Kelly Grenier, 48, Is One of the Last Women to Seek Redress from the Roman Catholic Diocese of London 0
By Randy Richmond
Kelly Grenier is one of the last of the Southwestern Ontario women to seek redress from the Roman Catholic diocese of London for alleged sexual abuse at the hands of disgraced and now-dead priest Charles Sylvestre. After more than seven years of stops and starts, and failed negotiations to reach a settlement, the case heads to trial Monday in London. - - - Kelly Grenier could ride this trial out one way or the other. She could rock in her late grandmother’s chair, which she has insisted be placed in her lawyer’s office to use during breaks. “When I’m rocking it is very soothing. And I can visualize myself being rocked by her.” Or Grenier could, as she puts it, take the court on the wild “rodeo ride” that can be her personality. “I could just melt down. I could just start to cry and not stop. I am exhausted.” When you’re about to have lawyers and experts pick at all the scars of your life so a judge can determine exactly what caused the bleeding, you don’t know how you’re going to react. Grenier, 48, is one of the last women to seek redress from the Roman Catholic diocese of London over its disgraced and dead priest, Charles Sylvestre. After more than seven years of stops and starts, and failed negotiations to reach a settlement, the case is headed to trial Monday in London. Over 12 days, the facts of the case will be argued, but the fact of the trial itself raises a question: Given the church’s recent efforts — from Pope Francis on down — to reconcile with victims of abuse and stop what is called the culture of disbelief, why is one victim being forced to endure a painful trial? To the church, the answer is simple. This is the path Grenier chose. “Our approach is that the victim drives the process. Everyone is treated with compassion. The victim chooses how they want to proceed,” says diocese spokesperson Mark Adkinson, careful to note he can’t talk about any specific case. Sylvestre was convicted in 2006 of 47 counts of indecent assault spanning four decades and involving girls in parishes in London, Sarnia, Chatham, Windsor, and Pain Court. He died in 2007 at age 84, just months into a three-year prison sentence. Grenier claims she was abused by Sylvestre in Pain Court from the age of 13, culminating in a brutal rape when she was 18. The rape happened a few days after her beloved grandmother was killed in a car crash. The next day, Grenier says, she had to watch in silence as Sylvestre, the pedophile, the rapist, performed the sacred duty of burying her grandmother. “My life stopped,” Grenier says. “I have been sabotaging myself ever since.” She couldn’t finish school, never held a good job for long, never had a permanent relationship. “I buried everything but not so deep I didn’t try to kill myself.” In 2006, she learned Sylvestre was on trial and in 2007 watched a documentary about the abuse called The Good Father. She approached a lawyer, who filed an original claim for almost $5 million. But since then, the lawyers changed and, Grenier says, the diocese has refused to offer a legitimate settlement. Grenier has suffered injuries in her life, physical and emotional, that will no doubt be examined in detail in court. “I am a complicated client,” she says. The church seems to recognize that. In its statement of defence, the diocese says any damages Grenier suffered “arose from mental or physical conditions that existed prior to the assaults or were acquired by her after the assaults.” Grenier says she’s praying for a last-minute reprieve, but has been building herself up for months to get ready for trial. What once caused pain, her grandmother’s funeral, she hopes becomes strength. “I should have stopped it. I should have spoken out,” she says. “I didn’t have the strength when I was 18. I don’t want to let my grandmother down again. This is my last chance to set this right.” Contact: randy.richmond@sunmedia.ca
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