A Message from Lusiana Lukman & Petition

From Lara St John, Lusiana Lukman, Jonathan Biss and Scott St. John,

The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto has finally commissioned an overdue investigation into its lengthy history of instructors sexually abusing students, many of them minors. Yet its leadership has thus far refused to make a commitment to publish the results of that investigation. We call on them to make such a commitment; without doing so, the investigation provides only a veneer of accountability, without doing anything to redress the wrongs of the past or prevent them from taking place in the future.

At other institutions, real change has come when new leadership genuinely resolved to expose the past and then move forward with a new attitude and effective new protections for the students under their care. Refusing to commit to publication indicates a desire to keep hiding the past, if it turns out to be too sordid for their liking. We already know that the past has been sordid; multiple survivors have related their experiences of sexual abuse at the RCM to us. In refusing to commit to publication, the current leadership is demonstrating that they are not prepared to make substantive changes.

We have seen this scenario play out at other institutions. When leadership is committed to change, then change happens. Otherwise, the status quo is maintained, and the crimes of staff members past and present continue to be shielded from public scrutiny.

Survivors are well aware of this pattern of deception. As a result, when no commitment to publication is made, they are understandably reluctant to share their personal experiences with investigators, even when those investigators appear to be making a conscientious effort. There is little point in reexploring one’s past traumas in front of strangers – a process that is always painful and often retraumatizing – if the goal of the project is simply to whitewash an institution’s history. Reports that go unpublished serve no purpose other than to allow the leadership to announce that action was taken, even if the action has no impact. The investigators typically do not get very far with their work when it is based on such a shallow level of commitment.

We the undersigned call upon the leadership of the RCM to make an unequivocal commitment to publish the findings of the investigation they have commissioned. To do anything less amounts to a clear choice to hide the past and protect sexual predators and their enablers from public scrutiny.

Sincerely, Lara, Lusiana, Jonathan and Scott

Lara St. John, C.M. : Director of Dear Lara and violinist who is public about her
abuse as a child at the Curtis Institute.

Lusiana Lukman: Executive Founding Director of Toronto’s Classical Music Conservatory who is public about her s
exual abuse as a child by Boris Berlin and how the RCM enabled it.

Jonathan Biss: Concert pianist and
former professor
at the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Scott St. John: Violin/viola chamber musician and professor who resigned from California’s Colburn Conservatory in protest at how they buried abuse.