More than a year after former University of King’s College professor Wayne Hankey was set to stand trial in the first of three sexual assault cases brought against him, an independent report commissioned by the university he spent his career at finds the professor not only showed a “pattern of predatory and abusive behaviour” throughout his career at King’s, but that King’s itself bears responsibility for allowing that behaviour to happen.
The 51-page report, prepared by law firm Rubin Thomlinson and released today, finds that Hankey’s behaviour during his 40-year career at King’s “ranged from subtle solicitation, sexual suggestion, [and] homophobic remarks, to sexual assault.” The report further finds that “most of” Hankey’s behaviour was connected to his employment at King’s—and that the university’s response after becoming aware of the numerous allegations surrounding Hankey “was lacking.” In drawing those conclusions, the report points to one instance of the King’s administration destroying a report into Hankey’s misconduct. It also surfaces more than a dozen new allegations brought against the disgraced former professor.
New allegations brought against Hankey, and questions raised about university’s role
At the time of Hankey’s death on Feb. 5, 2022, the former King’s professor was facing three criminal trials on charges of sexual assault, gross indecency and indecent assault. Those trials involved three male complainants, who were aged 18, 18 and 23 when they say that Hankey assaulted them. The formerly-reported allegations in question—which the CBC delves into here—span between 1977 and 1988. Hankey maintained he was innocent until his death.
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But across the whisper network at the University of King’s College, other stories circled about Hankey. The 77-year-old had already served a one-year suspension from King’s and his religious authority was stripped after being found guilty of “immorality” by an ecclesiastical court in 1991 for sexually abusing a student for two years in the late 1970s. Wednesday’s report, authored by Janice Rubin and Elizabeth Bingham, lends further credence to those stories. Over the course of 81 interviews, the report’s authors detail 13 separate incidents involving Hankey, ranging from as far back as 1977 to as recently as 2019.
All of the incidents involving Hankey surround his conduct with boys and men—some as young as 15, many former King’s students, and others well into adulthood. One man interviewed says he was a first-year student of Hankey’s in the Foundation Year Program at King’s in 1978 when the professor made an “exploratory grasp” of his genitals, over the top of his clothes, during a meeting in Hankey’s office. He didn’t report the incident. Another interviewee says he’d taken on a teenage summer job painting houses in 1980, when he climbed a ladder to a building’s second floor and saw Hankey through the window, “on top of a young boy between the ages of 10-20—probably 15.” Hankey was in the “rear-entry position,” the man recalls.
Yet another interviewee says that in 1986, while working as a lifeguard at the Dalplex, he’d watched a male swimmer leave the pool visibly upset. “That man swimming in my lane grabbed my testicles,” he recalls the swimmer saying. The lifeguard recognized the man in question as Hankey. Another man, a King’s graduate, says he was invited to Hankey’s home for dinner in 2019 after they ran into each other at a choir performance. During the dinner, the man says Hankey grabbed his thigh and assured him, “don’t worry my dear, I’m not trying to get your cock.”
At the core of the report is the question of how much King’s administration knew about Hankey’s conduct—and when. The professor had faced discipline before: In 1991, King’s administration struck a committee to determine how to sanction the professor after a complaint originated about his conduct through the Anglican Church. A complainant alleged that Hankey had assaulted him “continuously over a number of years.” The assaults began, the complainant claimed, while he was a student at King’s, and involved “sexual contact without his consent.” The university opted to suspend Hankey for a year without pay and removed him from his post as a student residence don. The independent report notes that “documentary records are unclear” as to whether there might have been further sanctions or warnings issued. After his one-year suspension ended, Hankey returned to teaching at King’s and Dalhousie.
At the core of the report is the question of how much King’s administration knew about Hankey’s conduct—and when they knew it.
There were other instances in which Hankey’s conduct raised alarm at King’s. In 1981, the report notes, the professor was found naked in the school’s swimming pool with a boy. In separate interviews, two interviewees told the report’s authors that they had a conversation with a campus police officer, who made note of the incident in a logbook. The officer added that the page in the logbook had been removed. The report doesn’t note who removed the logbook page, when it was removed, or why. One faculty member interviewed says the president at the time was aware of the incident and had a conversation with Hankey about it. According to the report, Hankey assured the president it was a “one off” thing and innocent in nature.
