The Diocese of Trois-Rivières is the target of a class action request from 30 people who allege that they have been victims of sexual assault over several years.
The originating application was filed by a law firm, after the class action was authorized by a judge last June.
The request mentions that at present, 30 people have claimed to have been assaulted by priests, employees or volunteers under the responsibility of the diocese, and this, over a period of 44 years. The alleged victims were boys and girls.
The motion alleges claims of $300,000 in non-pecuniary damages to compensate for suffering, $150,000 in pecuniary damages to compensate for loss of earnings and $150,000 in punitive damages, due to the seriousness and repetition of the intentional attack on dignity and psychological integrity, in addition to the abuse of power suffered.
The alleged victims reported the after-effects on their lives, their behaviors: anxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, feelings of guilt and humiliation, mistrust, rejection of religion and authority, nightmares, enuresis, dysfunction sexual, etc.
Father Bernard St-Onge, who is mentioned in the motion, among other things, had already pleaded guilty to 12 of the 13 counts of indecent assault on six victims brought against him and had been sentenced to six months in prison. imprisonment, is mentioned in the request.
The group is defined as “all persons, as well as their heirs and assigns, who have been sexually assaulted by a member of the diocesan clergy (bishop, priest, deacon) or by a religious, a member of the lay pastoral staff, a employee, a lay or religious volunteer, under the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Trois-Rivières and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Trois-Rivières, which exercised their authority over the Diocese of Trois-Rivières, such as the territory was defined at each of the periods concerned, during the period between January 1, 1940 and the judgment to be rendered”.