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WILLIAM GLEN HOW (1919-2008)
(Investigator 199, 2021 July)
W.
Glen How was a lawyer of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) in Canada, and
graduate of their "Gilead Missionary School". He headed the Legal
Department of the Canadian Watchtower Society (WTS), and founded the
law firm W. Glen How & Associates located at the Watchtower Complex.
Glen
How was born in Montreal, Quebec; baptized by JWs in 1941; graduated
from law school and called to the Bar of Ontario in 1943; and served as
a JW elder in congregations in Toronto and Ontario. His mother was in
the JW "pioneer" ministry for 40 years.
How
argued cases in defense of JWs before the Supreme Court of Canada in
the 1950s-1960s which enshrined the right to freedom of speech and
assembly in Canada, and influenced Canada's Bill of Rights and its
Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the area of freedom of worship and
conscience. W. Glen How & Associates LLP write:
The
American College of Trial Lawyers presented Mr. How with the Award for
Courageous Advocacy on September 8, 1997 ... the first Canadian to be
so honoured.
Not within JWs
Despite
helping to broaden freedom of speech and worship in Canada Glen How did
not campaign to bring about these same freedoms within his own
religion, the JW Organization. He supported the JW Governing Body's
policy of ordering the shunning of dissenters by all other JWs
including their relatives.
This
included the excommunication and shunning of dissenters who followed
all the moral rules but criticized false predictions for 1975, the
generation of 1914 doctrine, Armageddon "in the twentieth century", and
other foolish doctrines.
Vicky Boer
A commentator on the "Web" writes:
Of
course none in the media ever asked him why his own organization would
not give the same freedoms and rights to its members as Canada gives to
its citizens. To me his claim to fame will be how his team would try to
cover for abusers…
Another
reports that he handed Glen How a card from an ex-JW support group
during the Vicky Boer trial, and the next day: "Glen walked into court
with a bevy of JWs and threw my card in my face."
Vicky
Boer was sexually molested from age 11 to 14. The congregation elders,
following the Governing Body's policy at the time, advised her not to
seek outside help but to confront the abuser so he can repent. The
trauma caused her a nervous breakdown.
Boer
later filed charges against the Church and the judge ruled that the
Church had been negligent in their treatment of her. Boer sued for
civil damages but the judge awarded her only $5,000! In a later legal
hearing the judge ruled she should pay all the legal costs for the WTS
— $142,000.
Jerry Bergman explains:
The
reason the judge gave for assigning the victim legal costs was that the
Watchtower offered $20,000 to settle the case, then during pretrial
motions they raised their offer to $56,000 and an apology (but required
her to sign an overly broad gag order). The gag order stated if Vicki
(or even her family) let slip the terms of settlement, they will be
liable for millions of dollars in damages! Vicki rejected the offer…
The lawsuit was handled for the WTS largely by W. Glen How and Associates.
Glen
How, during his long legal career, would have heard of many other
instances of child abuse within the JW sect and known about the
Governing Body's policy at the time of discouraging victims from
involving the police.
In
Australia the Royal Commission uncovered among JWs the abuse of 1800
children by 1000 abusers which had occurred over a 65 year period with
no abuser reported to the police. Because the JW Governing Body insists
on unity to its rules among JWs in every country their child-abuse
victims in Canada could be a comparable number. Apparently Glen How
never challenged the Governing Body's policy.
Blood transfusions
In
Canada Glen How successfully argued cases supporting patients' rights
to bodily autonomy. The Malette v Shulman (1990) decision confirmed an
adult's right to have his advance decisions on what medical treatment
to accept or reject respected.
In
a 1961 article "Invading The Family Circle — The Blood Transfusion
Statutes", Glen How argued against new legislation in Australia that
gave: "medical doctors power to override parental objections and to
administer blood transfusion to minors…"
He ignored that millions of lives were being saved around the world by blood transfusions and cited four doctors.
One of the doctors referred to blood-letting which was practiced in the 18th century and killed "hundreds".
However, to imply that today's science is wrong because primitive
viewpoints and procedures centuries ago were wrong is nonsense because
it would be an argument for rejecting every modern discovery not just
blood transfusion.
The second doctor argued, "Every blood transfusion is fraught with potential danger…"
However, everything has risks, even eating food, wearing clothes and
riding in a bus, because food can be choked on, clothing might catch
fire, and the bus might crash. Science, as well as common sense,
considers relative risks. A treatment that, for example, saves 80% of
patients from death, and neither saves nor hurts 19% who would survive
with alternative treatment, but injures 1%, is worthwhile until better
is discovered. This is the situation with blood transfusions (but the
percentages would differ in different countries and other decades).
The third doctor criticized blood transfusions given "for cosmetic reasons".
This was a fair comment since in the early 1950s blood was sometimes
given just to improve patients' complexion. But it is not a reason to
let people, many years later, including children, bleed to death.
How
introduced the fourth doctor, A.J. Shadman, as "a surgeon of wide
experience". Shadman claimed that transfusions transmit poisons in the
blood that produce insanity, diabetes, cancer, syphilis, impulses to
commit suicide and murder, etc, and "Of all the ridiculous medical
practices … this present blood transfusion craze is the worst."
Alonzo Jay Shadman, authored Who Is Your Doctor And Why
(1958). He supported the pseudoscience of homeopathy and opposed
vaccinations, even claiming "There is no such thing as a virus…" At
least some of Shadman's "wide experience" was medical quackery.
Probably
a few advocates of unscientific views exist in every area of science
and knowledge. To seek out and quote this fringe and ignore expert
science is usually a dubious tactic that promotes wrong beliefs. In his
Australian Quarterly article
Glen How "cherry picked" a few quotes which ignored mainstream medical
science and did this even though some JW children who required a blood
transfusion had already died from lack of one.
Eulogy
A
WTS brochure prepared for How's memorial service eulogizes him as a
"man of God" who "encouraged the young to pursue a life in God's
service", a "delightful man", etc.
In
addition to the shunning, child abuse and blood transfusion issues,
this delightful man supported the Governing Body's policy of persuading
JW teenagers to discontinue high school at the earliest lawful age on
the basis that Armageddon is imminent and their best course is
therefore to preach. That in part is what's meant by "encouraged
the young to pursue a life in God's service". This "man of God" also
turned a blind eye when the JW leadership called their false
predictions regarding the 1914 generation "the Creator's promise", the
"promise of Jesus" and "God's Word".
Many
people have exposed the often oppressive, unenlightened, power of the
JW Governing Body, but Glen How apparently never did.
He
had an inspiring example in fellow Canadian M. James Penton (b. 1932),
a man as accomplished as himself, a JW elder, professor of history, and
author of many books including Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada (1976)
which told the history of JWs' fight for civil liberties under Canadian
law. Penton left JWs because of the false prophecies, harmful policies
and loss of liberty imposed by the Governing Body.
A commentator on the Internet gives this summary:
Glen
How was a lot of things, but integrity to stand up for what is true no
matter what was not one of them. He towed the Watchtower party line,
whatever that called for. He was a hired man.
References:
Awake! Magazine April 22, 2000, 18-24
How, G. Invading The Family Circle — The Blood Transfusion Statutes, The Australian Quarterly, December 1961
https://ca.vlex.com/vid/malette-v-shulman-68082 9337
https://ctdj.ca/en/jurisprudence/malette-v-shulman-1990-72-o-r-2d-417-c-a/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah's_Witnesses'_handling_of_child_sex_abuse
Commission Report of Case Study No, 29
https://www.royalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-07/case_study_29_-_findings_report_-_jehovahs_witnesses
https://wghow.ca/history.htm
(BS)
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