. The case moved very slowly. So in hindsight, that was a smart move. It was easy to recall when her interaction with the police started.

They did see what had happened to me as something that was terribly problematic. Despite that, it took three months before a detective was assigned. It took about a year for the police to start consulting with a Crown lawyer, the Canadian equivalent of a district attorney. I do understand that historic cases may not be their top priority. Okay, it's roughly 2.40 p.m. Back in that tiny interview room at the Toronto police station, it's more than two years into the process.

Anne-Marie traveled there from Ottawa to get an update, to meet the detective in person. She wanted to know if they were seriously pursuing her case. You had come in initially just to come today for the purpose of kind of just getting a little bit of background. They call this the soft interview room. The detective is wearing street clothes, no uniform. He's probably about Anne-Marie's age at the time, late 50s. And since you were here, I thought it would be a good idea for me, since I wasn't involved, obviously, in the original statement, if I was in Ottawa, that I could just

maybe just clear up some things or maybe go into more detail or whatever, you have no problem with that, do you? Okay, good. Yeah, and also I am frustrated about the length of time that it takes and trying to understand better what to expect next and why it's taking a long time for him to turn himself in. Right. At this point, spring 2019, charges were still pending against Doug Walker,

but there was no arrest warrant. It had been a year since the police had politely asked him to come to the station, but so far, he was a no-show. Anne-Marie was growing impatient. I asked for that interview because it felt like Mr. Walker was giving a whole bunch of reasons, excuses why he couldn't come. Mr. Walker was giving a whole bunch of reasons, excuses why he couldn't come. These police documents mention Walker's delays.

He told police he was ill and had personal problems. There are notes the detective was giving him, quote, the benefit of the doubt. The official report also says Anne-Marie asked police why Walker could not turn himself in, yet she found photos of him golfing posted to social media. This was just beyond the pale in terms of how long it was going on. And so I kind of started to feel like the police weren't taking it seriously. And so I went to Toronto and sat down and did the interview with him as a means of trying to compel him as to why this case was important and why it was important to me. The detective in the video, reading glasses perched on his bald head, doesn't discuss the delays, but he asks her to repeat her story again.

So then you're at Eastern Commerce. So then you're at Eastern Commerce. When did you meet up or have a relationship is the wrong word. When did you have dealings with Mr. Walker? My grade 10 year. Yeah. I mean, he started his grooming process then, right? He was trying to convince me that I was special and he was, you know, all of that stuff

that I've since read about. So now you had intercourse. How did that come about? Did he convince you at any time? Did you say, stop, I don't want

to do with this? No, I don't want anything to do with this? No, I don't think so. Okay, so now you had the first time you had intercourse was in Belleville in the hotel room. Yes. Was it one time there in Belleville? Yes. Okay, so then obviously now the band trip is over, everybody comes back to Toronto. Yes.

Okay, so when was the next time you had some kind of interaction with him? Well, I don't know how far after that it was. Probably the next day. I was in his office, and this is when he told me the story about how he was a victim of being beaten up by a man. He had just arrived at Eastern Commerce. Okay. And he told me the reason why he was sent there was because he had been accused of having a relationship with a student. Oh, okay.

But it wasn't true, and then the father beat him up, and somehow he made me feel sorry for him. Okay. Which is why this kills me now. Yeah. In June 2019, more than a year after police initially asked Walker to come in and more than two years since Anne-Marie first reported him to police, the former teacher finally walked into a police station in Toronto. Anne-Marie turns to that page in the file.

June the 3rd, turned himself in. Conditions include no contact. Police took mugshots and pressed charges. Count 1 William Douglas Walker, between the first day of September in the year 1976 and the 31st day of december in the year 1977 at the city of toronto did have sexual intercourse with ann marie robinson a female person who was not his wife was a previous chase character okay and then there's a second now the second count was um count two and further that william douglas Douglas Walker seduced a female person, namely Anne-Marie Robinson, or a previous Chase character who was 16 years old. So two charges. Count one, sex with a girl aged 14 to 16.

And count two, seduction. These are really old laws. They were actually repealed decades ago. But they were on the books in the 1970s. And that's when the alleged crimes took place. Looking back over the files, the police clearly were unsure about what charges applied here. Today, they wouldn't have that problem. New sexual assault laws are in force. But police had to work with the laws as they were in the 1970s.

