Uncover - S31 E4: Hello powerful woman | The Banned Teacher

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

Robinson couldn’t help but think if she knew there were other victims, the outcome of the case would have been different. The investigation finds another survivor, Robinson reaches out and gets a response right away: “Hello Powerful Woman.” She finally meets the woman who got the teacher banned.

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. And I would like to keep her name secret unless she wants to. But I do think she has a lot to say. Thanks to an old contact at the Royal Regiment of Canada band, Anne-Marie Robinson now has the name of the other student who reported Doug Walker. This woman blew the whistle. He was banned from teaching. That anxious excitement is back in her voice.

So it was very emotional for me. It was like unbelievably It was very emotional for me. It was like unbelievably comforting in a way to know that you're not alone. Anne-Marie sits at the desk in her home office, talking to me by video. Her brown bangs brush the top of her glasses. Every now and then I hear her little dog yipping. Sorry about my musical dog in the background. For the first time since the criminal case against the former teacher was dismissed, I see some hope in her

eyes. I mean what I want her to know is she's not alone. She wonders if knowing this woman and maybe other survivors would have made a difference to her court case. Strength in numbers? Like you said, she doesn't have to reveal her name. To protect her identity, we'll refer to her as J.M. I also want to know that she has a voice too. I mean, this is a much later time in her life. So I think she may want to have a voice. J.M. is a teacher and she lives in British Columbia. She's in her late 50s. J.M. played with the military

band too. I'm sure given that she's an advocate and a teacher, she'll have something to say. Like I'm sure she will. It sounds like Anne-Marie is trying to convince herself. She's actually consumed by guilt when she thinks about this woman..'s experience came soon after the music teacher left Anne-Marie's school. And Anne-Marie didn't report him back in high school. I felt physically ill at one point. But it was just this weird combination of anger, relief, not being alone, but also just like a gut punch. How do you plan to or want to move forward in terms of reaching out?

Well, I think it has to be, it has to be me. And then we'll go from there. She knows what she wants to say, but how to say it? I started writing a letter last night. It's hard for me to to do it but I don't want to mess it up because for me meeting her is the most important thing to me right now absolutely absolutely take your time with it and it's an important one for sure it's that's a really important one. Anne-Marie sends an email to an address she's found online for JM. The introduction is made, and we wait. The Band Teacher. I'm Julie Ireton. This is season two of The Band Played On.

Anne-Marie Robinson lost her battle in court. The charge of rape was dropped. The case didn't go to trial, but questions linger, and Anne-Marie and I are pursuing answers. I think it's an important story. I think what happened to you was a complete miscarriage of justice. But we're not giving up, so we'll see where this goes, but we're not giving up. She'd been carrying that for all those years. She didn't have to feel guilt that he got to me. It's our story. Our story began in Canada's biggest city,

but it's about to take us across the country and well beyond this one survivor. Episode 4, Hello, Powerful Woman. Good morning. Okay, so I am prepared to give my judgment now. To me, the judgment in Anne Marie's case sounds like a 1950s courtroom melodrama. Not a decision written in 2021. That's probably because the Ontario judge is applying a law originally passed in the 1950s. The rape law was repealed decades ago, but it still applies to an alleged crime that occurred before the law changed, like in R.V. Walker.

William Walker is facing one count of rape, contrary to Section 143, Bracket A, RSC, 1970, the Criminal Code of Canada. Anne-Marie's case was one of the last this judge ever ruled on. He's now retired. I ordered a copy of the entire decision shortly after it was delivered. We heard a snippet in the last episode. Here's a bit more of Justice J.C. Moore's ruling in the Walker case. It's read by my CBC colleague Malcolm Campbell. For the purposes of this preliminary hearing, the Crown needs to adduce some evidence that Anne-Marie Robinson did not consent to have sexual intercourse with the defendant, William Walker,

but the Crown asked that I draw an inference that she did not consent based on the totality of the circumstances evident on that occasion. Despite the age difference and the fact that she was a student and he a teacher, a relationship had begun prior to the Belleville incident, which is the subject matter of the charge, and evolved over the next several months into a relationship that included consensual sexual activity, spending much of their free

time together, and talk of love and marriage. What the Crown is left with in this case is the reality that there is no evidence before this court, either from the complainant or any other source, that the intercourse took place without her consent. To infer otherwise would be based on speculation, unsupported conjecture, and wishful thinking. There is no evidence upon which a reasonable jury, properly instructed, and that would have to include a proper instruction on drawing inferences, could find Mr. Walker guilty of the offense of rape as it existed in 1977. Mr. Walker is therefore discharged and is free to go.

