36 ICSA TODAY
in Quebec had the proper tools to deal with the situation, and if
they used them properly. “We’re not going to make a judgment
about the Lev Tahor intervention, but rather to examine whether
we’re well-equipped” to deal with youth-protection cases as
they relate to sects and different cultures, said Camil Picard, the
commission’s vice-president who deals with youth-protection
matters. “The commission has to assure that all young people in
Quebec in all communities see their rights respected. We want to
know that the actors have what they need to intervene in assuring
children’s rights are protected.” He added that the study, to be
completed by the end of the year, will rely on testimony from
police officers, officials at the department of youth protection,
and their counterparts in Ontario. The study also will look into
other high-profile cases, such as the murder of four members of
the Montreal-based Shafia family by their parents and brother in
2009. (The Gazette, 5/14/14)
A Split From NXIVM
Kristin M. Keeffe, former legal liaison for NXIVM [neks-ē’-ŭm]
founder Keith Raniere, has broken with Raniere’s life-coaching
enterprise and fled with her young son from his inner circle,
according to court papers filed as part of a federal lawsuit. Raniere
has been identified in court cases involving NXIVM litigation as
the founder of the “rational inquiry” curriculum and philosophical
movement. He is referred to reverently by NXIVM students as
Vanguard. He has been identified in court documents from
adversaries in sharply critical terms.
Email messages purportedly sent by Kristin M. Keeffe and quoted
in court papers filed by New Jersey attorney Peter Skolnik include
the statement that “I have completely left NXIVM and New York”
and numerous other allegations. They also refer to Keeffe’s turning
over to the authorities “evidence of massive criminal conduct”
by Raniere as well as NXIVM President Nancy Salzman and Clare
Bronfman, who oversees the group’s operations. In the petition,
Skolnik inserted parts of recent electronic communications
he said he has had with Keeffe since her disappearance from
Saratoga County at some point in the past few months.
Skolnik also is the lawyer for Rick Ross, leader of an organization
called the Cult Education Institute. Ross has been sued by NXIVM,
which denies that it is a cult, for publicizing portions of its
training program. Ross has countersued Raniere, Salzman, and
Keeffe for invasion of privacy.
Skolnik filed a petition on April 26 in U.S. District Court in Newark,
New Jersey to dismiss Keeffe from the countersuit. Skolnik’s filing
includes a passage in which Keeffe purportedly calls the district
attorneys’ offices in Saratoga and Albany counties “compromised”
regarding NXIVM. Skolnik said his filing speaks for itself. In
responding to Crockett’s appeal to seal his letter, he wrote that
Ross “now views Ms. Keeffe and her child as victims of the very
organization whose objectives she previously served.”
The court filing indicates that Keeffe cannot communicate easily.
She asked Skolnik, in the purported email, to thank Ross for
applying “pressure” on her. Without it, she wrote, “me and my
son would have been lost forever. … You need to know now the
reality of what the trainings and Keith do ...He is so dangerous
you would not believe it. ...He has gotten way more lethal in the
last 4 years too.” In an interview, Ross said he believes the emails
came from Keeffe.
Ross has studied NXIVM, which has training outlets in New
York, Mexico, and elsewhere. He said he is writing about the
organization in a book he is planning to self-publish later this year.
“Of all the people to think of Keith Raniere losing—that would
turn against him, that would reject him, that would spurn him—
probably near the end of my list was Kristin Keeffe,” said Ross.
“...she must know a great deal. She was absolutely in the
inner circle.”
Lawyers representing NXIVM, Bronfman, Raniere, and Salzman
had no comment or did not respond to email messages from
the Times Union. (Albany Times Union, 5/10/14)
Extremist Group Drops Worship-Hall Plans
The conservative Christian group known as Exclusive Brethren or
Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and described by former
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as an extremist cult has walked away
from plans to build an 800-seat hall in the Perth Hills of Australia.
Mundaring Gospel Trust, acting for the sect, has withdrawn its
plans for a meeting hall in Parkerville. Whether the trust will look
at an alternative site is not clear, with a spokesman saying the
group was “considering its options….”
The 13-month dispute began in April last year when the shire
rejected the proposed hall, arguing it would breach the shire’s
proposed planning scheme, was inconsistent with its existing
scheme, and would “have a detrimental visual impact.” The
trust appealed to the State Administrative Tribunal and wrote
to Acting Planning Minister Bill Marmion. Mr. Marmion initially
moved to relax the council’s restrictions on allowing places of
worship in residential areas, but subsequently endorsed a scheme
that was not compatible. Once it was determined the trust’s
proposal would not be allowed under the shire’s scheme, the SAT
provisionally dismissed the application and the trust withdrew its
application. (The West Australian, 5/26/14)
Secrets, Lies, and Sex Abuse As Former Sect Leader
Chooses Life on the Inside
Chris Chandler was a leader of the secretive Bible sect known
as Friends and Workers, or the Two by Twos, who have 2,000
members in the state of Victoria, Australia. When he recently drove
to the Melbourne Magistrates Court from his property on French
Island to turn himself in, Chandler had already admitted his guilt
in eight charges in a Gippsland court, including unlawful indecent
assaults, indecent assaults, and gross indecency on three young
female victims. Chandler had balked at his sentence of a year’s
jail with a nonparole period of 3 months he told his lawyers that,
while he was guilty, he wasn’t guilty to that extent. But then he
decided he wanted to go to jail.
