RCMP have charged a former swim instructor at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre with 66 offences following a seven-year investigation into historical sexual abuse at the Waterville facility.
Donald Douglas (Doug) Williams, 75, was arrested at his home in Dartmouth on Saturday, RCMP announced Wednesday at a news conference.
Williams faces 32 counts of sexual exploitation, 28 counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm, and single counts of sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and assault.
He was released by the courts on conditions and will appear in Kentville provincial court Sept. 26.
Williams was the swim instructor at the youth corrections facility from 1988 to 2017. RCMP allege he committed the offences at the youth centre between 1989 and 2015 against 30 complainants who were between the ages of 12 and 18 when they were abused.
All but one of the complainants are male, RCMP said.
“Additional charges are expected against Doug Williams, and they’ll be announced in the coming months,” Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon, Nova Scotia RCMP’s acting officer in charge of major crime and behavioural sciences, said at the news conference.
The RCMP’s Southwest Nova major crime unit began investigating complaints of historical sexual assaults at the youth centre, also known as “Waterville,” in 2018.
The investigation, dubbed Operation Headwind in 2021, has involved interviewing more than 450 survivors and witnesses across Canada, reviewing more than 9,800 documents totalling more than 740,000 pages that were seized during searches, and completing about 1,270 tasks.
“Through Operation Headwind, we learned that a swim instructor at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre sexually assaulted over 300 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 over almost a 30-year period,” McCamon said.
“This instructor held a position of authority, and young people, we believe, should have been able to trust him and feel safe.”
The staff sergeant said sexual assault is a devastating crime that has traumatic, life-long impacts on victims.
“We know that for survivors, sexual offences can carry long-lasting, intense fear, shame and stress,” McCamon told reporters at Nova Scotia RCMP headquarters.
“It takes courage for those who’ve been victimized to speak with investigators about what they’ve been through. And we know that previous interactions with police can bring even more trauma to survivors and discourage ever even reporting these crimes at all.”
McCamon said that throughout the investigation, the Operation Headwind team has been dedicated to taking a trauma-informed, survivor-centred approach to its work.
“It’s our hope that survivors who participated in the investigation have experienced some healing as a result,” he said.
“We believe there may be more survivors and people in the community who knew about the abuse that occurred at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre. If you or someone you know experienced sexual assault while at Waterville, we want you to know it’s not too late to report what happened.
“We’re here to help. We’ll prioritize your needs, rights and well-being, and we’ll connect you with supports.”
RCMP are asking that any survivor who has not spoken to investigators yet, or anyone else with information about abuse at the youth centre, call the confidential Operation Headwind tip line at 902-720-5313 or toll-free at 1-833-314-3475. The line is monitored Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Outside of these hours, a confidential voicemail system is in place.
Investigators can also be reached by email at headwind@rcmp-grc.gc.ca, or people can submit anonymous tips to Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers.
McAmon was asked why it took so long for Mounties to lay these charges.
“When you’re dealing with historical sexual assaults, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” he said. “In an institutional setting like this, there was a lot of written communications and documentation that needed to be gone through.
“It took a lot of time to go through that, not to mention the amount of people that needed to be spoken to and interviewed that weren’t necessarily next door here in Nova Scotia but were in different places across Canada, sometimes institutionalized still.”
Police wanted to present the best product they could to prosecutors, McAmon said.
“Courts expect that we’re able to move through the process in a timely manner, so we need to be ready to do that when the charges were laid,” he said.
The officer’s voice cracked with emotion at times during the news conference.
“Any time you’re dealing with something of this magnitude, (there) is a lot of emotion attached to that,” he explained. “Whenever you speak to survivors or witnesses, you have to deal with the emotion.
“This file was very difficult on our investigators. . . . These are tough investigations to work.”
Halifax lawyer Mike Dull is handling a class action filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court by three men in February 2019, alleging they were sexually abused by Williams at the youth centre. Dull welcomed news of the criminal charges Wednesday.
“I have spoken with over 400 survivors of abuse at the Nova Scotia Youth Centre, including dozens just today who have reached out about the fact that charges have been laid,” the lawyer told The Chronicle Herald.
“It’s incredibly validating to these individuals, who have had the courage to come forward and speak their truth under difficult circumstances. The fact that the RCMP took them seriously enough to commit the resources needed for an investigation of this size is so meaningful for these survivors.
“After decades of reports of abuse allegedly being disregarded, that they are finally being believed by authorities is so affirming.”