Anne-Marie didn't hear the judge's decision in person. In fact, she wasn't invited to attend court that day. She only saw the decision after I received the transcript. I did come away feeling like the judge didn't really understand what had happened to me. like the judge didn't really understand what had happened to me. The judge told the Crown the law didn't allow him to make inferences or interpret events from 1977. Yet Anne-Marie says the judge himself made an inference she finds unsettling. He says because afterwards there was talk of, quote, love and marriage in the relationship,

that somehow that implies that I had consented in the past. It's not like we had any sort of real relationship. In that context, the talk of love and marriage was entirely a way to manipulate and groom me and make me feel some sort of obligation towards him. The judge did not understand grooming. I mean, that's what this whole case is about, how a person in a position of power with a vulnerable child victim can exercise control over that person. And that's exactly what grooming is. And that's why it would have been impossible for me to consent. And the judge didn't get that. Yes, the laws were different back then. But everybody knew that what Walker was doing at the time was wrong.

It's not like everyone thought it was okay. He hid it from people. He manipulated people. And so if what he was doing was okay, then why was it all a secret? She now feels no one was advocating for her. purpose of making society safer and having, I guess, to bring justice for the victims. But that's not something I feel that I got in this case. But there's really no one that really represents victims. So why did this case fail before it even got to trial? Judges don't generally talk to the media. The Crown Attorney won't do an interview. So I look for some outside analysis. After four and a half years in the criminal system, Anne-Marie has

as many questions as I do. Together, we pay a visit to Pamela Cross. We're in Kingston, in my home. Kingston is east of Toronto, on Lake Ontario. There's a fire in the wood stove, knickknacks and art fill cozy rooms. Pamela is a lawyer, often advocating for women and victims of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. I've shared the transcript and other court documents with Pamela. I was just getting so mad, actually, while I was looking at all of this stuff. Silver streaks fall loose from the bun on the top of her head. Chunky jewelry hangs around her neck. But it's a facade. If provoked, she can swear like a sailor.

What the fuck? She grabs her yellow legal pad full of notes on Anne-Marie's case. But this isn't just about Anne-Marie. And it's not just about something that happened decades ago. Pamela sees systemic issues at play in too many sexual assault cases. I suppose as a lawyer, I shouldn't say what I'm about to say,

but I'm going to say it. I don't encourage women to report to the police because I don't think the system works well for them. If a woman wants to do it, I will support her and help her function in that system. But if Pamela was sexually assaulted tomorrow? I can't imagine why I would report that to the police. She points to the most recent stats to explain. A 2019 report from Statistics Canada. It's kind of like a funnel system, if you will. We have, like, up at the top, at the big part of the funnel, we have every sexual assault in Canada.

And then really quickly, it narrows down. For every 100 incidents of sexual assault in this country, only six even get reported to the police. Then the police have a decision to make, will they or won't they lay a charge, and they do not lay a charge every time somebody reports. Then the Crown decides whether or not to proceed with a prosecution, so they can dump a case there. The funnel gets narrower. Let's say the Crown decides to proceed with a prosecution, then they have their Crown resolution meetings with the defense lawyer. The charge may be reduced. There might be a guilty plea. There might be an acquittal. Or, as in Anne-Marie's case, there's a dismissal. No trial, no conviction. The accused walks away.

