Canada: Quebec court authorizes class action against a teaching congregation over decades of abuse at church-run schools

Proceedings

1. 2024-05-21 · class action authorized

   Cour supérieure du Québec. Justice Lukasz Granosik authorized a class action against the Frères de l'instruction chrétienne on 21 May 2024, alleging sexual assaults against more than 87 victims over at least two decades, principally between 1957 and 1987 at the Juvénat Saint-Jean in Dolbeau, École Saint-Michel in Mistassini, and related educational activities. The claim alleges four different Brothers committed assaults at Dolbeau in the 1980s alone, and that congregation leadership knew of the abuse and moved offending Brothers between schools rather than reporting them. As of a September 2024 filing, 30 named plaintiffs had come forward; this is a civil proceeding, not a criminal conviction.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• religious-order custody of boarding pupils at church-run juvénats and schools
• alleged institutional practice of transferring known abusers between schools rather than reporting them