The report’s authors note that the missing logbook page wasn’t the only instance of records disappearing or being destroyed. The report refers to one 2003 incident in which a report prepared by a committee looking into Hankey’s conduct was destroyed. That report was prepared in the wake of the 1990 allegations. None of the committee members who Rubin Thomlinson interviewed had copies of the report. The university’s president destroyed the file while “cleaning up his office,” the independent report finds. “He became aware that it was in his files, and he decided that because both the Church and the university had acted on the complaints, the matter was done. He did not want to leave the report for others to find, in part, out of respect for the privacy of those who were involved.”
‘Everybody knew about it, but it was hush hush’
Former King’s students The Coast has spoken with in the wake of Hankey’s criminal charges describe his behaviour as an “open secret” on campus.
“Everybody knew about Wayne Hankey,” Glenn Johnson told The Coast last March. Johnson alleges that he was 14 when Hankey assaulted him in the President’s Lounge on King’s campus over the Christmas holidays in the late ‘70s. Johnson has filed a civil suit against the universities he claims ignored Hankey’s actions, along with the Anglican Church. “Everybody knew about it, but it was just hush hush. There was plenty of talk on campus.”
That talk continued into the early 2000s, according to Ardath Whynacht, who took the Foundation Year Program at King’s. She told The Coast last spring that she recalls hearing rumours about the classics professor’s relationships with students, adding there was “definitely a feeling” that students “shouldn’t trust being close to him or in vulnerable spaces with him.” Despite any rumours surrounding Hankey on campus, Whynacht recalls the professor carrying a markedly different reputation within the university’s administration and broader public: “What I remember most about King’s at the time was that Wayne Hankey was a bit of a rockstar.”
King’s was ‘in denial,’ university president says
Speaking to reporters, students and community members gathered at Alumni Hall Wednesday afternoon on the school’s tiny campus in south end Halifax, King’s president William Lahey describes the university’s inaction as a “collective” failure.
“There are many people who could have said something, could have done something,” Lahey adds. He describes the university as being in “a kind of denial” about Hankey’s behaviours, given what administrators knew about prior complaints. “We must accept accountability by making amends to those that have been harmed… [and] we must make sure that we never make that kind of mistake again.”
Lahey mentions that he has apologized to “each and every one” of the interviewees who came forward with stories about Hankey’s conduct and how it affected them, and that King’s will provide “appropriate and just compensation” for individuals who come forward with claims they were harmed by Hankey.
Why didn’t university act sooner?
Now a professor of sociology at Mount Allison University with a focus on justice and family violence, Whynacht sees Hankey’s criminal trial—and the subsequent King’s investigation—as about more than the actions of one man in a position of power. For her, it’s also an opportunity to reflect on and challenge how institutions wield and protect their own power: How does a university reconcile its commitment to a “safe and welcoming learning environment” with the reality that it might have sheltered a predator? How can a university’s administration claim ignorance about assault allegations when students recall those same allegations being an “open secret”?
How can a university’s administration claim ignorance about assault allegations when students recall those same allegations being an “open secret”?
“The way that scholarship is practiced at Western universities really lends itself well to enabling highly charismatic, narcissistic men who abuse their power,” Whynacht told The Coast in 2022. To treat Hankey’s charges as isolated incidents, she argues, would be doing a “disservice to survivors.”
King’s isn’t alone in facing these questions. At the University of Toronto Mississauga, students are demanding the firing of a biology professor who is still teaching courses after an external investigation found he violated the school’s sexual harassment policy and “failed to respect appropriate boundaries.” A former University of Alberta student is suing the school and their former history professor for alleged sexual assaults in 2006. In 2018, Concordia University’s creative writing program found itself embroiled in scandal over claims of professors “harassing, abusing, and inappropriately dating students.”
In response to a question from The Coast during Wednesday’s conference, president Lahey says while there is “no easy answer” to how King’s will regain its students’ trust, change will come in actions—“and those actions have to take place over time.”
In January, the university shared an Action Plan for a Culture of Consent and Respect. The plan lists 10 recommendations stemming from the Rubin Thomlinson report, including reviewing its staff training for handling sexualized violence and enhancing its sexualized violence prevention training during orientation week.
—With files from Victoria Walton
This article appears in Mar 1-31, 2023.
