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	Moms Feel the Pain Describe Abused Sons' Struggles By Mark Bellis Ottawa Sun [Canada] October 6, 2006 http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/10/06/1963671-sun.html Cornwall -- Two mothers described yesterday how decades-old sexual abuse haunts their lives. "My children lost their faith," said Lise Brisson, 73, whose son Benoit was abused by Gilles Deslauriers, a Cornwall priest and chaplain at the local French high school. Brisson was testifying at the Cornwall Public Inquiry looking at how the city's institutions responded to allegations of abuse. PRIEST TRANSFERRED Brisson wept as she told how the truth came out only after her son's marriage broke down in 1986, eight years after the abuse, which happened when he was 16. A devout Catholic, Brisson wanted to keep the matter inside the church, but became worried after hearing that Deslauriers had been transferred to Hull, and she did not know whether he was getting treatment. After she was contacted by other victims, who said they had been abused by Deslauriers, Brisson said she was told by the diocese to let the matter drop. She persisted, which led police to charge Deslauriers, who received three months' probation. Brisson sobbed as she described how she went to then-Bishop Eugene Larocque to ask for a loan for her son to see a psychiatrist. He refused. "When your child, who is 35 ... comes to you in tears, what can you do?" she asked. Brisson recommended the church do more to return the "stray sheep" that had been driven away by abuse. "Justice, freedom and reconciliation can co-exist." Juliette Seguin, mother of Larry Seguin, who said he was abused by two men when he was 6 and 16, testified how the first alleged abuser could not be charged because police said they could find no physical evidence, and that when he was abused the second time, she got little information from the police, who did charge and convict the abuser.
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