“The subject of the documentary resonates so much in the news,” says director Jean-François Poisson straight away. In pray for us, he and his team shed light on the testimonies of several victims – mostly minors at the time of the alleged acts – of sexual abuse committed for decades within the Church. Again this week, a class action was brought against the Diocese of Quebec. Among the members of the Church targeted by allegations of sexual assault in this legal procedure, we find the names of at least 85 religious, including the influential Cardinal Marc Ouellet. If, for the moment, nothing has been proven by a court, the diocese refuses to comment and continues to wallow in silence.
“The game of silence lasts, as if we had stayed in the 1950s. Their complicity is revolting”, continues Jean-François Poisson. In an interview, the filmmaker does not hide his anger towards the clergy who act as if no sexual abuse had been committed by their members. “We were stunned by their reaction to our meeting requests. They dazzled us, I was beside myself! I had never experienced such a thing. I was very disappointed by their behavior: they agreed to talk to us on three different occasions, then they canceled at the last minute. They even asked us for a list of our questions, of our upstream stakeholders. »
The filmmaker also confides that he received a strange request from the Church. He was thus offered the organization of a joint interview between Mr.gr Christian Lépine and Judge Pepita G. Capriolo, in charge of the report of the independent investigation into the complaints against ex-priest Brian Boucher. The interview never took place.
“We really thought that in 2022, there would be a certain openness and that everyone would be able to question themselves, without being in confrontation, adds Jean-François Poisson. It was very complicated for us to put this absence of dialogue on the screen. So we decided to record our production meetings and integrate them into pray for us. “A tension and a disarray which are also felt over the four episodes of the documentary, to the detriment, of course, of the religious.
However, at the genesis of pray for us, Jean-François Poisson wanted to have a nuanced series. “Because it is obvious that the stories of the victims are upsetting, and that we wanted to avoid any sensationalism, it was important for us to reach a conversation with the religious authorities, remembers the director. Our intention was never to be vindictive. Our objective was really to have the point of view of the Church today, to give it a chance to express itself. Jean-François Poisson also hoped that his documentary could lead to solutions and question, perhaps, those that are already in place.
Our intention was never to be vindictive. Our objective was really to have the point of view of the Church today, to give it a chance to express itself. Jean-Francois Poisson »
A missing global picture
As mentioned by the head of the investigation team of The PressKatia Gagnon, in Pray for us, there is a lack of an overall picture of the situation in Quebec on sexual abuse committed by priests.
“We don’t know how many victims, attackers, accomplices there are. We also do not know where the facts took place, over what periods, ”recalls Jean-François Poisson. With his documentary, he rather wanted to take the pulse on the ground than to embark on a global investigation, probably futile given the opacity of the Church.
The abolition of the civil limitation period for sexual assault, which occurred in June 2020 in Quebec, was the perfect pretext to pay tribute to the fight of the victims, says the director.
“Some of them have been fighting for twenty years already, because it is a legal process that is very long,” explains Jean-François Poisson. “The scale of the problem is such that we have traveled all over Quebec to discuss with victims of sexual abuse,” he insists. And indigenous populations are no exception. A year after the outbreak of the residential school scandal, which made Pope Francis come to apologize to the Aboriginals, the testimonies of the Aboriginals were not long in coming.
“With the Pope’s visit approaching, we had to interview Indigenous victims in pray for us. It was essential to hand them the microphone, ”adds the director.