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	Church Settles Sex Abuse Cases with Labrador Innu CBC News [Canada] April 6, 2006 http://www.cbc.ca/nl/story/nf-innu-church-20060406.html The Roman Catholic church has settled three more civil lawsuits alleging sexual exploitation of Innu boys by clergy in Labrador. The lawsuits, which were rooted in incidents dating back as far as the 1970s, were settled this winter. Two cases involved two Natuashish men who claimed they were sexually abused by a lay member of the Oblate order in the 1980s. Gordon Paul Baynham was charged with three counts of sexual assault in 1990, but the provincial government refused to pay the cost of his extradition from the U.S. Justice officials argued a conviction would likely have resulted only in a suspended sentence or a short prison term. The civil suit against Baynham and the Labrador City-Schefferville diocese was settled for an undisclosed amount. In the third case, an Innu man recently reached a settlement in a case alleging sexual assaults by Leonard Paradis, a former Oblate priest who was sentenced to three years' probation for gross indecency. Paradis began working in the Innu community of Sheshatshiu, in central Labrador, in the 1970s. The Catholic church has now settled nine of 27 civil suits for sexual abuse in Innu communities. Simeon Tshakapesh, the former chief of Natuashish, is one of the two men who allege that Baynham molested them in Davis Inlet, the Innu community which was resettled in 2002. Tshakapesh said now that the civil case is over, he wants to put the matter behind him. However, he added that he is still upset that Baynham never faced charges in a criminal court.
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