CANADA
National Post
Sarah Boesveld
Cindy Blanchette was a little girl when she attended a ceremony renaming the local arena in Cap-Pelé, N.B., after a prominent local priest. An image of the elderly man of honour, Father Camille Léger — his legs amputated due to gangrene — is burned in her memory, as are the whispers of whether he deserved the honour.
“I remember saying, ‘Look at him, doing great things for the community,’” said Ms. Blanchette, a lifelong resident of the Acadian fishing village. “And I remember my Dad saying, ‘He’s not such a great man for what he did to those kids.’”
Léger, who served in the Ste Therese d’Avila Roman Catholic parish in Cap-Pelé from 1957-1980, has been dead for over 20 years. But the muted rumours of sexual abuse became very public this week after the village council announced it will hold a plebiscite during the May 14 municipal election about whether to change the arena’s name from Aréna Père-Camille-Léger to Aréna de Cap-Pelé.
A committee made up of Knights of Columbus and current parishioners at the Catholic church came to council recently and asked Léger’s name be removed over allegations of child abuse, said deputy mayor Hector Doiron.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.