(Wendover (ON)) A reserved and uneventful Franco-Ontarian mother, Joele Pharand-Fournier was shopping at Walmart with her friend Brigitte Cléroux, around 2005, when she wanted to try on a bra. Not doing anything twice, Cléroux allegedly took off his sweater and tried on the underwear directly in the aisle of the store, in front of everyone, laughing.
“I ran away because I was so embarrassed. But Brigitte was comfortable and had fun. She had extraordinary self-confidence,” says M.me Pharand-Fournier.
Neighbor of Brigitte Cléroux in the small municipality of Rockland, in eastern Ontario, Joele Pharand-Fournier did not suspect at the time that her friend was in fact an inveterate fraudster and a serial fake nurse who would make numerous victims across Canada.
Brigitte Cléroux is currently incarcerated in Ontario where she is serving a seven-year sentence for posing as a nurse in 2021 in Ottawa. She also faces 14 criminal charges, including posing as a nurse in a Vancouver hospital between June 2020 and 2021. She allegedly treated more than 1,000 patients there. And on Wednesday, 12 new people filed civil suits against Brigitte Cléroux for having been treated by her at the British Columbia Women’s Hospital, court documents reveal (see other text).
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Joele Pharand-Fournier searches the documents and articles she has accumulated about Brigitte Cléroux.
Sitting in the kitchen of her bungalow in Wendover, from which emanates a strong smell of apple crisp, Joele Pharand-Fournier remembers with a mixture of melancholy and anger her years of friendship with Brigitte Cléroux. For the first time, she tells her story publicly.
Already a life of lies
Initially, the meeting between the two women was a friendly love at first sight. “Brigitte, she’s the kind of person you can’t avoid. She is so welcoming […] She is active. She is “loud”. It’s fun being with her,” says Mme Pharand-Fournier. She also describes Cléroux as a woman with a “big heart”, who did not hesitate to give her a helping hand, notably by watching over her two children on occasion.
At the time of their meeting, Brigitte Cléroux was raising her daughter and working as a nurse at the Hawkesbury hospital, but quickly left this job, says Mme Pharand-Fournier.
“She said she had an argument with the boss,” said her former friend. The real explanation will be known later, when Brigitte Cléroux is convicted of having used the identity of a nurse to work at the hospital.
She will be fined $60,000 and sentenced to six months in prison for this action, according to a notice issued in 2010 by the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta.
At first, Joele Pharand-Fournier is unaware that her friend is lying about her status. After leaving her job as a nurse, Cléroux worked as a French teacher at Philemon Wright secondary school in Gatineau. “She said she could teach because she had a B.S. […] But what are his actual studies? I don’t even know,” admits Mme Pharand-Fournier.
In a magazine article Maclean’s published in April 2022, a former student of the Philemon Wright school will testify to the unorthodox teaching of Cléroux, who one day made them watch a pornographic film. Another former student said Maclean’s having been intimidated by Cléroux, who liked to teach in tight pants and a leopard-print top.
Getaway in the West
In 2006, Brigitte Cléroux moved to Alberta with her daughter and her partner at the time. She invites Joele Pharand-Fournier and her family to follow them and settle in the basement of their house, where an apartment is set up.
Brigitte Cléroux works as a nurse in an Alberta clinic. She tries to convince her friend to do the same. Joele Pharand-Fournier responds that she does have a beneficiary attendant course, but no nursing training: “I said to Brigitte: “When they ask me for my papers, what am I going to tell them?” She replied: “Tell them that your papers are coming from Ontario, but that you have not received them yet.” » Mme Pharand-Fournier refuses.
After a year and a half, Joele Pharand-Fournier wants to return to the east of the country. She leaves Alberta with her husband and children, leaving her belongings in Brigitte Cléroux’s house, while she finds accommodation, she says. At the same time, Joele Pharand-Fournier learned that she was pregnant for the third time. An unexpected pregnancy. She quickly informs Brigitte Cléroux and wishes to name her godmother.
Mme Pharand-Fournier ended up finding accommodation to his liking in Ontario. She then sent a truck to Alberta to collect her belongings. But on site, Brigitte Cléroux refuses to let the truckers enter, according to Mme Pharand-Fournier. “We were never able to get our furniture back,” she said. The whole house remained there […] She stole all my memories. All my photos of children. My wedding photos. It’s like we’ve been burned. We lost everything. »
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Joele Pharand-Fournier
Weakened by a high-risk pregnancy, Joele Pharand-Fournier does not have the strength to fight. She cuts all ties with Brigitte Cléroux. With a sob in her voice, she says that her life is becoming very difficult: “I was sleeping on the ground. My children too […]. We had to start all over again. »
It was only several months later that Joele Pharand-Fournier learned that her former friend had stolen her identity in Alberta, she says. “It takes 10 to 20 years to clear your name. Today I can’t even have a Hydro account in my name […]. I think I’m going to live my whole life with the consequences of this.”
Fraud alerts
In July 2010, Brigitte Cléroux was preparing to be released from prison in Ontario, when the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta issued an alert informing “potential employers” that Brigitte Cleroux “has been accused of impersonating a nurse in Alberta and Ontario.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Newspaper clipping of an article about Brigitte Cléroux
In November of the same year, Cléroux pleaded guilty to 17 counts in Alberta and received a three-year prison sentence. In the judgment, we learn that she worked at the Richmond Square clinic in Calgary in June 2007 and injected two patients there. She also worked as a teacher in a Calgary school for four months in 2009. The court decision reveals that Cléroux provided two false letters to the court, one allegedly from her best friend and the other from her step-law. mother. Judge Barley of the Alberta court writes that Cléroux will have had the opportunity during this period to work honestly. But she will instead have chosen to “continue her dishonest path”.
Upon his release from Alberta prison in 2013, Cléroux returned to settle in the east of the country. Until 2022, she will live alternately in Gatineau, Ontario and Vancouver, shows her voluminous court file. She will be pinned for several other crimes (see other text).
Today, Joele Pharand-Fournier cannot believe that Brigitte Cléroux could so easily fool so many authorities across the country. She remains marked by adventure. “It’s been extremely difficult for me since then to trust people. I haven’t really made any female friends since,” she says.
What do we know about Brigitte Cléroux?
Born January 3, 1972
Number of convictions on his record since adulthood: more than sixty, mainly for fraud, attempted fraud, theft, identity theft and falsification of documents.
Names used at different times in her life: Brigitte Cléroux, Brigitte Marier, Brigitte Denise Cléroux, Brigitte Fournier, Bridget Clairemont, Mélanie Cléroux, Mélanie Gauthier, Melanie Thompson, Mélanie Smith, Mélanie Cousineau, Brigitte Cléroux Andrews, Brigitte Cartier Cléroux, Brigette Clairoux , Bridgette D Cleroux, Briditte Cleroux, Brigette Denise Cleroux, Brigitte Crooks, Pauline Hobbs Cardinal, Jaymee Bridgette Pavelich, Brigitte D Holloway.