The former music teacher didn't have a lawyer. He would represent himself in court. About five months after the charges were laid in the fall of 2019, court documents show Doug Walker was prepared to plead guilty to one charge. So I wasn't surprised when I found out he was going to plead guilty. Were you relieved? Absolutely, yeah. I was happy because I thought, okay, I don't have to go to court. It seemed logical to me because I knew that I knew what he did and he knew what he did.

And so I thought, okay, that makes sense. Normally, a case with a guilty plea goes straight to sentencing. But that's not what happened here. The Crown attorneys who worked on this file are not allowed to talk to me. What I've gleaned through reading the court files and transcripts is there was a plan to move the case from Toronto to Ottawa, but Anne-Marie was in the dark. While she waited for the criminal case to proceed, she filed a civil lawsuit. It was against her former teacher and the Toronto District School Board, his former employer. He did not have a lawyer, and I don't really know why.

I know that he had acknowledged as part of my civil case that he did not deny what had happened. He told police and lawyers it was a consensual relationship, the result of a mutual attraction. He has also told me the same thing in an email. It's an assertion that still makes Anne-Marie bristle, but she doesn't think he was the only one at fault. I was as angry at the school as I was at him. as angry at the school as I was at him. Her lawsuit cited damages in the multiple millions of dollars. A psychologist spent hours with Annemarie and wrote a 41-page report for her lawyers.

Now, there's nothing in that document she hasn't already shared with me. Her story has always been consistent. One section of the report I think is worth mentioning. The psychologist wrote, the sexual encounters with her teacher happened at the important psychological development stage of adolescence. Early adolescence is a particularly vulnerable time in the development of a girl and made some of the things she loved and were associated with her sense of self, such as music and academics, averse to her because of the association to trauma. After I left school because of Walker, I just kind of left the horn behind.

The psychologist noted long-term injuries also included in the civil lawsuit, depression, debilitating panic attacks, and anxiety disorder, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts. Her statement of claim alleged the sexual abuse involved an exploitation of power and authority perpetrated by a grown man over a youth, and it claimed the school board Walker's former employer had been negligent and was therefore liable. Criminal case is against the perpetrator, the person who committed a crime against you, but a civil case was against the institution. And I know from my experience in government that if institutions like people can get away with things, they will never change. And so part of the reason I think victims should come forward

with civil cases is because then the school system and the governments will wake up and realize that there's a cost to this for them and that they need to, you know, work much, much harder on preventing this. The Toronto District School Board filed a statement of defence. It denied Walker abused Anne-Marie in any way

and it said the board was not vicariously liable for Walker's alleged conduct or abuse. The board also filed a cross-c claim against Walker for all amounts paid or found owing by the board to Anne-Marie. But for his part, Walker didn't even acknowledge Anne-Marie's civil case. He did not file a defense. He was found in default. In other words, he decided not to fight the allegations. Anne-Marie's civil court battle would be against the school board only. Actually, it was between her and the school board's insurance firm. They soon came to a resolution.

But I'm not allowed to say what the terms of the settlement are. I can only assume the settlement involved money, but she can't confirm. The civil case was started and finished before the criminal proceedings got any traction. At this point, she wasn't getting the answers she wanted. I ordered court files to better understand her case. Then there were new developments. Walker had hired a lawyer. Suddenly he changed his plea to not guilty. I didn't understand why he had changed his mind about pleading guilty. Now, I wasn't purview to any of those discussions. Then in November 2020, there was yet another surprise call from the courthouse. So I was informed at some point

close to the preliminary hearing that the charges were changed. The previous charges were dropped. hearing that the charges were changed. The previous charges were dropped. The new charge, rape. Let me read the new count to you. Count one, William Douglas Walker, between the first day of September in the year 1976 and the 31st day of December in the year 1977 at the city of Toronto. The charge of rape is another historical charge that no longer exists in the Canadian Criminal Code. And to give a sense of how different laws are today, in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even into the early 1980s, a man could not be convicted for raping his wife. We have new sexual assault laws, but again, they don't apply to crimes allegedly committed in the 1970s. ...did have sexual intercourse with Anne-Marie Robinson, who was not his wife, without her consent, contrary to Section 143 of the Criminal Code. So the former teacher would now face one count of rape for just one alleged crime.

