Former Youth Offender Who Spent 703 Days in Solitary Wants Newfoundland’s Statute of Limitations on Child Abuse Amended

Jack Whalen (C) sits in front of his pickup truck, which holds a replica of the tiny cell in which he spent two years of his life, during a recent protest outside the Ottawa Courthouse. (Matthew Horwood/The Epoch Times).

A Newfoundland man who spent almost two years of his childhood locked in solitary confinement arrived in Ottawa on Sept. 11 to raise awareness of the province being one of the last to remove its statute of limitations for child abuse.

When he was 13 years old, Jack Whalen was sentenced to four years in Newfoundland's Whitbourne Detention Centre resulting from a physical altercation with another boy. For 703 days of Mr. Whalen's sentence, he was confined to a tiny cell in solitary confinement.

"I spent two years in a five-and-a-half by six-and-a-half foot box, with no books. I wasn't allowed to attend school. I was in there 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Mr. Whalen told The Epoch Times.

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In the back of his pickup truck, parked in front of the Ottawa Courthouse for his protest, was a re-creation of the cell in which he spent almost two years of his life while serving his sentence.

"Even to this day, I'm still trying to process what happened to me. It's painful to think about it and talk about it. It's just unbelievable," Mr. Whalen said.

"87 consecutive days before I stopped counting," reads a message painted on the side of the replica jail cell Mr. Whalen created.

He said New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador are the only provinces in Canada that still have a statute of limitations for child abuse. The remaining provinces have amended the law, allowing victims of all childhood abuse to come forward at any time.

In 2022, the N.L. government settled a lawsuit with former residents of youth detention centres who had faced charges of sexual abuse in Whitbourne and St. Johns in the 1970s and '80s. The province is preparing a formal apology to the victims, on top of a $12.5 million payout, a $25,000 honorarium for the representative plaintiffs, and an award of $250,000 to raise awareness of the settlement.

But because Mr. Whalen's abuse was not of a sexual nature, he was excluded from the settlement.

In June, Mr. Whalen parked his truck outside the Confederation Building in St. John's, in protest. He then travelled to New Brunswick, then to Ottawa, and will soon return to his home province.

Mr. Whalen said four or five MPs stated they will raise the issue of the statute of limitations in the House of Assembly.

"I'm hoping they will change the law then, and that it will make it easier. I've been trying to do something about this for five years now, but I haven't stepped foot in a courtroom," he said.

"If they change the law and make Newfoundland and New Brunswick like the rest of Canada, then I'm hoping this can be resolved and I can go ahead with my court case and see what happens."