St-alphonse Seminary Abuse Victims Win Class-action Lawsuit

By Geoffrey Vendeville
Montreal Gazette
July 10, 2014

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Alphonse+Seminary+abuse+victims+class+action+lawsuit/10019309/story.html

The Redemptorists religious order must pay as much as $150,000 in compensation to each former student of the St-Alphonse Seminary in Ste-Anne-de-Beaupre who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of members of the Catholic congregation, Quebec Superior Court ruled Thursday.

Victims of sexual abuse at the boys-only boarding school between 1960 and 1987 were to be awarded no less than $75,000 each, Judge Claude Bouchard decided.

A former student, Frank Tremblay, brought the class-action lawsuit forward four years ago in the name of all other victims against a teacher at the school, Raymond-Marie Lavoie, St-Alphonse College and the Redemptorists.

“This is a landmark decision,” said Tremblay’s lawyer, Robert Kugler. “The amount awarded, up to $150,000, is, I believe, more than any judge in Quebec has awarded to a victim of sexual abuse.”

At least 70 men said they were molested at the school when most were between the ages of 12 and 16, while authorities at the school turned a blind eye. As a result, many victims said they suffered from drug or alcohol addiction, depression and sexual confusion.

“We’ve done a lot of trials,” Kugler said. “This was probably the most heart-wrenching of any.”

One victim committed suicide in 2012 at 40 years old, a year before the suit went to trial.

“The abuse at the seminary was so predominant that one victim told me the children were being swapped like hockey trading cards between the priests,” said Carlo Tarini, a spokesperson for the association.

So far, nine priests who were at the seminary, six of whom have since died, have been accused of molesting students. In a separate criminal case, Lavoie previously pleaded guilty to 13 charges of sexual abuse involving 13 minors. Another of the accused, Jean-Claude Bergeron, is still on trial in Quebec City.

The Tres-St-Redempteur Congregation ran the seminary, northeast of Quebec City, until it closed in 1987.

“The sad thing in all this is that human beings, the victims as well as the Redemptorists who aren’t implicated, have suffered through this whole process,” said Pierre L. Baribeau, a lawyer for the congregation.

Contact: gvendeville@montrealgazette.com