Pamela gives us her take on what happened in Anne-Marie's case. I'm going to be super careful here and say again that it seems to me, looking at it from outside, that the Crown might have been able to be more creative in what charges they decided to pursue. She turns to Anne-Marie. I want to help with this story. I think it's an important story. I think what happened to you was a complete miscarriage of justice. But I don't want to be seen as the armchair coach saying, well, if I'd have been me, I would have done this. So I'm using that word might in there. I hope that doesn't sound too wishy-washy, but it's easy to comment from the outside. it's easy to comment from the outside. It just seems to me that there were some other opportunities that they made a decision not to pursue. She wonders if there wasn't a better, more appropriate charge other than the one count of rape. She reminds us just how out of date that charge is.

The criminal law was developed at a time when women weren't people, when women were largely seen as property of men. So if we want to go way back to British common law, if a woman was raped, it was seen as a crime against her husband or her father. Yet that's the charge they used in Anne-Marie's case. Maybe they had good reasons for that that we're not aware of, but we're not aware of them. Pamela also wonders if a different standard of proof

is needed in these kinds of cases, be they historical or contemporary. In a different kind of system, maybe the judge might have said, well, you know what? I don't know at this point. Like, she can't prove that she didn't consent,

but the defense also can't prove that she did. I'm willing to hear more. Like, let's let it go to a trial and let's hear all the evidence. And maybe in a sexual assault case, criminal lawyers will, you know, pick at my house for saying this. But maybe we need a different standard of proof. Maybe we need the standard of proof that we use in civil law and in family law on a balance of probabilities. She's 16. He's her teacher. She's in a hotel room in a strange city. The adult has been buying the young people alcohol. And how about that key issue, what the whole case hinged on, consent? It's not just an issue in historical sexual assault cases. Well, let me speak more broadly about consent, if that's okay.

I think the law is great that says consent has to be affirmative. It's not merely the absence of refusal, right? Silence is not consent. The other thing is, as girls, we're raised to be nice. We're fixers. We, yeah, we just want it all to be okay. And so we comply. And complying is a lot different from consenting. But it can look like it's consenting. One other question I have about my case is, he was only charged in my case for one event. Is it possible for him to be charged again for other incidents? She's thinking about the times in cars, other band trips, and

especially the incident in that closet at school. It all went on for more than a year. Yeah, you can't be multiply charged for the same act, but these are distinct acts over a period of time. Anne-Marie leaves Pamela's house, still mulling this over. Wow. So how have you been? Good. A couple weeks after visiting Pamela Cross, Anne-Marie's image pops up on my computer screen.

She's put on a brave face. You know, I'm feeling increasingly better. For me, I know she's still stinging from the dismissal of her case. After all these years, she feels like her former teacher still has control. And it's not just a feeling. He was allowed to manipulate and drag it out for four and a half years. You kind of go into it hoping that you get your power back as a victim, but I didn't feel that in that process. To take away that sting, Anne-Marie is trying to redirect the energy she was putting into the court case. She's doing more research, and she wants to

advocate for a better system, one that prevents abuse from happening in the first place, but when it does, provides recourse for survivors. There's no place for survivors of teacher sexual assault to convene, to share our stories, to find the latest research, to understand grooming, to, yeah, just to share and not feel alone. But there was one more appearance before a judge. In order for Anne-Marie to tell her story, she had to get the publication ban lifted. That ban is automatic in any sexual assault case. Yeah, I'm kind of puzzled by that process. Usually I understand what the courts are doing and why.

But I mean, I didn't actually ask for my name to be banned, but I guess it's standard practice. But I would have thought I would have had a say in it, but I didn't. I do find it odd, and it's like, it's almost like they don't want us to tell our stories. I can hear the frustration and loneliness in her voice. I can hear the frustration and loneliness in her voice. She knows telling her story is one way to reach other potential victims. She'd been so hopeful J.M., the other survivor, would be in touch. But there's been no response. It was hard because I really have a lot that I want to say to her.

But the only contact I have now is her work email. So I sent quite a cryptic message yesterday to her work email asking her to text me. I didn't really want to send an email there that was very explicit, but I mean, certainly this is probably a shock to her too. So yeah. Certainly this is probably a shock to her too. So, yeah. Maybe JM just doesn't want to talk.