The first incident on that band trip to Belleville in 1977. Anne-Marie knew what had happened to her, but she realized that might not be enough to convict. She wished she wasn't so alone. What I'd really like is the police to to look for other victims like they do in everyone else's case. police to look for other victims like they do in everyone else's case. I look through her police files. There's no evidence detectives notified the media to alert other potential victims. I've reported on sexual abuse cases for years. There's rarely just one survivor. And in every other case I've covered, the police released a statement after charges were laid. They include a note such as,

Police are concerned there may be more victims. We are asking them to contact their local police service for more information. I call the Toronto Police Service asking if it published a news release in this case. The police confirm they did not. They don't say why. Why wouldn't you look for other victims? I think it's a pretty standard practice. In this case, there was no news release at the time of his arrest. And so no other victims came forward at that time, which would have been an opportune time for police to properly investigate his career. I think what the police need to understand

is when you're a victim, when that notice is put out, it's like telling you there's a welcome mat. It's like telling you that you're worth something, that they want to hear from you and that what happened to you matters. The message they sent me by not putting it out was that, you know, if there's other victims, they're not important. If more victims had been alerted and had come forward, would this

case have been treated differently? The lack of a news release is just one more item in a long list of strikes against Anne-Marie's case. There were endless delays, changes in detectives, different Crown attorneys, and different venues, and then charges were dropped and added. Walker changed his plea, but finally the case was moving ahead in Toronto. Uncover from CBC Podcasts brings you award-winning investigations year-round.

But if you want to listen ahead, all episodes of The Banned Teacher are available right now. Binge listen to the entire series by searching The Banned Teacher wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen ad-free by subscribing to the CBC True Crime channel on Apple Podcasts. Uncover the best in true crime. It's a sunny summer day, July 23rd, 2021. The preliminary hearing against Doug Walker gets underway. The judge will hear from both sides. Then he will decide if there's enough evidence for this case to go to trial.

I had been adamant that I really wanted to be in a court. Then he will decide if there's enough evidence for this case to go to trial. I had been adamant that I really wanted to be in a court, but apparently that wasn't possible. Due to COVID, the hearing was virtual. Anne-Marie sat in front of her laptop in her home office. Walker appeared from his home too. The judge was in a Toronto courtroom. The camera, I think, moved around depending who was talking. Where others might be terrified, Anne-Marie, a former top bureaucrat who appreciates process and order, actually felt some comfort.

She had faith in the system. It was my way of finally telling the world what had happened to me. I had always wanted to have gone and walked into the principal's office and reported what was going on with me at the time. And I didn't have the courage to do it then. So doing this as an adult was my way of walking into the principal's office. But I liked the setup in a way that, you know, in a court of law, there's a clear set of rules and there's procedure that's designed to be as fair as it can be. And there's a referee, which is the judge. And so I felt like it was actually a safer place for me to tell my story than it would have been in a school system where I, you know, would have had no control,

no influence. And from what I've heard from other victims would have been probably a really bad experience. In Canada, you can't publicly broadcast what goes on inside a courtroom. So I ordered the transcripts of the proceedings. We're going to reenact part of what happened in the court now. The words you will hear are taken directly from those transcripts. I've asked a few CBC colleagues to provide the voices of the judge. That's me. The defense lawyer. Hello. And the Crown Attorney.

Hi. Anne-Marie will read her own words. I will. She was the only witness to testify during this hearing. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Your Honor. We'll start with Walker's lawyer. Can you define consent for me, please, Ms. Robinson?

When you, I guess when you freely agree to do something. And is it your evidence that you were not free in this relationship? Yes, I didn't feel free. I felt trapped and isolated because I had to keep it secret, and I wasn't allowed to tell anybody. So the secret nature of a relationship doesn't mean it's not a consensual relationship. Is that fair? I would not agree with that in the context of a teacher and a student. Okay. Because the reason it's secret is because of the circumstances and the fact it's prohibited by the rules in the school. And when did you learn that it was prohibited by the rules of the school? Well, I was told by Mr. Walker that I couldn't tell anybody because he would get fired.

