Monday, April 13, 2009

The Place Where Nightmares Are Made


This afternoon I drove along the south side of the Saint John River on Highway 102 from Fredericton towards the Mactaquac Dam, then on along to my father and stepmother's place in Lower Queensbury.
Every time I travel this route I pass the haunting reminder a horrific period of New Brunswick and Canadian history.
This place has been closed for years now.
The buildings sit empty except for the ghosts that must exist here.
The ghosts are good company for the skeletons that sat in the closet of the province for so many years.
Spelled out clearly over the front doors are the words "New Brunswick Central Reformatory". Most people remember it as Kingsclear Reformatory.
It was here that New Brunswick's most infamous pedophile, Karl Toft, now 71 years old, is believed to have molested more than 200 boys while serving as a guard.
As a result he was imprisoned for 13 years.
I recall in the news in 2005 that he had decided to remain in Edmonton following his 3 year stay at a halfway house there.
I'm guessing that he realized that he would not survive very long if he chose to return to New Brunswick.
Good decision Mr. Toft.
There is an interesting report posted here http://www.cpc-cpp.gc.ca/prr/inv/Kingsclear/rep-rap/kingsclearR4-eng.aspx concerning the investigation into the Kingsclear horrors. The web site is "Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP". It is quite an interesting read.
In the Edmonton Sun of May 21, 2008 Karl Toft was interviewed and said "I'm so very, very sorry".
He said he owes the people of New Brunswick "one heck of a lot," "financially, along with the damage I did to their children."I've hurt everybody in the province of New Brunswick."
Well I guess that makes everything all better Mr. Toft. You are sorry so you can come back to New Brunswick now into our open arms.
You bastard. You are sorry that you were caught!
If no one ever found out about anything that you did to those poor kids you would have peacefully carried on to the end of your days as you were.
You filthy bastard.
Even if you never look at another young boy again the damage has been done.
13 years is NOTHING for what you did to those kids which will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
I wish I could have a few minutes with Karl Toft to show him how I think his penalty should be served.
1 minute. Give me 1 minute. That's all I need.
What is interesting is that Toft was in my father's Rover Scout group.
Dad says that he always seemed a bit odd.
Even then he had a thing for young boys. I read that he was violating boys when he was a Scout leader at 16 years old.
I'll say it again. You are a slimy bastard, Karl Toft.
You deserve to be beaten within an inch of your life, given time to recover fully and then be beaten again.
I suppose I may be a bit emotional about these things but nothing turns my stomach more than those in positions of trust violating the weaker members of our society.
The children placed in Kingsclear Reformatory were placed there for other reasons but these horrors must have pushed them further down into the depths of their personal hells.
It was stated several years ago that the late New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield had been identified by several former Kingsclear residents as having been with Kingsclear children taken from the institution. The actual truth of that allegation will probably never be known.
An article that mentioned that if Karl Toft ever came back to New Brunswick he may be able to confirm the allegations against Premier Hatfield which would tarnish the image of the provincial Conservatives.
Here's a question.
Who the HELL would ever place any validity or truth in something that Karl Toft would say?? Really. If he was capable of such pure evil what makes anything he says have any semblance of truth?
Thirteen years of incarceration? Not bloody likely!
It was no secret that Richard Hatfield was a homosexual and led a pretty wild lifestyle.
He was acquitted of marijuana possession charges but rumours of Premiere Hatfield's taste for teenage boys was gossip throughout New Brunswick.
Based on this I would personally believe without a doubt that he was part of the molestation that took place at Kingsclear.
However he will never be able to confess to it.
We can't place any value on what scumbag Toft could say, even if he wishes us to believe that he feels remorse for his actions.
I wish we could take what the accusers say as fact but the legal system doesn't work like that.
We will never know the truth about Richard Hatfield.

We do know all about Toft though and as long as he walks free I will feel sick at the thought.

What boggles my mind is that the provincial government has allowed the buildings at Kingsclear to remain standing for all this time.
They are not being used for anything at all.
They just sit there closed off as the haunting reminder of what happened behind their walls.
This isn't a tourist destination like Alcatraz with mystery and intrigue and wondrous stories of the many interesting inmates it once housed.
There were only children who will never recover from the nightmares they faced here at the hands of those paid to watch over them.