But I have this nagging feeling Anne-Marie's emails simply haven't reached her. The one thing we know, this woman, JM, is brave. She reported Walker to the regulator. She did that all on her own, as an adult. And as a result, disturbing details of her teenage life are in a public report, available online, even if her name is blacked out. Wouldn't she want to talk to Anne-Marie to know someone who shares her story? My name is Julie Ireton and I'm calling from CBC in Ottawa. I cold call others who were in the Royals in the early 1980s.

One is now a lawyer. He doesn't want to be interviewed, but he knows JM. In fact, he heard from her recently. I pass along my contacts and Anne-Marie's so he can share them with JM. Within hours, we both get messages. Her first message to Anne-Marie still gives me chills. Hello, powerful woman. You'd better sit down. I am JM. I'm so sorry that you were abused by DW2. I'm crazy busy with school just now, but maybe we can talk this Saturday sometime?

I'm crazy busy with school just now, but maybe we can talk this Saturday sometime? Then, JM sends a message to me personally. I leap from my chair when it arrives. We've been trying to find her for months. Hello, Julie. I am JM. I'm not sure what information you have about me and about my story, but I texted Anne-Marie this morning to open the dialogue. I heard your podcast a few years ago. I will not speak with you on or off the record for now, but will most definitely

discuss it with you in the future because I respect your work. I'm sorry to be so enigmatic just now, but I'll explain that as well. Anyway, you've got me and you've got my story eventually. Respectfully, J.M. Available right now. Binge listen to the entire series by searching The Band 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. I was really shocked to see that message. Tell me, how did you get in touch with you? What happened? Anne-Marie and I meet up the next day. We're almost giddy. It's winter 2022 and COVID is a

threat, so we're both masked. But I can still see she's beaming. In fact, I've never seen her looking so happy, so relieved. She's clutching her phone, eager for the next ping of a text. Well, because of your persistence, she got my message that I wanted to reach out to her and that our stories were like virtually identical. It's funny because we just texted for a couple hours last night. It was kind of like for me breaking a profound loneliness that I can't even describe to you. Like she's really the only person who can understand. And particularly with this individual because his way of going about things was so manipulative and twisted. Anne-Marie and JM text daily for weeks.

I'm eager for her to be ready to chat with me. While we wait, we continue our search. Anne-Marie and I both wonder if there are others who went to authorities over the years. So I file Freedom of Information requests to school boards to see if they have any complaint files to share. any complaint files to share. I write to all Walker's former employers, the Toronto District School Board, the Peel District School Board, and the York Region District School Board. But each board writes back, no files exist, or if they do, they can't share. Before he taught at Anne-Marie's school, Walker taught just west of the city of Toronto. His first job was at Port Credit Secondary School.

I would be interested if you could try to find, if they're still alive, so long ago, the people that he taught at in Port Credit. Yeah, I can totally do that. If you're able to send me the link to that yearbook, then I'll try and search out some of these people. If it is, as he said, that he was punched in the face by a parent of a student who he had a sexual relationship of some sort,

then I do think people might remember that. The music teacher was at Port Credit in 1974-75, The music teacher was at Port Credit in 1974-75, so long ago. Even the young teachers back then would be in their 70s now. Parents would be even older. Would anyone remember a story about a father punching a teacher? This could just take me down some more rabbit holes. I also contact the licensing body, the Ontario College of Teachers. I ask for any public documents collected during its investigation of the teacher. The college does provide a few files, including Doug Walker's resume.

It shows he taught at seven different schools, sometimes only staying a year or two and then moving on to the next. But something is puzzling, something missing from that CV. There's no mention of the decades he spent with the prestigious military reserve band, the Royal Regiment of Canada. He was paid to play in that band, and he rose through the ranks to master warrant officer and assistant conductor. And we now know from JM, he also introduced her to the Royals band.

On his CV on LinkedIn, the Royals isn't mentioned. Yeah, that just didn't make sense to me. I've contacted Doug Walker. He doesn't want to answer my questions about his involvement with the Royal Regiment of Canada. A band rehearsal at Fort York in the 1980s, posted to YouTube by a former band member. Walker appears in the video. He's tall, mustached. Barry Hodgins played in that band with Walker many years ago. He also taught with him at Anne-Marie's school, Eastern Commerce.

