PRINCE GEORGE (CANADA)
Prince George Citizen [Prince George, BC, Canada]
December 22, 2025
By Bob Mackin
A woman alleges she was sexually assaulted as a child at Camp Morice in Fort St. James
Another lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince George, this time from a woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted as a child at Camp Morice in Fort St. James.
In a notice of civil claim, filed Dec. 4 in BC Supreme Court in Vancouver, Ruby Ann Mortensen alleges that a Diocese-employed priest preyed upon her in 1972 at the camp.
Mortensen accuses Father O’Connor of using his position of authority and trust to molest her and prevent her from telling anyone.
“To facilitate the abuse, the perpetrator engaged in a pattern of behaviour intended to make the plaintiff feel that it was unsafe to report their wrongdoings,” said the lawsuit.
Mortensen accuses the diocese of knowing that O’Connor committed sexual assault, yet it failed to take action and continued to allow him to interact with children, including Mortensen.
Mortensen claims O’Connor caused her physical pain, anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder, that she will continue to require treatment and counselling and face loss of income and opportunity.
Mortensen’s lawsuit said the diocese owed a duty of care and fiduciary duty to all children in its care, at school and in the activities that it operated.
None of the allegations has been tested in court and the diocese has yet to file a statement of defence.
Father O’Connor is named in the lawsuit as a “non-party.” The first name is not mentioned.
Father Hubert O’Connor was the Bishop of Whitehorse beginning in 1971 and became the Bishop of Prince George in 1986 until his 1991 resignation due to allegations that he sexually assaulted students at the St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake. He died in 2007 at age 79.
Similar lawsuits against the diocese were filed in September via the same lawyer, Christopher McDougall, on behalf of a man and woman who claimed they were sexually assaulted in the 1970s and 1980s.
In reaction to the September lawsuits, James Fowlie, business manager for the diocese, said “we are unable to comment on legal matters.”
Last February, the diocese and St. Thomas More Collegiate of Burnaby settled for $3.4 million with an anonymous plaintiff who claimed to have been sexually abused by teacher Alfred Patrick Quigley.