John Aimers

Last updated
John Aimers
Born
John Lathrop Aimers

1951 (age 72–73)
Dublin, Ireland
Nationality
  • Canadian
  • American
Alma mater
OccupationSchoolteacher
Known forFounding the Monarchist League of Canada
Political party Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (until 1978)

John Lathrop Aimers (born 1951 in Dublin, Ireland) is the founder of the Monarchist League of Canada, who served as its first Dominion Chairman. He is an educator by profession and taught at a succession of private schools until 2006, when he was accused of sexual misconduct involving students. He is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States.

Contents

Education

The son of an architect, Aimers was educated at Selwyn House and Lower Canada College before attending Sir George Williams University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and McGill University where he earned a Bachelor of Education. [1] [2]

Teaching career

He returned to Selwyn House in 1974, teaching English, history and political science and coaching the debating team until he left in 1978. He subsequently taught at a series of private schools across Canada and the United States, including Toronto French School where he taught English from 1998 until 2006. [3]

Founding the Monarchist League

Aimers had been an activist in the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada's youth wing and became personally close to former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, serving as his administrative assistant for two summers 1969 to 1970. [1] The two shared a conviction that the government of Pierre Trudeau was undermining the status of the monarchy in Canada. In 1970, while a university student, Aimers and others founded the Monarchist League of Canada in an attempt to galvanize monarchists and shore up support for the institution. [1] [4]

Aimers served as its Dominion Chairman from 1970 to 1972 when he left to take a job on Parliament Hill. He resumed his duties as Dominion Chairman in 1975, and led the league until February 4, 2006, when he resigned.

Political activities

Following his service to Diefenbaker, Aimers worked as administrative assistant to Progressive Conservative Members of Parliament Robert Coates in 1972 and Stanley Schumacher in 1973. He served as national president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation in 1977. Aimers resigned from the Progressive Conservative Party in 1978, joining the Liberals, to protest what he called "the shafting of Stan Schumacher" by the party. Schumacher, a 10-year veteran Member of Parliament lost his bid for renomination after he refused to give up his Bow River riding in favour of PC leader Joe Clark who was losing his own riding due to redistribution. Aimers accused the party's national executive of directing a campaign against Schumacher's renomination bid in order to punish him. [5]

Anglicanism

As a member of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Prayer Book Society of Canada, [6] Aimers spoke regularly at services and was long the newsletter editor at St. Thomas Anglican Church, an Anglo-Catholic parish in Toronto, until he resigned in 2006. [7]

Sexual abuse lawsuit

In 2009, Aimers's former employer, Selwyn House, settled a class action lawsuit, which had been launched in 2006, agreeing to pay up to $5 million in damages to nearly three dozen men who claimed that they had been sexually abused between 1961 and 1991 by three former teachers – Aimers (who had taught at the school in the 1970s and coached its debating team), Leigh Seville and James P. Hill. As part of the settlement, the school issued a public statement which expressed "apologies and regrets to former students who have presented claims asserting any form of sexual abuse during their time at the school." [8]

He had been accused of making sexual advances to students while giving them drugs and alcohol, including one whom he hired as a clerk at the Monarchist League. [9] Aimers denied any wrongdoing but resigned as Monarchist League chairman and signed the settlement agreement that concluded the lawsuit. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progressive Conservative Party of Canada</span> Canadian centre-right political party from 1942 to 2003

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a centre to centre-right federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George A. Drew</span> Canadian politician and Premier of Ontario

George Alexander Drew was a Canadian politician. He served as the 14th premier of Ontario from 1943 to 1948 and founded a Progressive Conservative dynasty that would last 42 years. He later served as leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party and Leader of the Official Opposition from 1948 to 1956.

William Heward Grafftey was a Canadian politician and businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy McMurtry</span> Canadian politician

Roland Roy McMurtry, is a Canadian lawyer, retired judge and former politician in Ontario. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1985, serving in the cabinet of Bill Davis as Attorney General and as Solicitor General. After leaving politics, McMurtry was High Commissioner of Canada to the United Kingdom between 1985 and 1988. He became a judge in 1991 and was appointed as Chief Justice of Ontario in 1996. McMurtry retired from the bench in 2007 and returned to the private practice of law.