We first heard from Barry in episode two. I've seen Barry Hodgins in yearbook photos. He wore a suit, held a trumpet. Barry suspected something inappropriate was going on between the other music teacher and Anne-Marie, but he never reported it. I saw it happening, and I wanted to step in and maybe should have stepped in at that point. He tells me Walker brought several students to the Royals' band practices. band practices. Yeah, I thought that was, I thought that was, but mind you, in saying that, like with the Royals, a lot of the, some of the music teachers brought their excelled music students, and I emphasize the word excelled, because the Royals was a very good band.

He says Walker was in his element there. He was liked tremendously in that band. He was liked tremendously in that band. As I say, Doug was a war endosser. And remember the fact, too, that in that band, Doug was one of the assistant conductors. To be honest with you, in the regiment, Doug had a lot of respect. He was respected in the military very highly. And as far as Hodgins is concerned, the whole band was a big deal. I mean, we played for Prince Charles, who is now King Charles. We played for Diana. We played for a lot of members of the state. We went all over the place.

And in some cases, when we went to some of these things, Doug was in charge. And it seems ironic when I say that. You've got to have good character to get in a band like that. Because if you're not liked, and I don't mean in a sexual way, if you're not liked, you don't last. Walker must have been well-liked. He lasted. I requested and received Walker's official military records from the Canadian government. The document details his ranks. He was in the reserve from 1966 to 1990, 24 years.

Several other former students tell me he introduced them to the band too. They carry great memories from that time. Some went on to military careers. Walker ran summer band programs for young reservists across the country for years. On his resume, does he say he was a warrant officer? No, he doesn't say anything. Let me just, I'm going to pull out the military file. No, on his resume, there's not one word, nothing about having been in the military band. Nothing. Well, that's very strange. It's very strange.

You see, that shocks the heck out of me. Because Doug was there for a long time. The Royal Regiment of Canada Band played a key role in Anne-Marie's own history with the former teacher. The band is important because it seemed to be, in many respects, with me the enabler, right? It was the reason the music teacher used to get me there once a week and get me alone and a teacher shouldn't be able to do that. Even in the summertime, she says it gave him access to her. Annmarie and I decide it's time to head to the home of the Royals.

Okay. Where are we now? We are at what I always refer to as the armories in Fort York, downtown Toronto. It's a chilly winter day in Toronto. We're bundled up. There's a sharp wind coming off Lake Ontario and we leave our masks on after getting out of the cab. An archway marks the entrance to this historic Canadian Forces facility. Inside is a large drill hall. I've seen the videos of the band practicing here. Which is where Walker brought me and a bunch of his other students to play in the Royal Regiment band. and a bunch of his other students to play in the Royal Regiment band.

They're a very good band, and I learned a lot musically. And, you know, I was 15 when I started playing here. And after practice, Walker would buy alcohol. I'm sad that the adults of the day, the people in the band, didn't do anything. And if I had been the only person that he brought here, that would be one thing. But I know that he brought other people here. It's a weekday, yet it's eerily quiet. Lights are on inside, but no one seems to be around this entire facility.

And when you played, would you go on parade from here? Did that kind of thing happen, or did you go somewhere? Well, no. I wasn't even a member of the military because I was too young to be in the military. And so I did not march with the band. When they did their formal marching stuff, I didn't do it with them. The music room is up there in that corner,

but I would love to get in and walk around. I wonder if they'd let us. We knock, but no one comes to the door. A locked, seemingly empty building isn't going to provide many answers. I don't think anybody's going to come. No. many answers.

I don't think anybody's going to come. No. I've already put in a request to the Canadian Department of National Defence. This armory and the Royal Regiment of Canada Band fall under its responsibility. This is the message I receive from National Defence. Quote, any and all forms of

misconduct is completely unacceptable and has no place in the Canadian Armed Forces. These behaviours Quote, records of any complaints against this individual. The former member was released from the Canadian Armed Forces a number of years ago. Officials, be it the military, school boards, teachers, courts, don't appear to have the answers Anne-Marie and I are looking for. But we have made some progress. JM has been back in touch with us. She's ready to meet and reveal her identity to the world. Oh, yay! Hi. Hi.

