Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic British Columbia, Canada · 1989

Canada: Oblate priest Harold McIntee convicted of sexually assaulting 17 boys and young men across three decades at a residential school and two parishes

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Harold McIntee, Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest serving an Indigenous residential school and later parishes in Hope, Duncan, Terrace and Stewart, British Columbia

Organization

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Spiritual nexus

McIntee's earliest victims were residential-school boys under his direct dormitory supervision; after leaving the school he continued to offend against young parishioners, including one he cultivated from a devout Catholic family, using his standing as their priest to gain access.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 1989-01-01 · guilty plea and sentence

    British Columbia court. McIntee pleaded guilty to 17 counts of sexual assault against boys and young men, including residential-school boys as young as ten, committed over roughly 30 years at the residential school (closed by the Oblates in 1979) and later at parishes in Hope, Duncan, Terrace and Stewart. He was sentenced to two years in jail plus three years' probation and was never removed from the priesthood.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • residential dormitory access to Indigenous boys at an Oblate-run residential school
  • parish-priest authority over parishioners' children and young men after leaving the residential school system
  • targeted cultivation of trust with devout Catholic families to gain access to victims outside the school setting

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting investigation report The Tyee, 'A Priest and His Power: Revisiting a Doomed Rape Case' (2025).

Details McIntee's 1989 guilty plea, the 17-count conviction, the residential school and later parishes, and the 30-year offending span.

Related record

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