I have been invited to speak at the Canadian Institute’s Ninth National Summit on Institutional Liability for Sexual Assault and Abuse.
My presentation is Overcoming Key Hurdles in Bringing and Defending Child Sexual Assault and Abuse Claims.
The conference is taking place in Toronto April 7-8, 2010.
You can register, or get more information, here.
The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bathurst has asked the Vatican to laicize a former priest from the Diocese, Father Levi Noel, who has been sentenced to eight years in jail for 22 sex related criminal offences.
Father Wesley Wade, spokesperson for the Diocese of Bathurst has told CBC news that the request is in the hands of the Vatican.
Laicization is a penalty imposed under the Code of Canon Law (Church law) where a priest is stripped of the right to perform priestly duties.
The penalty is rarely imposed. The Code of Canon Law says the penalty can only be imposed "for the gravest reasons". In fact depite the fact that 3 priests from the Diocese of Antigonish were convicted of sexually abusing dozens of children over a period of many decades, not one of them were laicized by any of fomer Bishops of Antigonish.
The Diocese of Bathurst has taken the first step towards proper accountability. It remains to be seen what efforts the Diocese will take to make amends to Levi Noel's victims.
Continue reading " Bathurst Diocese wants to Defrock Sex Abuser Levi Noel " »
I have been retained to represent two women who allege they were sexually abused by a former priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yarmouth, Father Raoul Deveau.
Anna Maria Tremonti of CBC’s The Current, interviewed one of my clients. You can listen to the interview here.
Secrets Protect the Abusers
I was moved by one of the statements made by my client, Linda:
"This is so wrong. You're tired of hiding the secrets. They need to come out and people need to be made aware of that,"
Shame
After the interview aired I was contacted by a lady who had listened to the interview. She was calling me to express her shame. I assumed she meant the shame that most survivors of sexual abuse experience.
But what she told me was that she was ashamed because the first emotion she felt when she heard the interview...was relief. Relief that she wasn't the only person that had been sexually abused by the priest.
She was ashamed that she felt relief because someone else had experienced the same horrible experiences she had gone through!
In Sexual Abuse Settlements Empower Victims to Come Forward I discussed an article by Frank Douglas where he stated:
"...when the predators' names come out, other victims of the same perpetrator are often empowered to come forward."
I couldn't agree more.
So if there is one message that I have for survivors of childhood abuse, it is: You are not alone!
This months cover story in Canadian Lawyer magazine is about Ron Martin's class action against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Antigonish.
You can read the story online.