How are you guys doing? Good. Nice to see you. Yeah. Nice to see you and Jeannie and me all together. Wow. Jeannie McKay, J.M. She joins Anne-Marie and me on one of our regular calls.

We used to talk about this, Jeannie, that how great it would be if we could find you. Yeah. I mean, I've wanted to find you for 14 years, but yeah. And I didn't even know, well, I thought you existed, but I didn't know you existed. Jeannie, a teacher, is joining us from her quiet office at school. A big calendar and cards from students are pinned on the wall behind her. Anne-Marie is at home with her little dog. I cried. I got that message. And I said, we found her.

I knew she existed. I knew someone existed from the other school. And I just sobbed and sobbed. And my husband just held on to me while I cried. I said, we found her. We've got it. There's more of us. I thought he was our little predator, but it's our story. And I texted Anne-Marie that I was jammed, and I was so sorry that it happened to her too.

And the first thing she said to me was how sorry she was that she hadn't been able to stop him. And that broke my heart. She'd been carrying that for all those years. And that's not her guilt to carry. She didn't have to feel guilt that he got to me. And I just was heartbroken for her. It broke the cycle of loneliness. That's really the thing that it did most for me. This has always sat in my mind as something kind of surreal.

And I was in severe denial about it my whole life. I couldn't process it. So by having Jeannie, it makes it real. And as I said, Jeannie, you're my hero. It's almost like they've known each other for years. And there's a gentleness in how they approach each other, probably because they've lived the same experiences. They share an uncomfortable link to the music teacher,

but he also introduced them to the prestige of the Royal Regiment of Canada band. Anne-Marie was about 15 when he first took her there to a practice. A couple years later, he took Jeannie. Let's see, so it would be probably around the end of grade 11, so similar age. And he was talking about his military band a lot, all the time, and how he's going to get some of us to come down. Jeannie and some of her high school bandmates. get some of us to come down genie and some of her high school bandmates yeah so uh the band had a little a mess room sort of beside the great big band room in the armories and you i think you've seen that you went there with ann marie yeah didn't go into the building we were looking in

the windows basically yeah oh that's too bad yeah Yeah, so upstairs, there's a big, huge band room, and the windows look out, and so they would serve beer out of the fridge, and we would all stand around drinking beer, sit around drinking beer and laughing afterwards. And for Jeannie, that's where some of her first sexual experiences happened, with her teacher. People would leave, and it would happen right in there. So like sexual activity was happening right at Fort York too?

Yep, right in the armories. I look back and oh molly. Like people could have walked right in. I'm quite angry about the fact that the people in the military band and others didn't, like somebody didn't do something. Yeah. But there are no records of any official complaints. And just like with Anne-Marie, Doug Walker says his relationship with Jeannie McKay was consensual. was consensual. Next time on The Banned Teacher.

Jeannie tells us her story, and she tells Anne-Marie they aren't alone. Yeah, it was after band practice, and we'd rolled the windows down, and he actually leaned down and gave us all goodnight kisses with tongue. And we hear about a haunting chance encounter with her former teacher on a trip to Disneyland. I just trembled and trembled. I couldn't see. I couldn't see anything. I said, there's a guy on this bus. He molested me in high school.

He shouldn't be here. He shouldn't be around students. You can't have him around kids. The Band Teacher is investigated, reported, written, and hosted by me, Julie Ireton. Alison 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. executive producer and story editor. Eve Saint-Laurent is our legal advisor. Jennifer Chen, Amanda Pfeffer, and Jen White provided valuable production advice. Thanks to Malcolm Campbell for reading the judge's decision. And special thanks to the folks at CBC Podcasts

for their support. 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 or someone you know has been sexually abused, community resources can help.

Reach out to a trusted person, sexual assault centre or rape crisis centre in your area. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.