Two sisters who allege they were sexually assaulted by a Winnipeg church leader in the 1970s will have to pay $50,000 each in security for costs because they no longer reside in Manitoba.
The women, who live in Alberta, allege they were sexually assaulted as teenagers by Daniel Wiebe, a youth leader at the Nassau Street Church — formerly the Gospel Mennonite Church — when their parents were congregants in the 1970s.
They filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking damages against Wiebe and the church. Wiebe has denied the allegations, which have not been proven in court.
JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
A trial is set to begin Jan. 13 for a former church leader being sued in civil court over allegations he sexually assaulted two sisters in the 1970s.
The trial is set to begin Jan. 13. Earlier this month, a Court of King’s Bench judge ruled in favour of the defendants’ motion of security for costs incurred.
“Each of the plaintiffs owns real property in Alberta. I am satisfied it appears that they have sufficient resources to pay any costs award made against them at trial,” Justice Sarah Inness wrote in the Dec. 6 decision.
A plaintiff can be ordered to provide money, called security for costs, pending the outcome of a case. That ensures the plaintiff has sufficient funds to cover an order to pay a portion of another party’s legal fees.
Ingrid Hess, the lawyer for the complainants, said they plan to pay the costs and acknowledged it could be prohibitive for claimants in a different economic situation.
“I would say that earlier in their lives, it would have been a barrier, for sure, and just the cost of advancing claims like this are just humongous,” she said Sunday.
The defendants originally argued they would incur $150,000 in legal fees each and requested that the sisters each pay $90,000.
The decision also ruled against the defendants, who had called for the claims to be dismissed on the grounds they were unreasonably delayed and that some breached statutes of limitations.
“They argued that the fact that my clients waited so many years prejudiced their clients, and so therefore the whole case should just get thrown out … we won on that, which is pretty significant,” Hess said.
There is currently no statute of limitations for bringing criminal charges or prosecuting sexual assault in Canada. Before 2002, victims had a two-year period to press charges.
One of the sisters alleges she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Wiebe between 1974 and 1977, when she was between 14 and 17 years old. The other said she was 14 when she was first assaulted in 1976.
Both sisters claim they disclosed the assaults several times, including to what was then called the Winnipeg Police Force in 1993, but no criminal charges were authorized by the Crown after police investigated.
Wiebe admitted to having physical contact with each of the sisters in a statement of defence in 2019, but said it was only consensual kissing and hugging for “therapeutic” purposes.
In their statement of defence, the church claimed to have no knowledge of the allegations made and argued that if Wiebe committed any wrongdoing, it was not connected to his volunteer involvement in the church.
Wiebe’s lawyer, Stephan Thliveris, said in an email Sunday his client has been deemed incompetent to stand trial by two doctors and the judge will either confirm or refuse their findings at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Coral Kendel, executive director of the Interlake-based Survivor’s Hope Crisis Centre, said the case moving forward speaks to how often sexual assault disclosures are historical in nature.
“This case in particular was historical, and that is something we typically see. The large majority of people that we work with haven’t ever made a police report for a variety of reasons,” she said.
“So, as the systems change and progress, and, hopefully, become more victim-centered and trauma-informed, that will present more opportunities to encourage folks to come forward and share their story and seek means of justice.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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