The Golers are a
clanA clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by actual or perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor...
of impoverished and inbred people on
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
's
South MountainSouth Mountain is a Canadian range on the mainland portion of Nova Scotia. A granitic ridge stretching from the Annapolis Basin to Mount Uniacke, it forms the southern edge of the Annapolis Valley and shelters the valley from the climate effects of the pelagic coast along the Atlantic Ocean.In...
, whose situation came to light in the book
On South Mountain: The Dark Secrets of the Goler Clan by Canadian journalists David Cruise and Alison Griffiths. In 1984, one of the children, a 14-year-old girl, revealed the details of a long history of torture and abuse (physical, sexual, and psychological) to a school official.
The Golers are a
clanA clan is a group of people united by kinship and descent, which is defined by actual or perceived descent from a common ancestor. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor...
of impoverished and inbred people on
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
's
South MountainSouth Mountain is a Canadian range on the mainland portion of Nova Scotia. A granitic ridge stretching from the Annapolis Basin to Mount Uniacke, it forms the southern edge of the Annapolis Valley and shelters the valley from the climate effects of the pelagic coast along the Atlantic Ocean.In...
, whose situation came to light in the book
On South Mountain: The Dark Secrets of the Goler Clan by Canadian journalists David Cruise and Alison Griffiths. In 1984, one of the children, a 14-year-old girl, revealed the details of a long history of torture and abuse (physical, sexual, and psychological) to a school official. According to further details uncovered by the
Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceThe Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body...
, this abuse and forced incestual relationships had been taking place for multiple generations.
Background
The Golers lived together in two squalid shacks in a remote wooded area south of the community of White Rock, outside the town of
WolfvilleWolfville is a small town in the rural Annapolis Valley, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada, located about 100 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital, Halifax. As of 2006, the population was 3,772....
. Like most other mountain clans, they were physically isolated from most of the residents of the farming district in the
Annapolis ValleyThe Annapolis Valley is a valley in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located in the western part of the Nova Scotia peninsula, formed by a trough between two parallel mountain ranges along the shore of the Bay of Fundy.-Geography:...
and most of the nearby towns.
The adults, some of whom were mentally deficient and/or handicapped, had little schooling and rarely worked. The children were generally forced to perform any menial chores (such as preparing food or removing trash). Garbage was simply thrown into the attic, until it was completely filled, and then the adults would make the children haul it all out.
A number of Goler children were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, cousins, and each other. During interrogation by police, several of the adults openly admitted to engaging in many forms of sexual activity, up to and including full intercourse, multiple times with the children. They often went into graphic detail, claiming that the children themselves had initiated the activity.
The trial
Eventually, sixteen adults (both men and women) were charged with hundreds of allegations of incest and sexual abuse of children as young as five.
Donna Goler
Donna Goler, one of the abused children who was removed from the Goler household (when she was 11), has become an outspoken activist for stricter child abuse laws, and for stronger protection of children from convicted pedophiles. A year after the book
On South Mountain: The Dark Secrets of the Goler Clan was published, she began a long fight to revise the Criminal Code, saying that it failed to protect the young relatives of convicted pedophiles.