Quebec Catholic Order Agrees to $20m Abuse Settlement

Toronto Sun
August 12, 2014

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/08/12/quebec-catholic-order-agrees-to-20m-abuse-settlement

Father Raymond-Marie Lavoie at the courthouse on Feb. 10, 2012. Lavoie is one of the priests named in the lawsuit. (Annie T. Roussel/Journal de Quebec/QMI Agency)

A Catholic order has agreed to pay $20 million to at least 100 former students molested by priests between 1960 and 1987.

Nine priests were accused of abusing children at Saint-Alphonse college east of Quebec City. Some of the priests have since died.

The college is associated with the internationally revered shrine at the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre Basilica, located northeast of the city.

A lawyer for the Redemptorist order at the centre of the scandal confirmed the cash settlement Tuesday.

Last month the Catholic group lost a class action lawsuit filed by former students.

Instead of appealing the verdict, both sides spent the past week negotiating the settlement, which a judge must approve within 30 days.

"It was difficult," said victim Frank Tremblay, who spearheaded the suit after he said a priest molested him 80 times as a child.

"But I'm glad. What's happened here is a big deal."

Tremblay will get $150,000 while other victims could claim at least $75,000 each.

The settlement follows a hearing last fall in Quebec City, where more than a dozen former students testified against the priests.

One of the priests named in the lawsuit, Raymond-Marie Lavoie, is in prison after pleading guilty in 2011 to sexually abusing 13 boys at the college, including Tremblay.

Lavoie entered the plea just as his trial was set to begin.

He said he committed the acts when he was a teacher, supervisor and dormitory custodian.