Lawsuit accuses Cape Breton monk of filming people in a monastery shower

A lawsuit filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court against two Nova-Scotia based Buddhist organizations alleges that a monk filmed people while they were showering at a Cape Breton monastery.

A 38-year-old Texas man claims he visited Gampo Abbey in Pleasant Bay, N.S., in November 2021 as he sought monastic ordination.

The plaintiff Christopher Longoria alleges he spotted a camera on the wall while showering, and approached the monastery's head monk, Jack Hillie III, who later admitted the camera was his.

Basia Sowinski of the Halifax-based firm Valent Legal is representing Longoria in a civil suit against the operators of Gampo Abbey and its umbrella organization, the Shambala Canada Society. Sowinski provided a draft of the lawsuit, which had not been certified by the court late Thursday afternoon. 

The civil suit claims the defendants knew or ought to have known that intrusions of privacy were occurring at Gampo Abbey and that they failed to take reasonable steps to mitigate such risks.

"We're aiming to help our client address the harms that he's suffered as a result of this pretty egregious breach of his privacy," said Sowinski. 

Longoria later filed a police report against Hillie and was told the camera contained footage of others who were filmed unknowingly. 

Hillie was criminally charged with voyeurism on April 4, 2022, relating to alleged offences between December 2020 and November 2021, according to court records. He is scheduled to enter a plea in Port Hawkesbury provincial court on July 4.

Several phone calls and an email to the Gampo Abbey were not returned on Thursday.

Sowinski is seeking damages for pain and suffering caused by the invasion of privacy, although there was no monetary figure provided. Valent Legal is now interested in speaking with people who stayed at the monastery during Hillie's tenure.

"It's likely that if they were a resident and showered there, then they were being surveilled by his camera," Sowinski said. 

None of the allegations against Hillie or two defendants have been tested in court.