The class action authorized by the Superior Court against the Diocese of Quebec marks an important step in the path of victims of sexual assault committed by pedophile priests: this action authorized last week by Judge Bernard Godbout could bring together a number of victims unmatched. The wall of silence erected for decades by the ecclesiastical authorities continues to crumble.
It is the courage of Gaétan Bégin and Pierre Bolduc, the two plaintiffs in this case, which is at the origin of this class action led by lawyers Alain Arsenault and Marc Bellemare. The action is extraordinary in that it encompasses any sexual assault committed by a member of the clergy or lay personnel of the Diocese of Quebec from 1940 to the present day. The territory targeted is vast: outside of Quebec, it encompasses Chaudière-Appalaches, Beauce and Charlevoix. In 1960, the diocese of Quebec had 230 parishes and more than 1,000 priests.
The lawyers therefore calculate that this action could be on an unprecedented scale: based on an assessment estimating the percentage of abusive priests at 10% and on the fact that each aggressor priest would have had several victims, they argue that hundreds of plaintiffs may wish to register for this action, the first of its kind. About 90 people have already come out of the shadows.
Gaétan Bégin and Pierre Bolduc were attacked by their parish priest, one in Beauce, the other near Thetford Mines, when they were between 12 and 17 years old. Their story is unique because it had significant negative repercussions for each of them throughout their adult lives. But the plot of their story is unfortunately common to tons of others: repeated attacks in the violated sanctuary of the sacristy; in the priest’s car; at his cottage or at his home. The father of one of the two men had denounced at the time the aggression suffered by his son. At most, the rapist priest was “put to rest” for a few weeks.
This last part of the story is not insignificant: it refers to a capital portion of the collective action, which targets the silence and blindness allegedly practiced by the religious authorities, thus violating their duties as employers and protector of children. In recent years, throughout the world, several sex scandals targeting members of the clergy have brought to light a double scandal: not only the assaults committed against children, but also the innate reflex of several congregations to protect the aggressors rather than the children, yet ultra-vulnerable.
For it is a veritable wall of silence that was once erected around the victims, and it is difficult to crack it: the silence of the victims at the time of the crimes, the silence of the Church which, even when informed, has not knew how to react with the kindness demanded by his rank; and the silence of the Vatican and the episcopate, which have long fought with vigorous resistance the slightest mention of sexual abuse by clergy. Yet they were enthroned at the top of one of the biggest sex scandals of the contemporary era. This filthy construction crumbles little by little, according to these multiple actions authorized by the Court. That aimed at the diocese of Quebec could be of unparalleled magnitude. Six other Quebec dioceses are targeted by possible class actions.
These legal actions are possible because, in 2020, the Quebec government, at the instigation of the CAQ, changed the Civil Code of Quebec and abolished the limitation period which prevented victims, after a certain period, from returning to the sources of the drama that poisoned their lives. This barrier, a veritable temporal prison for the victims, but a solid refuge for hundreds of rapists, has fallen, thank God.
Some may see the visit of Pope Francis to Quebec, scheduled for next July, differently. This visit is part of a process of reconciliation with the Aboriginal peoples, whose members suffered multiple abuses in the operation of assimilation of the First Nations orchestrated by the religious authorities and the Canadian government. The list of victims hoping for a gesture of contrition from the pontiff continues to grow.