Are the orphans of Duplessis the great forgotten ones in the movement to recognize the abuses committed within the Catholic Church? Several of them say they have experienced similar abuse – sexual, physical and psychological – to that inflicted on the victims of pedophile priests and survivors of residential schools. However, they deplore having been erased from collective memory and insufficiently compensated by the Quebec government.
Note that none of the allegations made in this report have yet been proven in court. Neither the congregations targeted by the allegations reported in this article nor their lawyers wanted to answer the questions of the Duty due to ongoing legal proceedings.
“We are being forgotten, breaths Marc Migneault. It’s like we don’t exist [les orphelins de Duplessis]. The 66-year-old man alleges that he was sexually assaulted by a priest during his stay from 1960 to 1964 at the Institut Mgr Guay in Lauzon (Lévis) and physically attacked by nuns who beat him with strap and whip. “Me, I don’t forget. “
The orphans of Duplessis are these children taken care of from 1935 to 1964 by religious congregations in orphanages and psychiatric hospitals in the province. Several of them were falsely labeled as mentally retarded, rendering them unsuitable for adoption.
When the Quebec government set up the National Reconciliation Program with Duplessis Orphans and Orphans in the 2000s, Suzanne (fictitious first name) received $ 15,000 in financial assistance.
“We received crumbs,” protests the lady who wishes to preserve anonymity since her relatives are not all aware of her past. “I had to do three therapies to get by, and I’m starting another one. “
Abandoned by her mother, the 69-year-old woman spent 4 to 10 years at the La Tuque orphanage, managed by the Gray Nuns of Montreal. “I was made to eat my vomit. I was locked in a dark dungeon downstairs, without a window, and so small that I had to sleep sitting up. I was getting beaten with knife handles on my knuckles, to the point that I had to have surgery later. We were getting beatings strap, rule. We were undernourished, Suzanne alleges. We were out of luck, and not roughly. “
I had to do several therapies to overcome my trauma
“Do you think people laugh at me? »Says Albert Nadeau, who also received $ 15,000 in financial assistance. As a child, the 67-year-old was placed in the Youville crèche in Montreal, where he says he suffered ill-treatment at the hands of the Gray Nuns of Montreal. Like many other Duplessis orphans, Albert Nadeau subsequently became what was called at the time an agricultural orphan. He says he was sent to a farmer in Saint-Alexis de Montcalm who treated him as a “slave”. “My heart, he’s got a dagger in it. You remain branded for life. “
Receipt
In order to obtain this financial assistance, the 6,467 orphans of Duplessis whose request was accepted by the reconciliation program had to sign a discharge thus waiving any civil, individual or collective action against the government of Quebec and religious congregations for damage, abuse and prejudice suffered in an institution.
For Pierre Samson, signing this declaration allowed him above all to obtain a document which confirmed that he had been interned “illegally”, he said, for eight years at the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu psychiatric hospital in the east of Montreal, held by the Sisters of Providence. The man was one of the hundreds of orphans falsely declared “mentally deficient”, then interned by the government of Maurice Duplessis in order to obtain federal subsidies.
“But, below my signature, I wrote“Signed under duress” [signé sous la contrainte] », He says in English. Suddenly, his bank account swelled by $ 18,500. “But I was so insulted [par le montant] that I gave all the money, ”he rages. “I went through hell,” recalls the 74-year-old. A hell that would have taken the form of medical experiments and electric shocks practiced on his child’s body, he alleges.
Compensation
According to Rod Vienneau, who heads the Committee for Children of the Great Darkness, Quebec owes a moral debt to the orphans of Duplessis. “They never got justice,” he proclaims. The government has also chosen the term “financial assistance” rather than “compensation” in its reconciliation program to avoid acknowledging the wrongs of the past, he believes.
In recent years, Rod Vienneau has collected the names of 1,480 Duplessis orphans, including 29 Aboriginals, who wish to participate in a new legal action against the government of Quebec and eight congregations of nuns (the Sisters of Providence, the Sisters of Mercy of Montreal, the Gray Nuns of Montreal, the Little Franciscans of Mary, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Quebec, the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady Help of Christians, the Sisters of Charity of Quebec, the Dominican Sisters of the Trinity).
