LONDON (ONTARIO, CANADA)
The London Free Press
December 7, 2018
By Jane Sims
When she accepted a civil settlement from the Roman Catholic Church 18 years ago, Irene Deschenes was defeated.
“We are tired, we want closure and are hesitant to believe we can or will get justice from the court process,” she wrote in an email to her lawyer before accepting the terms in 2000.
What Deschenes, the Catholic Diocese of London and disgraced ex-priest Charles Sylvestre wouldn’t know is that settlement would send Deschenes on a determined course to expose the abusive Sylvestre and hold the church accountable.
In a ground-breaking decision, Superior Court Justice David Aston, who quoted Deschenes’ email, granted her motion and allowed the sexual abuse survivor to re-open her settlement after almost two decades.
“My goal here is to hold the Roman Catholic Church accountable for their unspeakable treatment of survivors,” Deschenes said at a news conference here on Thursday. “This is a continuation of my fight for justice, for me, and other known and unknown survivors of sexual abuse by priests and other religions.”
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