The Diocese of Montreal will pay a sum of at least $14.7 million to victims of sexual assaults committed by its members or by lay personnel of the Archdiocese of Montreal. In all, 60 victims were so far part of the collective action, but other people could be compensated.
It is in a press release that the law firm Arsenault Dufresne Wee announced Thursday that it had reached a settlement agreement for the class action which had been filed on April 3, 2019.
The hearing that will ratify the agreement affecting 60 victims for the moment will take place in the coming weeks (the date has not yet been determined). An official notice will appear in a few weeks, in which other people who would also be victims will be invited to join the collective action.
“We invite anyone who is part of the group to contact us quickly in order to register. Registration is free and confidential, ”writes the law firm in a press release.
By e-mail, the Archdiocese of Montreal indicated that “it is happy to have been able to reach an agreement concerning the collective action. We hope that this agreement will be approved by the Court and we hope that it will allow the victims to continue the difficult healing process more serenely”.
The law firm also specifies that sexual assaults committed by religious priests (members of a religious congregation) are not included in the settlement agreement.
The same law firm, however, leads many other collective actions which aim to compensate potential victims of sexual assault committed by members of religious congregations such as the Dominicans, the Brothers of the Christian Schools or the Congregation of Holy Cross. , among others. The lawyers say that 1,700 victims have already come forward to register for these various remedies.