CANADA
The Windsor Star
Nov 20, 2013
Don Lajoie
A Windsor woman who offers support for victims of clergy sex abuse wants to expand the service nationwide.
Brenda Brunelle is seeking federal incorporation as a not-for-profit organization that would offer help to victims across Canada. She began the service in Windsor last year.
Brunelle, who was sexually abused by local priest Rev. Michael Fallone when she was a girl, sued the Catholic church four years ago and reached a settlement in 2012.
Brunelle said the local chapter of the U.S.-based international Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has helped dozens of victims come to terms with their experiences — participants come from as far away as Sarnia and Cambridge to take part in regular meetings. The first session she chaired in Toronto recently drew 16 people, despite little advance notice.
“The experience was overwhelming,” she said. “It was the first time many had ever met someone else who had been abused and the emotions were high. People were still talking in the parking lot well after the meeting ended. They didn’t want to leave. It was the rawest moment I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
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