Canada: teaching pastor of an Ontario megachurch found by an independent investigation to have abused a congregant; criminal charges later stayed and withdrawn without trial

Proceedings

1. 2022-03-03 · internal investigation upheld the abuse finding; separate criminal prosecution ended WITHOUT TRIAL — one charge judicially stayed for delay, two withdrawn by the Crown

   Independent investigation commissioned by The Meeting House board (Postma Consulting/Under Construction); Hamilton Police Service; Ontario Court of Justice. Cavey was placed on leave in December 2021 after allegations surfaced of a 'sexualized relationship' with a congregant. A third-party investigation commissioned by the church board concluded he had engaged in a years-long pattern of sexual abuse of a church member, characterizing it as an abuse of his position of spiritual authority; he resigned 3 March 2022. The church later disclosed two further credible abuse claims (one involving an accuser who was a minor at the time) and, by 2024, a total of 38 reports of sexual misconduct involving four different pastors at the church. Separately, Hamilton Police charged Cavey with sexual assault on 31 May 2022, and with two further counts of sexual assault in December 2023. On 22 July 2024, Ontario Court Justice Michael K. Wendl stayed the first charge on Charter grounds (unreasonable pre-trial delay); the Crown withdrew the remaining two charges shortly after, citing no reasonable prospect of conviction. No criminal trial on the merits occurred and no conviction resulted.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• his standing as the church's principal teaching pastor and public face, which the independent investigation found he used to initiate and sustain a years-long sexual relationship with a congregant that the investigators characterized as abuse of his position of spiritual authority
• the closed, insider culture of a single-leader-centered megachurch, which the church's own later disclosures said had allowed a pattern extending to at least four pastors and 38 reports of misconduct