In May 2020, Justice André Prévost, of the Superior Court, rejected this request for authorization to institute a class action presented by Mr.e Alan Stein on behalf of the Duplessis orphans. The magistrate argued that there was no question of law common to the whole group.
But an appeal was granted in February 2021 and will be heard in the coming months. “If it is necessary, I will go to the Supreme Court”, launches in interview Me Stein. “It’s ridiculous, the amounts they received. “
The lawyer argues that the law has evolved. When the Duplessis orphans accepted the financial aid, they had no possible legal recourse because of the statute of limitations. However, this was abolished in 2020 for cases of sexual assault and violence suffered during childhood.
Me Stein also considers that the discharge is only valid for the financial assistance offered by the government of Quebec, and not for the claims for punitive and exemplary damages for the sexual, physical and psychological abuses which they would have undergone. The lawyer is demanding compensation of $ 875,000 from the government and religious communities for each orphan.
Among the congregations of nuns targeted by the procedure, only the congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady Help of Christians agreed to answer the questions of the Duty. Sister Thérèse Charbonneau assures us that no child who has stayed at the St-Michel orphanage in Rouyn has received a false diagnosis of “mental retardation”. According to her, only one alleged victim of abuse claims to have attended the St-Michel orphanage and “we have no evidence in our files that this person stayed here,” she said.
The law firms representing the religious congregations targeted by the authorization request all refused to answer our questions, since the case is currently before the courts. So far, it has not been established in court that these congregations have abused children.
To read on Tuesday
The Attorney General of Quebec, also concerned by the procedure, did not want to comment on the current legal process either. Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette’s press secretary, Élisabeth Gosselin, however specified that the national program for reconciliation with the orphans of Duplessis “was established following the recommendations of a report by the Québec Ombudsman and a agreement with the Institutionalized Orphans and Orphans Committee of Duplessis ”.
What about religious congregations?
According to information obtained by The duty with the Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale – which oversees the program for reconciliation with the orphans of Duplessis – the government of Quebec has disbursed $ 92 million in financial assistance. Religious congregations have not contributed financially to this program.
“And the sisters never apologized,” recalls Gábor Boros, who was separated with his brother from the rest of their family when they arrived in Quebec from Hungary in 1957. The two boys, aged 6 and 8, were placed in care. in 1959 at the Institut Saint-Joseph-de-la-Délivrance, in Lévis, managed by the Sisters of Charity of Quebec – “a form of kidnapping”, in the eyes of the septuagenarian.
As soon as they got off the boat, “the congregation persuaded our parents […] to take charge of us, ”he said. In this environment of “hostility, xenophobia, verbal and physical violence” that was the orphanage, they were forbidden to speak Hungarian, and the nuns wanted at all costs to drive out the Communist in them, maintains the man. . A stay that also left him with several atrophied fingers after nuns had poorly treated his frostbite, he testifies.
Jean-Paul Fortier, who also attended the Institut Saint-Joseph-de-la-Délivrance, says he still has marks on his back today following lashes received at the orphanage and claims to have suffered of bulimia and anorexia for 25 years after being forced to eat his vomit. “I had to do several therapies to overcome my trauma,” he says.
The 69-year-old draws a parallel with the abuse at residential schools. “It’s practically the same thing that happened to us,” he said. It should not be forgotten, however, that in the residential schools, the abuses were perpetrated within the framework of a cultural genocide which is recognized today.
Shroud of invisibility
According to Laval University sociology professor André Turmel, the Duplessis orphans suffer from a veil of invisibility. “It gives us a good conscience in Quebec to know that the 215 children [dont les dépouilles ont été trouvées] near the Kamloops residential school were under federal responsibility. It’s not the good Quebecers who did that, ”notes the author of the book. Quebec through its children – A historical sociology (1850-1950).
But Quebecers will one day have to look at themselves in the mirror, he believes. “The treatment we have given to the orphans of Duplessis is the closest thing to what we have done to the native children [des pensionnats]. “
With Ulysse Bergeron