And so I think that's a fair inference. When was that conversation? Right after the meeting, I remember with him after Belleville. So that was in... background and I had felt sorry for him. And then he, in that context, told me that if I had told someone what happened, he would get fired. The defense lawyer switches to a different line of questioning. Eventually, he goes back to what happened that night in Belleville, what Anne-Marie describes as rape, the whole basis of the charge. describes as rape, the whole basis of the charge. You went along with it. You didn't resist? I did not resist, yes.

And you went along with it? I don't remember. I remember it happened, and I remember like there was no active resistance in terms of fighting him off or something like that. I'm going to suggest to you, Ms. Robinson, that there was active participation in the intercourse. Is that correct? Sorry, I don't know what... What does that mean? The Crown Attorney interjects. She represents the prosecution.

Like, what does Mr. Frank mean? Respectfully, this is cross-examination. The question is simply whether or not there was active participation. Ms. Robinson, as best you can, could you please answer that question? I, yes, I physically went along with it. Mentally, I can't say. Mentally, I was confused and scared. Walker's lawyer asks Anne-Marie if there was any physical force that night. She says there was not. And the only reason today that you say you were not

capable of consenting was because he was your teacher and you were a student. Is that fair? Well, that and because of the circumstances. I was intoxicated and that was, yeah, because of the relationship. It was very confusing to me. Then Walker's lawyer asks her about her time with the Royal Regiment of Canada band. As a teen, she played with that military group. Her former music teacher drove her to and from the practices. And the people in the band, were they all adults? They were all adults. I was the only female and the only, as far as I know,

the next youngest person were like three and four years older than me. Okay. And so for you to be making money, you had a boyfriend, you were getting some semblance of stability. Is that fair? No, that's not fair. There was nothing stable about my life then. I felt scared all the time. I felt at risk. And I never knew what was going to happen. I couldn't make sense of the so-called relationship. I'll move on. All those sexual interactions that you had after Belleville, you and him thought, you thought he was your boyfriend. Is that fair? Yes. And you willingly have sex with him. Is that fair? Yes. I mean, willingly, but in the sense that I didn't protest. It wasn't like if I'd been with someone my own age. I felt very dependent on him. Is it fair to say you think Mr. Walker is a bad person now? Yes. But at the time, you didn't have these negative feelings

towards him. Is that fair? I eventually did at the time when he often lied to me and I would find things out. And then it was a process of slowly being worn down, disappointed, humiliated, and all kinds of things. The hearing continues with discussions about process, delays, before ending for the day. about process, delays, before ending for the day. The following week on July 29, 2021, they all meet up in this virtual courtroom again. It's the last day of the pretrial hearing. These are the words of the Crown Attorney.

So, Your Honour, the offence that is alleged against Mr. Walker is a single count of rape that comes from the 1976 Criminal Code. So whether or not there was a rape is going to turn very much, in this case, on whether or not there was consent. The argument, ultimately, from me, will be that there was not consent. In the following pages of the transcript, the Crown presents case law to the court. She's challenging the assumptions around consent. The Crown describes Anne-Marie's situation at the time. One of the things she said as an example is she felt she had to go along with it because he was her teacher. So that's the kind of analysis I would like your honour to engage in,

is really thinking about the extent to which her choice was free based on what she told the court about the circumstances of the offence. In the Crown submission, not only did she not consent, but any confusion she had only highlights that she could not have consented in these circumstances. The judge challenges the Crown. However, you've got to take your mind back to the time, 1976. Judges are, we weren't even thinking about that.

It was a different time. Laws were different. Consent was affected by circumstances. In these circumstances, where you have a teacher who is in his late 20s, early 30s, who is providing alcohol to a 16-year-old who is in his care on a school trip, that would have really got, I think, any judge on the issue of consent, because it is clearly wrong and clearly not consensual on those facts. It seems to me that back in that era, unlike today, the Crown had to, in order to get a conviction, the Crown had to prove there was no consent.

Now it's sort of gone the other way. The defendant has to prove or show that there was consent. So kind of the onus has been reversed, has it not? And her recollection of the event is that she doesn't recall whether she consented or not. Well, she doesn't recall in part because she was intoxicated from alcohol that was given to her by her teacher, who subsequently had sex with her. That, that, yes. These are kind of outrageous circumstances. Hey, I'm not disagreeing with you.

