The lawsuit alleges that senior Christian Brothers transferred members with a known history of physical and sexual abuse from the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s, N.L., to Vancouver College and St. Thomas More between the mid‑1970s and early 1980s, where further abuse is alleged to have occurred. Six Christian Brothers, including Edward English, were moved to the two schools after abuse at Mount Cashel was reported to authorities in Newfoundland in the 1970s. Several of those transferred were later convicted in connection with offences at the orphanage. The Christian Brothers order itself is not a defendant in the B.C. action, having declared bankruptcy in 2011.

