Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Other Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Dolbeau and Mistassini, Quebec, Canada · 2024

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

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Civil finding

Authority role

Frères de l'instruction chrétienne (Brothers of Christian Instruction), teaching order operating up to 80 Quebec schools

Organization

Frères de l'instruction chrétienne, Juvénat Saint-Jean, Dolbeau, École Saint-Michel, Mistassini

Spiritual nexus

Boys boarded at church-run juvénat schools under the exclusive custody of teaching Brothers, with the congregation's own internal transfer practice alleged to have shielded known abusers.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation
  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

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

Primary record

Sources

press news report Radio-Canada, 'Abus sexuels : les Frères de l'instruction chrétienne auraient sévi au Juvénat de Dolbeau.'

Names the institutions, alleges four Brothers offending at Dolbeau in the 1980s, and the transfer practice.

press news report La Voix de l'Est, 'Action collective approuvée contre les Frères de l'instruction chrétienne' (2024-05-22).

Confirms the authorization date, judge, and victim count.

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