BishopAccountability.org
	Top Court to Hear Quebec City Woman's Sex Assault Case CBC News January 21, 2010 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/01/21/qe-sex-abuse-lawsuit-appeal.html The Supreme Court of Canada will hear the case of a Quebec City woman who wants to sue a priest who sexually abused her when she was a child in the1970s. The woman filed a lawsuit against Rev. Paul-Henri LaChance and the Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec City three years ago — three decades after the abuse happened. Two lower courts previously ruled that she waited too long to take legal action. LaChance pleaded guilty in 2008 to a charge of gross indecency against the woman. The Quebec Superior Court refused to allow a lawsuit to go ahead. That decision was upheld by the Quebec Court of Appeal in July 2009, which ruled that the woman or her parents — or anyone else representing her interests — should have gone to court within three years of the abuse taking place. Alain Arsenault, the woman's lawyer, said Wednesday that he's pleased Canada's highest court has agreed to review the case because it gives his client another chance to argue that she could not have taken legal action any sooner than she did. Arsenault said the law now effectively blocks children who have been sexually abused from suing the perpetrators. If abuse happens to children when they're eight years old, he said, it's unlikely they would start legal proceedings when they're 11 years old. The facts of the woman's case are outlined in the Quebec Court of Appeal's decision dated July 9, 2009. The woman, whose identity is protected by court order, was six years old when LaChance started sexually assaulting her. The woman said the abuse began in the summer of 1979, when she began visiting the priest once a week. LaChance started touching her. When she began acting out, her parents took her to a nurse. She said that on Canada Day in 1981 when she was eight years old, LaChance took her to his room, took off her clothing and touched her more intimately than he had before. Afterwards, the woman said, she ran home and told her parents about the abuse. They immediately went to the archdiocese. The woman said her parents were told not to make any noise, and the matter would be taken care of.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.