N.B. Village to Vote on Taking Priest's Name off Arena

CBC News
March 8, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/03/07/nb-cap-pele-arena-plebiscite-priest.html

A plebiscite on renaming the Cap-Pele arena will be held on May 14.A plebiscite on renaming the Cap-Pele arena will be held on May 14. (Marc Genuist/CBC)

A coastal village in southeastern New Brunswick will hold a plebiscite to decide whether its arena should still be named after a priest who has been accused of sexually assaulting children.

Camille Leger died in 1990, but several people in Cap-Pele are now alleging he abused children in the community when he worked there between 1957 and 1980.

Leger was never charged with any crimes.

The village council has agreed to put the issue — of renaming Arena Pere-Camille-Leger to Arena de Cap-Pele — to a vote during the May 14 municipal elections.

“We have a black cloud that is on top of Cap-Pele and we want that cloud to go out and let the sun come in,” said Coun. Norbert Gaudet, who alleges he was one Leger’s victims.

Gaudet claims he’s met dozens of men over the years who say they were also assaulted by the former priest of the Ste Therese d'Avila Roman Catholic parish.

“I can’t tell you the exact number, but it’s a lot,” said Gaudet.

“I don’t have enough fingers on my hand and enough toes on my feet. It’s too much.”

But people never talked about it, said Gaudet.

“Back then, the priest [had] an awful power on the public," he said.

Even after Leger's death, people were afraid, he said.

"One on one I was talking with people, maybe 10 years ago, that the name shouldn’t be there and a lot of people were telling me ‘Don’t start that, leave that aside, there’s no need to bring that back.'

“We kept that inside us and now I think it’s time, the more I get older it seems like the more I get mad at it," he said.

Gaudet said he doesn't want to be reminded of what happened to him every time he goes to the arena to watch his grandson play hockey.

“I don't like to look at the name and even the picture there is of [Leger]. I don't want to see that. It brings back memories and I don't need that.”

Gaudet says he would have preferred if council had made a decision on the renaming. But he's willing to live with the results of the plebiscite.

“I hope that when it's done that the people will vote the right way to take the name off.”

A plebiscite vote must have 60 per cent to pass.

This is the second confirmed plebiscite that will be held on May 14.

Grand Manan is asking its citizens whether they want the village council to ask the provincial government to remove the fares on the ferry that connects the island to the mainland.

Grand Manan Mayor Dennis Greene said on Wednesday he think the vote will be close.