The Quebec Court of Appeal delivered a decision on Tuesday that will allow man, who alleges he was the victim of sexual abuse decades ago at the hands of a priest who served at St. Joseph’s Oratory and a religious brother who was his elementary school teacher, to pursue a class- action lawsuit against two Montreal-based religious organizations.
The decision allows the plaintiff (a man whose identity is protected by a publication ban) to pursue legal action against the Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal (the religious order that runs the iconic basilica on Mount Royal) and Province Canadienne de la Congrégation de Sainte-Croix along with a group of roughly 40 people.
The man alleged he was sexually abused, during a period when he was between eight and 10 years old, by a religious brother at the school he attended in Montreal during the 1950s and that a priest at the oratory abused him inside the priest’s office while pretending to hear his confessions. The man alleges he was sexually abused once or twice a week for a period of two years. According to the man’s claims, he never spoke of sexual assaults to anyone until 2011, after he saw an episode of Radio-Canada’s Enquête that reported on sexual abuses inflicted on children who attended Collège Notre-Dame de Montréal.
The decision gives the man the status to represent all Quebec residents “who were subjected to sexual abuse by members of the Province Canadienne de la Congrégation de Sainte-Croix, in all teaching establishments, residences, summer camps or other locations situated in Quebec, as well as the Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal.” Three schools that have been sued in the past, by victims who were sexually abused as minors, were excluded from Tuesday’s decision.
In November 2013, the plaintiff filed a request to pursue the class-action lawsuit. In 2015, a Quebec Superior Court Justice denied the man’s request because he was unable to produce “precise facts” (concerning the other people who claim they were also abused) as had been done in previous class-action suits filed against religious orders in Quebec. Lawyers for the congregation have argued there was no serious investigation of how many people were allegedly abused by the religious order that ran the school. The plaintiff argues the composition of the group has nothing to do with locations but with the aggressors and their link to the congregation.
In its 38-page decision, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that the plaintiff has made sufficient arguments to suggest he is acting on behalf of a group and that it will ultimately be up to the judge assigned to the case to determine how large the group should be.
The court also ruled that the Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal can be pursued through a class-action suit because many of the 40 people claim they suffered abuse there similar to what the plaintiff alleges. One of the three Quebec Court of Appeal judges who were part of Tuesday’s decision dissented and does not agree that Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal should be included in the class-action lawsuit.
