The font was apparently carved from a stone taken from the walls of Balmoral Castle. The Queen must be delighted to hear that her parapets were undermined to help memorialize a pedophile.
https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/how-a-royal-gift-exposed-sexual-abuse-at-an-elite-canadian-school/
Crafted in part from a large rock that Andrew had delivered from Scotland’s Balmoral Castle, the font was created to honour a dear friend: the late Keith Gleed, an Anglican priest who served as chaplain at the elite private school between 1974 and 1980. After meeting at Lakefield, Andrew and Gleed remained such good friends that the prince invited the reverend both to his 21st birthday party and to his wedding to Sarah Ferguson. Shortly before Gleed died of cancer in 2001, Andrew even travelled to his hospital bedside to say goodbye—“surely a testament of true friendship,” according to Gleed’s obituary in the school newsletter.
The day the font was dedicated, staff and students joined Andrew inside the A.W. Mackenzie Chapel for the blessing ceremony. Dead for seven years by then, Gleed was fondly remembered as “the confidant of the troubled, the defender of the bullied and a true friend to all.”
In reality, Father Keith was none of those things. He was a pedophile who preyed on vulnerable young students and took his secret to the grave—only to have the truth exposed, ironically enough, because of Andrew’s well-intentioned efforts to enshrine his memory.
Maclean’s has learned that after the prince unveiled Gleed’s religious tribute, at least five former students came forward to report they were sexually abused by the one-time chaplain. Two have launched lawsuits against Lakefield College School (LCS)—including one graduate, now 54, who says it was Andrew’s gesture that spurred him to break his silence in 2014, prompting Lakefield to initiate a third-party investigation that triggered other victims to come forward.
“Greg was pained and haunted by the knowledge that a pedophile like Father Keith was permanently honoured with a baptismal font on the school’s premises,” says the man’s statement of claim, which seeks $5 million in damages. “Thereafter, Greg began to disclose the sexual abuse he had endured at Father Keith’s hands, which, up to that point, he had kept a secret.” (Although the lawsuits are not subject to a publication ban, Maclean’s has chosen, after consulting with the victims, to identify them by their first names only: Gregory and Edward.)
