Story 105

I refused to sign an NDA after reporting a childhood sexual assault in the Catholic Church. I insisted the Archdiocese sign a Protection of Privacy/Confidentiality Agreement. It was one of the most important things I've done for myself as a survivor.

When I initially reported the childhood assault to the Archdiocese and police, I was assured there would be a restorative justice process. It was not. Instead, the Archbishop handed the process over to their insurance lawyers and refused to meet with me again. Instead of the restorative justice process I had hoped for and read about by the Catholic Church across Canada as well as the Pope's declarations of no more silence, these lawyers were preparing for litigation. What could have been a simple restorative justice process ended up being four years of lawyers FOIPing my medical records and sending me to a forensic psychiatrist for an invasive and unnecessary "assessment" that I believe was their attempt to discredit me. Instead of restorative justice, it was a retraumatizing, demoralizing, and dehumanizing experience.

I was increasingly afraid the Archdiocese lawyers would force me to sign an NDA, so I prepared myself by consulting with Can't Buy my Silence and other organizations who helped victims of childhood sexual assault in the Catholic Church. Armed with the knowledge that I did not have to sign an NDA, I firmly stated that I required the Archdiocese to sign a Protection of Privacy/Confidentiality agreement.

The lawyers said the Archdiocese did not have to sign a Protection of Privacy/Confidentiality Agreement because it was "already implied." I refused to agree to "already implied", so had my lawyer draft a legal Protection of Privacy/Confidentiality agreement for them to sign. My only concession was that I did have to sign an NDA regarding the settlement amount.

My experience of hoping for restorative justice and instead being forced to go through an expensive, retraumatizing and demoralizing legal process for four years was awful. However, because I refused to sign an NDA, I am free to tell my story as I please. However, this is beyond telling the story of my childhood experience. It is telling the story of hypocrisy in hopes of helping to change the legal processes so that other women and young girls are empowered to come forward and experience a safe and supported trauma-informed process when they need to report sexual assault in large Canadian institutions.

Thanks to Can't Buy my Silence and the courageous women stepping forward and saying NO to signing NDA's, we are paving the way for a better future.