The Friends and Workers/Two by Two sect is an offshoot of the
Cooneyites, founded by Irish Protestant evangelist Edward
Cooney. The sect adheres strongly to Bible sections of Matthew 10
in Quebec had the proper tools to deal with the situation, and if
they used them properly. “We’re not going to make a judgment
about the Lev Tahor intervention, but rather to examine whether
we’re well-equipped” to deal with youth-protection cases as
they relate to sects and different cultures, said Camil Picard, the
commission’s vice-president who deals with youth-protection
matters. “The commission has to assure that all young people in
Quebec in all communities see their rights respected. We want to
know that the actors have what they need to intervene in assuring
children’s rights are protected.” He added that the study, to be
completed by the end of the year, will rely on testimony from
police officers, officials at the department of youth protection,
and their counterparts in Ontario. The study also will look into
other high-profile cases, such as the murder of four members of
the Montreal-based Shafia family by their parents and brother in
2009. (The Gazette, 5/14/14)
A Split From NXIVM
Kristin M. Keeffe, former legal liaison for NXIVM [neks-ē’-ŭm]
founder Keith Raniere, has broken with Raniere’s life-coaching
enterprise and fled with her young son from his inner circle,
according to court papers filed as part of a federal lawsuit. Raniere
has been identified in court cases involving NXIVM litigation as
the founder of the “rational inquiry” curriculum and philosophical
movement. He is referred to reverently by NXIVM students as
Vanguard. He has been identified in court documents from
adversaries in sharply critical terms.
Email messages purportedly sent by Kristin M. Keeffe and quoted
in court papers filed by New Jersey attorney Peter Skolnik include
the statement that “I have completely left NXIVM and New York”
and numerous other allegations. They also refer to Keeffe’s turning
over to the authorities “evidence of massive criminal conduct”
by Raniere as well as NXIVM President Nancy Salzman and Clare
Bronfman, who oversees the group’s operations. In the petition,
Skolnik inserted parts of recent electronic communications
he said he has had with Keeffe since her disappearance from
Saratoga County at some point in the past few months.
Skolnik also is the lawyer for Rick Ross, leader of an organization
called the Cult Education Institute. Ross has been sued by NXIVM,
which denies that it is a cult, for publicizing portions of its
training program. Ross has countersued Raniere, Salzman, and
Keeffe for invasion of privacy.
Skolnik filed a petition on April 26 in U.S. District Court in Newark,
New Jersey to dismiss Keeffe from the countersuit. Skolnik’s filing
includes a passage in which Keeffe purportedly calls the district
attorneys’ offices in Saratoga and Albany counties “compromised”
regarding NXIVM. Skolnik said his filing speaks for itself. In
responding to Crockett’s appeal to seal his letter, he wrote that
Ross “now views Ms. Keeffe and her child as victims of the very
organization whose objectives she previously served.”
The court filing indicates that Keeffe cannot communicate easily.
She asked Skolnik, in the purported email, to thank Ross for
applying “pressure” on her. Without it, she wrote, “me and my
son would have been lost forever. … You need to know now the
reality of what the trainings and Keith do ...He is so dangerous
you would not believe it. ...He has gotten way more lethal in the
last 4 years too.” In an interview, Ross said he believes the emails
came from Keeffe.
Ross has studied NXIVM, which has training outlets in New
York, Mexico, and elsewhere. He said he is writing about the
organization in a book he is planning to self-publish later this year.
“Of all the people to think of Keith Raniere losing—that would
turn against him, that would reject him, that would spurn him—
probably near the end of my list was Kristin Keeffe,” said Ross.
“...she must know a great deal. She was absolutely in the
inner circle.”
Lawyers representing NXIVM, Bronfman, Raniere, and Salzman
had no comment or did not respond to email messages from
the Times Union. (Albany Times Union, 5/10/14)
Extremist Group Drops Worship-Hall Plans
The conservative Christian group known as Exclusive Brethren or
Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and described by former
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as an extremist cult has walked away
from plans to build an 800-seat hall in the Perth Hills of Australia.
Mundaring Gospel Trust, acting for the sect, has withdrawn its
plans for a meeting hall in Parkerville. Whether the trust will look
at an alternative site is not clear, with a spokesman saying the
group was “considering its options….”
The 13-month dispute began in April last year when the shire
rejected the proposed hall, arguing it would breach the shire’s
proposed planning scheme, was inconsistent with its existing
scheme, and would “have a detrimental visual impact.” The
trust appealed to the State Administrative Tribunal and wrote
to Acting Planning Minister Bill Marmion. Mr. Marmion initially
moved to relax the council’s restrictions on allowing places of
worship in residential areas, but subsequently endorsed a scheme
that was not compatible. Once it was determined the trust’s
proposal would not be allowed under the shire’s scheme, the SAT
provisionally dismissed the application and the trust withdrew its
application. (The West Australian, 5/26/14)
Secrets, Lies, and Sex Abuse As Former Sect Leader
Chooses Life on the Inside
Chris Chandler was a leader of the secretive Bible sect known
as Friends and Workers, or the Two by Twos, who have 2,000
members in the state of Victoria, Australia. When he recently drove
to the Melbourne Magistrates Court from his property on French
Island to turn himself in, Chandler had already admitted his guilt
in eight charges in a Gippsland court, including unlawful indecent
assaults, indecent assaults, and gross indecency on three young
female victims. Chandler had balked at his sentence of a year’s
jail with a nonparole period of 3 months he told his lawyers that,
while he was guilty, he wasn’t guilty to that extent. But then he
decided he wanted to go to jail.
The Friends and Workers/Two by Two sect is an offshoot of the
Cooneyites, founded by Irish Protestant evangelist Edward
Cooney. The sect adheres strongly to Bible sections of Matthew 10
