B'nai Brith leader pleads guilty to child porn charges
Bill Surkis, the former Quebec regional director for B'nai Brith, has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
It's a stunning reversal for the well-respected member of Montreal's Jewish community.
Surkis, 70, was Academic Dean of John Abbott College for 22 years, in addition to being the regional director for the Jewish-rights group B'nai Brith.
In court on Wednesday morning, Surkis pleaded guilty to one count of accessing child pornography, and another count of possession of child pornography.
A charge of distributing child pornography was dropped.
Surkis was arrested in May 2009 and charged with counts of accessing and possessing child pornography.
The material was discovered in 2008, when Surkis brought his malfunctioning computer in for repair, and a virus check turned up numerous video and photos of child porn.
In all more Surkis's computer contained 86 videos totalling more than eight hours of video files, and 153 photos of children between the ages of six and 14 being sexually abused.
Surkis had originally planned to plead not guilty, saying he had downloaded the illicit material for a presentation on child abuse.
However prosecutor Cynthia Gyenizse never bought that argument.
The Awareness Center closed. We operated from April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014. This site is being provided for educational & historical purposes. We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.
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