A delegation of Inuit from Canada asked France on Monday at a press conference for the extradition of Joannes Rivoire, a former French-Canadian cleric, now in a retirement home in Lyon, accused of several sexual assaults on young Inuit in the 1960s and 1970s.
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They have traveled 4,400 kilometers between Canada and France to demand justice: a delegation of Inuit from Nunavut, a territory located in northern Canada, is asking France for the extradition of a former religious, Joannes Rivoire, a Franco-Canadian, now in a retirement home in Lyon, accused of several sexual assaults on minors in the 1960s and 1970s. The victims and their families held a press conference on Monday September 12 to publicize their painful fight for justice.
>> “We all want justice”: 30 years later, Canadian Inuit hope for the extradition of a French priest whom they accuse of sexual assault
Steve Mapsalak is six years old when he crosses paths with Johannes Rivoire in a Catholic school. He is almost 80 years old today. Impossible to evoke what he suffered when he was a child: the years passed, but he burst into tears.
“The pain is still so strong years later. What he did is very serious. I need to close this chapter, he must face justice!”
Steve Mapsalakat franceinfo
Steve filed a complaint in the early 1990s, three years before the father of Tania Tungilik, another alleged victim, died in 2012. Handkerchief in hand, Tania recounts her family’s descent into hell: “This horrible experience haunted my father, she explains. He didn’t know how to compensate. He ended up beating and sexually assaulting my mother for 20 years. He ended up being an alcoholic. I put him out of my life to save myself but I still regret.”
Tania and the Inuit delegation are going to Lyon to try to meet Joannes Rivoire. They already have the support of his religious congregation, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who asked the former missionary to go face justice in Canada. The 92-year-old man has always denied it. “There is no element that allows the accusations to be firmly established, indicates Joannes Rivoire’s lawyer, Me Thierry Dumoulin, whose precise content is unknown, which are brought against this man who, until proven otherwise, is innocent.
An extradition request has been pending since 2021. A request that the lawyer denies having received. But the victims cling: Wednesday, they will go to the French Ministry of Justice to support the file.