CTV
October 29, 2010
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101029/scc-abuse-suit-101029/
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| The Supreme Court of Canada in Ottawa, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010. (Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS) |
The Supreme Court of Canada has resurrected a Quebec woman's sex-abuse lawsuit against a Roman Catholic priest and the province's archbishop.
The justices have ruled 7-0 that Shirley Christensen's case should go back for trial.
She says she was abused by Paul-Henri Lachance in Quebec City in the late 1970s, but only realized in 2006 that the abuse was linked to her psychological problems.
She filed her $250,000 suit in 2007, but the archbishop moved for dismissal, saying it came too late.
Quebec Superior Court and the Court of Appeal agreed, saying that since her parents knew of the abuse at the time and failed to act within the three-year window allowed for such suits under Quebec's civil code, her right to sue had evaporated.
Her parents complained to the archbishop at the time and were told that the matter would be dealt with privately.
The prelate urged them not to go to the police or sue and they complied.
Christensen argued that the limitation window only opened in 2006, when she made the connection between the abuse and her troubled life.
Before that, she said, it was impossible for her to act and the archbishop's advice meant her parents couldn't act, which effectively suspended the limitation period.
While the majority on the court of appeal rejected her position, Justice Jacques Chamberland dissented.
He said the question of when the statute of limitations kicked in was a matter for a trial, not simply a motion for dismissal. He said a trial judge should decide the matter only after hearing evidence.
The high court agreed, saying the question of when the clock started ticking on the limitation period couldn't be decided simply on the record.
"The trial judge will have to assess the evidence to determine whether, on the facts, inferences can be drawn that establish either that prescription did not start to run until 2006 or, possibly, that it was suspended in the circumstances of this case," the court said.
The window for filing such suits varies from province to province, although Quebec's three years is the shortest.
In a 1990 case dealing with incest, the Supreme Court ruled that the limitation clock only started running when the victim recognized a connection between the abuse and psychological troubles.
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