Alan William Pope was a Canadian politician. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1977 to 1990, and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Wilson (Ontario politician)</span> Retired Canadian politician

Jim Wilson is a retired Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding of Simcoe—Grey, and its predecessor riding of Simcoe West, from 1990 to 2022. He sat as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario caucus from his first election until November 2, 2018, when he resigned from caucus due to allegations of sexual misconduct. While part of the PC caucus, Wilson was chosen by his fellow caucus members on July 2, 2014, to serve as interim leader of the party and Leader of the Opposition following the resignation of Tim Hudak. He continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition until September 2015 when new party leader, Patrick Brown, entered the legislature through a by-election. He was reelected in June 2018, but resigned from cabinet and the Progressive Conservative caucus on November 2, 2018. He sat as an independent member for the remainder of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario and did not seek re-election in the 2022 Ontario general election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Chong</span> Canadian politician

Michael David Chong is a Canadian politician who has represented the Ontario riding of Wellington—Halton Hills in the House of Commons since 2004. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Sport, as well as the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada from February 6, 2006 to November 27, 2006. On September 8, 2020, Chong was appointed the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Malcolm Wallace McCutcheon, was a Canadian lawyer, actuary and politician.

William John Vankoughnet is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 1993, and a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 1999.

Selwyn House School (SHS) is an English-language independent K-12 boys' school located in Westmount, Quebec. The school was founded in 1908 by Englishman Captain Algernon Lucas and was named in honour of Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge, which Lucas attended. The school body currently numbers 580 students with an average class size of 15 to 20 students.

William McLean Hamilton, was a Canadian politician.

John A. "Jack" MacDonald was a politician, businessman, and journalist in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He served as Mayor of Hamilton from 1976 to 1980, and wrote a column in the Hamilton Spectator newspaper for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Schumacher</span> Canadian politician (1933–2020)

Stanley Stanford Schumacher was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He was speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and a member of the House of Commons of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cam Kirby</span> Canadian politician

William J. Cameron "Cam" Kirby was an Alberta politician, leader of the Conservative Party, barrister, Queen's Counsel, and a Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench.

Wilfrid Garfield Case also known as W. Garfield Case,, was a Canadian politician who served as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament and Mayor of Owen Sound, Ontario. He is best known for his upset victory over Defence Minister General Andrew McNaughton in the Grey North federal by-election held on February 5, 1945.

Harry Albert Willis was a Canadian Senator and long-time fundraiser and organizer for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in Ontario.

Malcolm Mercer Hollett was a Newfoundland magistrate, politician and Canadian Senator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David James Walker</span> Canadian politician (1905–1995)

David James Walker, was a Canadian politician.

In Canadian politics, a leadership review is a vote held at a political party convention in which delegates decide whether to endorse the incumbent party leader or schedule a leadership convention to elect a new leader. In most parties at present, such a vote is required at the first convention following a general election. While a leadership election is only required if the incumbent leader fails to receive support from a simple majority of delegates, in practice leaders who do not win the review by a substantial margin are expected to either call a leadership election and re-offer or resign altogether. The term also refers to reviews under the Reform Act, in which the party caucuses in the House of Commons decide on whether to retain the leader.

Navigator Ltd. is a Canadian public relations, crisis management, lobbying, and polling company based in Toronto, with offices in Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Moncton, Canada. They have represented a number of high-profile Canadian clients including Brian Mulroney, Michael Bryant, and Magna International. The company was founded in 2000 by Jaime Watt, a communications strategist tied to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Watt remains the Executive Chairman of the company.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "John Aimers waves the flag for the monarchy". Montreal Gazette. March 1, 1971. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Veritas, December 1974". Selwyn House School. 1974.
  3. ↑ "Sex-abuse claims hit elite school".
  4. ↑ Mulgrew, Ian (2 August 1984). "Monarchists see crown of office as election goal". The Globe and Mail. p. P5.
  5. ↑ Canadian Press (27 January 1978). "Ex-head of PC youth unit quits the party and will join Liberals". The Globe and Mail. p. A9.
  6. ↑ "Canadian Who's Who". U of T Press. 1997. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  7. ↑ Andrews, Mark W. (2006). "The Rector's Report: New editors, new look" (PDF). Thurible, St. Thomas Anglican Church newsletter. p. 3.
  8. ↑ "Selwyn House pays up to $5M to settle sex abuse suits", The Gazette (Montreal), Friday, July 3, 2009
  9. ↑ "'I don't want to live with the memory of this all my life'".
  10. ↑ "Monarchist League getting younger, more dynamic, say members | CBC News".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.