CANADA
The Globe and Mail
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
SAINT-MATHIEU-D’HARRICANA, Que. — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May. 27 2013
He likens his powerful fingers to “the scalpels of Jesus,” and some believe him.
Others, however, view self-proclaimed faith healer Claude Provencher as a charlatan and sex predator.
And as he tugs on yet another cigarette, Mr. Provencher, 56, concedes he’s nervous about what will transpire Monday morning when he is to be sentenced, once again, for sexually assaulting a patient, after being convicted in January.
But that’s the price of doing the Lord’s work, he says. And after battling the legal system every inch of the way, he knows that after his latest Superior Court appearance in Haileybury in northeastern Ontario, close to the Quebec border, he’ll be heading back to jail for the second time, entirely unrepentant.
“I am gifted. God showed me how the body works, and I’m able to heal almost anything,” he insists, adding that he’s done a few exorcisms too. “I can cure all of it – heart, lungs, thyroid, kidneys, infections, anything, although sometimes not all at once.”
He’ll be going to jail for the sexual assault of Trina Breault, 43, a woman who was his patient, and whom he assaulted over the course of several visits under the pretense of being her healer.
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