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Changes To Nova Scotia Law Allow Sex Assault Victims To Sue Retroactively

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 27 Mar, 2015 11:57 AM

HALIFAX — Victims of sexual assault in Nova Scotia are now able to launch civil lawsuits against their abusers regardless of when the offence took place.

Justice Minister Lena Metlege Diab introduced amendments today to the Limitation of Actions Act that would allow for retroactive lawsuits.

The amendments were quickly passed.

People who said they were sexually abused by Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh lobbied the provincial government for the changes.

MacIntosh was living in India in 1995 when allegations arose that he had sexually abused boys in Cape Breton in the 1970s.

The former businessman was extradited to Canada in 2007 and the first of his two trials in Nova Scotia started in 2010.

His convictions were quashed in April 2013 after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled his case took too long to go to trial.

The changes brought in today amend a bill first introduced last fall.

Diab says the provisions were not originally included because of a research mistake in her department.

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