Toronto Star: Anti-cult organization blamed for arrests

Anti-cult organization blamed for arrests

The Toronto Star/1993-09-08, Sec. B, p. A20.

by Bob Sutton and Cal Millar

Argentine authorities were "provoked" by an anti-cult organization to lay child sex abuse charges against the Family of Love, say Metro members of the sect.

"Led by the American-based Cult Awareness Network, an international network of so-called anti-cult organizations has now broadened their agenda from forcibly deprogramming (kidnapping) individual members of small religious groups to provoking civil authorities to do their dirty work for them," the local chapter said in a news release.

The release said no sexual abuse of children has been found in 10 previous Argentine investigations in which 173 children were examined. All 10 investigations were dropped, said the unsigned release.

Worldwide, 600 children of the Family have been examined by court- appointed officials and no evidence of abuse has been found, the release claimed.

Pornographic videos or literature of any kind are forbidden, the release said. "If any such videotapes were indeed found in the Buenos Aires homes, they were planted there by corrupt officials as 'evidence' to justify the raids."

Eight placard-carrying members of the Metro group protested for several hours outside the Argentine consulate yesterday.

Carrying placards reading "Argentina tramples on human rights, " they marched in silence outside the consulate offices on King St. W.

Susan Claire Borowick, 33, formerly of Burlington, is among those charged in Argentina.

"To do anything but brace for the worst, knowing the way South American justice operates, would be to delude ourselves," Borowick's brother Steve said in an interview.

"Regardless of whether my sister is formally charged and convicted, nobody in our family believes that she has anything to do with these charges."