A judge last week ratified the agreement in principle reached in May for the benefit of more than 700 victims of abuse perpetrated at Mont d’Youville in Beauport. The agreement comes with $65 million in compensation — the highest amount awarded in Quebec in the scandal affecting the Catholic Church.
The decision rendered on July 17 by Judge Daniel Dumais of the Superior Court of Quebec specifies that hundreds of children staying at Mont d’Youville from 1925 to 1996 were subjected to sexual, physical and psychological assaults at the hands of lay or religious personnel.
The institution, initially managed by the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, was taken over by the CIUSSS de la Capitale-Nationale in 1972. Mont d’Youville was initially an orphanage, then became a school, a reception centre and eventually a child and youth protection centre.
The agreement reached came after six years of “fiercely contested” legal proceedings punctuated by “multiple motions” and during which numerous judgments, warranty appeals and expert reports followed one another. Over the years, the case required “sustained and constant intervention by the Court,” notes Judge Dumais.
He stressed that the amicable agreement would allow victims “to avoid the stress of a public trial involving cross-examination and the obligation to expose hidden aspects of their lives that they prefer to forget.”
Thanks to this agreement, the victims, many of whom are elderly, will be able to receive compensation more quickly than if there had been a trial. The trial had been set for September and was to last six months. “The trial was expected to be long and costly with monumental and complex evidence,” wrote Judge Dumais.
Fees
Lawyers representing victims — Me Jean-Daniel Quessy and Me Simon St-Gelais, from the Quessy Henry St-Hilaire firm, who have enlisted the services of Mr.e Pierre Boivin and Me Robert Kugler of the Kugler Kandestin firm — will receive 25% of the settlement amount, or $16.2 million.
“We will agree, it is a lot of money. But that is not the question,” says Judge Dumais. […] The Court concludes that the fees requested, arising from the percentage established in the agreement, can be described as reasonable.