Western Canada: Vancouver Archdiocese uncovers dozens of priest sex abuse cases

VANCOUVER (CANADA)
The Globe and Mail

Nov. 22, 2019

By Wendy Cox and James Keller

A painstaking examination of 70 years worth of files by a task force formed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver has uncovered instances of sex abuse by 36 priests, 25 of them involving children.

The document identifies only nine of the 36 priests whose names have been made public through court documents or lawsuits, but the archdiocese said it is working to find a way to release more, those “who have not been convicted, but of whose guilt we are morally certain.”

Ian Bailey reports that the archdiocese explains in its report that privacy rules prevent it, as the employer of the priests, from disclosing more.

But the spare details of the nine cases are chilling if familiar.

They include the case of Paul Blancard, who was accused of the sexual assault of a girl, aged six or seven, in St. Helen’s Parish in Burnaby in 1967 or 1968. No charges were laid, but he later pleaded guilty in 1992 to abusing six- and seven-year-old children while he was a priest in the Diocese of Victoria. He served a year in prison and has not been active in the priesthood since.

John McCann, who died last year, was charged and convicted in 1991 of six counts relating to sex abuse of girls under 16 in the 1970s. The abuse happened at two diocese churches and he was defrocked. But unbeknown to the Archdiocese, he was able to serve as a priest on Salt Spring Island in the Diocese of Victoria and in the Archdiocese of Ottawa.

Lawrence Cooper began a relationship with a 15-year-old girl when he was a 27-year-old seminarian and the relationship became sexual several years later. Similar complaints were made against him after he transferred to the Archdiocese of Portland. A civil lawsuit against him was settled out of court in 2012.

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.