Sexual abuse within a family is not news.

betaylored wrote:

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/commotion/the-literary-world-s-response-to-alice-munro-s-daughter-s-disclosure-1.7257489

2 basic reasons

1. money, too many people had too much invested in keeping her family secret

2. the conviction occurred before the public water cooler that is social media existed in its current form, reducing the chance of the public spreading the sad news because Andrea's story was all over social media last Sunday and well into the rest of the week.

The conversation between several CBC guests linked above breaks it down thoughtfully and a heck of a lot better than one of the roundtables I heard on 1010's Monday edition of MITM where one of the pundits actually said "alleged abuse." His words were a disappointing example of how Ms. Munro's reputation remained unblemished for so long.

It was a well known secret throughout the Arts community. I find it hard to believe that no one at the CBC knew. Someone should ask Peter Mansbridge. 
 

It's just the age old typical case of people with fame money and power being able to dodge domestic abuse, or other forms of sexual abuse for years if not forever.
As a reporter it was not a big secret that Magna tycoon Frank Stronach was an alleged sexual abuser, but because of his money and power nobody close to him, or even his alleged victims would come to the fore.
Likewise, in Canada nobody talked openly about the physically abusive marriage of John and Geillis Turner, or for that matter the severe mental illness and stories of callous treatment Pierre Trudeau had of Margaret.
She has since made her mental illness struggles very public, but not much has been said about how cold and unfeeling Pierre was towards her.
Do you think the Me Too movement in Hollywood is still reporting all cases of sexual abuse?

DX wrote:

Canada has a somewhat secretive justice system.
As an indecent assault/incest case in 2005, there likely would have been some form of publication ban in effect in court banning publication of the name of the accused because it would lead to identification of a sexual abuse victim. 
There is a process where a victim (in this case the victim was abused at nine in 1976 but was an adult when the case finally went before the court) can apply to the court to waive the automatic ban if they wish to speak out publicly about the case, but that process is rarely used. 
In this case she chose to go public on her own this month after her stepfather and then recently her mother had died.

There was no publication ban but he did get preferential treatment from the Crown. No media showed up when he pled guilty. Where were they?

https://archive.ph/qdtgc
 

DX wrote:

Canada has a somewhat secretive justice system.
As an indecent assault/incest case in 2005, there likely would have been some form of publication ban in effect in court banning publication of the name of the accused because it would lead to identification of a sexual abuse victim. 
There is a process where a victim (in this case the victim was abused at nine in 1976 but was an adult when the case finally went before the court) can apply to the court to waive the automatic ban if they wish to speak out publicly about the case, but that process is rarely used. 
In this case she chose to go public on her own this month after her stepfather and then recently her mother had died.

To all of these points and others raised previously, I would add this - midwestern Ontario is really a media desert with only CKNX TV/radio and a few small newspapers serving a largely rural population. It's not surprising that with the lack of local media scrutiny, certain "issues" stay out of the spotlight for a considerable period of time. If this article is to be believed, locals in the areas who knew Alice Munro and her husband had no idea what was going on.
 

The Star is on the story - twenty years too late.

https://archive.ph/0r4lT