Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Edmonton, Alberta, Canada · 1980

Canada: military base chaplain court-martialed for sexually assaulting children in the base chapel at CFB Edmonton

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Captain, Canadian Forces Chaplain Branch, Roman Catholic priest, base chaplain to military families at CFB Edmonton and other postings

Organization

Canadian Forces Chaplain Branch, Roman Catholic Church

Spiritual nexus

McRae was the sole chaplain serving the military-family community at CFB Edmonton; the assaults occurred inside the base chapel itself, the seat of his religious authority over children whose families were required by posting to live within his pastoral orbit. A subsequent ecclesiastical (Catholic diocesan) proceeding independently confirmed a pattern of abuse of minors, and a 2026 civil class action against the federal government for enabling his continued access across postings has been certified.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 1980-06-28 · sentencing

    Canadian Forces court martial, CFB Edmonton. guilty plea to buggery, gross indecency and indecent assault; sentenced to 4 years (reduced on appeal to 18 months), dishonorably discharged

  2. Date in cited record · sentencing

    Ontario provincial court, Toronto. guilty plea (1989) to sexual exploitation and sexual interference involving two further boys; 3 years' probation, banned from parish work for life

Appellate history

  1. sentence reduced from 4 years to 18 months; conviction itself not disturbed

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • used the base chapel — the physical seat of his religious authority over the base community — as the location of abuse
  • compound authority of military rank plus priestly office over children of the families under his pastoral charge

Primary record

Sources

Sylvia's Site / The Inquiry (theinquiry.ca) 'McRae: Father Angus McRae'.

Capt. Father Angus McRae, a Roman Catholic priest serving as a Canadian Forces chaplain, was arrested by military police at CFB Edmonton on June 28, 1980, following complaints from three youths aged 10 to 15 that McRae had sexually assaulted them in the base chapel. Charged with buggery, gross indecency and indecent assault, McRae pleaded guilty at his court martial and was sentenced to four years in the CFB Edmonton military prison, reduced on appeal to 18 months; he was released after serving 10 months and given a dishonorable discharge. In June 1980 he additionally admitted at an ecclesiastical court convened by his Catholic diocese to having sexually abused 'several minors' over the preceding years, resulting in mandatory counselling and five years' residency at a monastery.

CBC News (2026) 'Class-action lawsuit for children abused by military priest certified by Alberta court'.

A class-action lawsuit seeking compensation for child victims of Capt. Angus McRae — who served as a chaplain at bases across Canada, sexually abusing children living on-base with military families, and died in 2011 — was certified by the Court of King's Bench of Alberta. The suit alleges the federal government allowed the abuse to continue across McRae's postings.

BishopAccountability.org (2021) 'Federal government faces lawsuit over sexual abuse of children on Canadian military bases'.

Corroborates that McRae's abuse of children at Canadian Forces bases, where he served as chaplain to military families, extended across multiple postings and led to a 1989 further guilty plea in Toronto to fondling two boys aged 12 and 14, for which he was sentenced to three years' probation and banned from parish work for life.

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