Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Quebec, Canada · 2025

Quebec: Court of Appeal authorizes class action against the Order of Dominicans naming nine friars including Benoît Lacroix

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

religious priest/friar

Organization

Ordre des Dominicains, Order of Preachers (Dominicans)

Spiritual nexus

The named Dominican friars are alleged to have used their standing as ordained religious teachers and pastors — including Benoît Lacroix's prominent public role as a Dominican intellectual — to abuse victims under their spiritual and pedagogical authority.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Guru or spiritual-teacher authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-04-03 · class action authorized

    Quebec Court of Appeal (civil). The Court of Appeal authorized a class action against the Order of Dominicans in Quebec covering alleged sexual assaults from 1940 to the present, naming friars Benoît Lacroix, Fernand Patry, Charles-André Cabana, Bertrand M. Boisvert, Yves Léger, André St-Jacques, Jacques Létourneau, Étienne Morin, and Philéas Roy; more than a dozen victims had registered. Facts remain to be proven at trial absent a settlement.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral authority
  • institutional access

Primary record

Sources

Le Quotidien (2025) 'Agressions sexuelles: une action collective contre l'Ordre des Dominicains autorisée'. Available at: lequotidien.com (Accessed: 19 July 2026).

French original: "La Cour d'appel a autorisé... une action collective contre l'Ordre des Dominicains... Tous les faits devront ainsi être prouvés dans le cadre d'un éventuel procès, à moins que les parties en viennent à une entente à l'amiable." English gloss: The Court of Appeal authorized a class action against the Order of Dominicans; all facts will need to be proven at a potential trial unless the parties reach an out-of-court settlement. More than a dozen alleged victims are registered, naming nine friars including Benoît Lacroix, and covering the period since 1940.

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