The property is made up of approximately 25 acres of land and several buildings including a two-storey house, administration office, garage-workshop, detention facility, dormitory, kitchen and dining hall, and a laundry and boiler room.
Sounds like quite a place doesn't it?
In May 2007 the province announced that it had found a buyer for the property. For some reason that deal appears to have fallen through.
I'm curious who would want to own a place like this?
As nice as the buildings could look the true ugliness could never be masked.

It is my opinion that every building here should be torn down and all traces demolished and taken away. I like this route and enjoy the nice views along here.
What I don't like is looking up and seeing this place in full view on the hill.
There are several gravestones on the front hill of the property. I have never had the chance or the heart to see what they say on them. I don't want to know the stories behind them.
It may give me more nightmares about this place than I already have.

Enough is enough.

Tear this place down.

And give me 1 minute alone with Karl Toft.

Tim



Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even if Richard Hatfield was gay he would have been labeled as a pedophile.

Gay men love other men of consenting age, pedophiles go for the underage boys (or girls).

Hopefully you understand the difference and the constant corrections gay men have to make when people mix up "gay" or "homosexual" with pedophile or beastiality. Thanks!

Julie said...

I know for a fact that the allegations against Hatfield were true. I was there and I saw it. I knew many of the boys that both Hatfield and Toft molested. Don't worry about those boys have nightmares the rest of their lives. Most of them didn't live very long lives.

I am still haunted though. And I remember it how it all was.

Tim Scammell, PTech said...

I approved that last comment to avoid censorship but I do question the validity of what "Julie" has said.
When the identity is not valid or anonymous I question what they say.
I think from now on when something like this arises, unless I personally know who an individual is or they have a link to a valid profile I am not going to approve and publish a comment.

Anonymous said...

that is not the true picture of the building,,, i was there from 1964 to 1968,,and was also a victim of carl tofft,, i recieved compensation of $5.000,, yes those are the true numbers,, when the province found out what had hapened at thier reformortory,,,, they simply passed a new law to deal with it,, no one could sue for more than $100,000,, i dont belive any one got anything close to that,, it was just an other scam by the province,,, just more abuse of these children,,,,

Jasminebed said...

I knew a man from Kingsclear, now deceased. He claims to have been pimped out to Hatfield, as well as other prominent citizens.

He spent most of his life behind bars, and was on parole for murder when I knew him. Apparently compensation packages were based on number of acts, with fellatio worth so much, anal sex so much, etc.

He said that his treatment as a child left him so dead inside that he was able to become a biker and a murderer without any conscience. He spent over 25 years in prison, and he spent a long time in counselling there.

RIP Dave. I'd always assumed he was so much older than what he was until I saw his age in his obituary.

Anonymous said...

Where is this Carl guy now in almost 2015 ??? we all know these predators never stop...so sad for all those poor children involved in this nightmare, I hope they all find some kind of peace in there lives.. as for carl,I hope the worst cancer of all cancers take a hold of him and bring him to a slow agonizing death free of painkillers....may he rot in any kind of hell !!!!!

Nathaniel said...

Joyce Stevenson Adams: I am sorry, but I can't forgive them........I hope they suffer so bad for what they have done, and that their families suffer, like the families of these boys did and do. God may forgive them, but I can't. What they and their families lost, can never be replaced, and I hope and pray that the ones who stayed silent, come forward, the shame is not theirs to carry, it rests with each and every one who committed these horrendous acts, or aided and abetted, and allowed this to happen.......

Anonymous said...

the picture here is NOT the RIGHT one , the building shown here is of the lockup for adults that was next door about 1000 feet away , they were separated by a chain linkfence ,, I spent 5 years in the boys/child lock up, it still stands today ,,, the govt decided to sell it to private hands rather than lose the money of tearing it down ,,who would do such a thing,,a nightmare to all the little childrens memorys ,, horrible government , wasn't bad enough what they did to all these little children but let this building stand is just DISGUSTING !!!!!

Dam said...

Tim, they won't tear it down because it's being used. It's a disgrace but the reality is that this building is still spilling out scandals! See my post: http://danlirette.ca/the-startling-discovery-we-made-at-the-kingsclear-youth-reformatory-on-september-1st-2018/