ONTARIO (CANADA)
CBC Radio
Nov. 18, 2019
The Catholic Church cannot be trusted or relied upon to address clerical sex abuse within their ranks in Canada, says a lawyer who has worked on more than 400 sex abuse-related cases.
“Why do we keep looking to the church to solve this problem?,” asked Rob Talach, a lawyer based in London, Ont.
“I’ve been at this almost two decades and … if I was holding my breath for the Catholic Church to change on this issue, I’d be a very rich hue of purple right now,” he told The Current’s interim host Laura Lynch.
“I just don’t understand why they can’t do something bold and definitive here, and [instead] always find a reason, a rationale, an excuse not to do the right thing.”
A CBC investigation has obtained the results of an internal review of cases of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, dating back to the 1950s.
The documents show the archdiocese was aware of 36 cases of abuse by clergy under its jurisdiction, including 26 involving children. The review also found three of their priests had fathered children.
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