VANCOUVER (CANADA)
CBC NEWS
August 28, 2020
By Rhianna Schmunk
Archdiocese hopes ‘publicity’ will help give survivors ‘confidence to come forward; get the help they deserve’
A woman who claims she was assaulted as a child at a Catholic elementary school in Vancouver is suing the local archdiocese for perpetuating and covering up decades of alleged systemic abuse by priests, bishops and other members of its clergy, forcing survivors into silence in order to protect their own.
The proposed class-action lawsuit filed this week said the Archdiocese of Vancouver not only knew for years about allegations of systemic sexual, physical and psychological abuse, but “fostered a culture” of misconduct and actively buried complaints filed against the clergy.
“The Archdiocese was aware of the abuse and allowed the abuse to continue … This was especially true in instances of sexual abuse,” the claim reads.
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