It's in today's respect to the way the law is today and the legislative changes that they made. But we've got to go back to 1976. Right. And Your Honor can do that. But you can do that with an informed view about what consent means and doesn't mean. There is no question that Mr. Walker knew that what he had done was not consensual because he approached her and he told her not to discuss it with anybody and not to tell anybody. He knew it was wrong. Okay, thank you. It's back to the defense. Thank you. So in my submission, the laws that applied in 1976-1977 are the ones that should be applied. There's a case law from

the Supreme Court on the elements of the offense of rape. Walker's defense lawyer explains back in the 1970s, rape was an offense involving physical violence, the law at the time said by force, fear, or fraud. It talks about without her consent, which in my submission is force. Ms. Robinson's evidence was that there was no force. The defense points out while she did have alcohol and felt drunk, she was in no way incapacitated. And in my respectful submission, the Crown has invited you to engage in conjecture and speculation as to what happened. Mr. Frank, anything else? Walker's defense lawyer makes his last submission.

He says this case should not continue to trial. Even if the jury accepts the evidence that she was groomed, even if the jury accepts that the teacher-student relationship was relevant, even if the jury accepts that she had two to three drinks, my friend is inviting you to rely on a speculative inference, and in my submission, that would be improper. Okay, so you've both had your last word. Thank you, Your Honor. Great, thank you, Your Honor. Great. Thank you, Your Honour. Weeks went by.

Anne-Marie waited to hear the outcome of the preliminary hearing, whether the case would go to full trial. But she was used to delays. By the summer of 2021, it had already been four and a half years since she first went to the police. They did treat me with respect and I felt listened to. But having said that, you also feel like you're in the police. They did treat me with respect and I felt listened to. But having said that, you also feel like you're in the dark. There's not really any support for you. The kind of support Anne-Marie craved could have come from other survivors. She knows there's at least one other

victim, the woman who went to the Ontario College of Teachers to report Walker. It's a case I've mentioned before. I've been trying to find that woman, but no luck yet. Then Anne-Marie gets a call from the Crown Attorney's office. She calls me to let me know. I felt kind of shut out about the process at the end, so I'm just really trying to understand what's going on. The judge has made a decision. to understand what's going on. The judge has made a decision. There is no evidence upon which a reasonable jury, properly instructed, could find Mr. Walker guilty of the offensive rape as it existed in 1977.

The judge has dismissed the charge against Doug Walker. After all these years, her case won't go to trial. Anne-Marie is devastated. I feel like the fact that he was my teacher is not a consideration. And it feels like all the cross-examination she endured was for nothing. There's no question in my mind that I was re-victimized again during the process, feeling like nobody was there to protect me again. the process, feeling like nobody was there to protect me again. This one woman's journey through the criminal justice system has failed. She had expected different results, and I thought a trial would answer many of our questions.

That isn't going to happen. But this story is far from over. This investigation is in our hands now and we're just getting started. Next time on The Banned Teacher. As one door closes, another is about to open wide. I got that message. I just sobbed and sobbed. My husband just held on to me while I cried. I said, there's more of us. It was just this weird combination of anger, relief, not being alone, but also just like a gut punch. Meeting her is the most important thing to me right now. And we dig into why the judge dismissed Anne-Marie's case against Walker and what might have been done differently.

I think what happened to you was a complete miscarriage of justice. The banned teacher is investigated, reported, written, and hosted by me, Julie Ireton. Allison Cook is the story and script editor, producer, sound designer, and mixer. Felice Chin is our executive producer and story editor.

Ev Saint-Laurent is our legal advisor. Thank you to Malcolm Campbell, Trevor Pritchard, and Natalia Goodwin for lending their voices to the courtroom scene in this episode. Jennifer Chen, Amanda Pfeffer, and Jen White provided valuable production advice. Special thanks to the folks at CBC Podcasts for their support, and the managing editor of CBC Ottawa is Drake Fenton. If you want to binge the whole series, subscribe to CBC True Crime Premium on Apple Podcasts. Just click on the link in the show description or binge listen for free

by logging in to CBC Listen. If you like this podcast, I have another original investigation that might interest you. That's The Band Played On, Season 1. All episodes are available right now, wherever you get your podcasts. If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, community resources can help. Reach out to a trusted person, sexual assault center, or rape crisis center in your area.