BishopAccountability.org
	Family Support Has Been Key for Victims By Carol Mulligan Sudbury Star January 29, 2008 http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=878297 Some audience members were stone-faced as their loved ones sat before reporters listening to details being read out by their lawyer of sex abuse they allege they suffered at the hands of priests decades ago. Claims of fondling, masturbation, oral sex, anal penetration, digital penetration, mutual masturbation and other sexual acts were read off like shopping lists. Not all of those in the audience were stoic as lawyer Robert Talach of Ledroit Beckett Litigation Lawyers in London, Ont. tried to sum up years of sexual abuse - and decades of the after-effects of it - in 30 minutes for reporters. One young woman, perhaps the daughter of a plaintiff, sobbed and daubed at her eyes with a tissue throughout the conference. Two elderly women sat at the back of several rows of chairs set out in the Notre Dame Room at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Sudbury. It wasn't clear why they were there or who they were supporting. Almost a year ago, in February 2007, a smaller room upstairs held three plaintiffs and their supporters as they outlined their civil lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie in another, similar news conference. On Monday, the room in which the news conference was held was more than twice as large as the year before, and there were twice as many people attending to support seven plaintiffs in as many lawsuits against two dioceses and a religious order. This time the plaintiffs included a woman, Anita Contant, 60, just eight years old when she alleges she was abused by two priests at Scollard Hall in North Bay. Before the official news conference and after, groups of people, mostly women, pulled their chairs together in circles so they could talk face to face. Louise Carriere, wife of plaintiff Raymond Carriere, cried when she relayed how she was worried reporters would attack her husband and other plaintiffs for telling their stories. Her relief that that hadn't transpired was palpable. Raymond Carriere's mother, who did not wish to give her name, was there to support her son, now 50. She tried to support him 35 years ago when he told her he had been fondled by Father Rene Hebert. She thought she had done the right thing. She and other parents took their concerns to the bishop of the day, Alexander Carter, and asked for them to be dealt with by police. Carriere's mother never got the response she waited for from Carter or the diocese or the police. She still goes to church, she says almost defiantly. "I believe in God," she says. "I don't believe in priests." Until Sunday night, most of the plaintiffs and their family members had never met. But after spending three hours together Sunday evening and at the new conference itself, they won't likely be out of touch for very long. It will take years for the lawsuits to proceed through the courts, says Talach. The plaintiffs won't ever see a fraction of the $4.5 million each is seeking. The women sitting in circles don't talk about money. They say they are relieved the news conference is over. They are more relieved to know they are not alone; that there are others like them in the community. For years, it didn't seem as if that were so, they said. Contact: cmulligan@thesudburystar.com
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