The lawyer tasked with investigating complaints about members of the Archdiocese of Montreal says she was "threatened" by an employee and that her work was thwarted by interference from clergy members, including a priest who allegedly leaked confidential information about people who complained of abuse.
In a report released Monday, Marie Christine Kirouack documented what she described as "serious" breaches of confidentiality that she faced in the course of her work as ombudsperson for the archdiocese.
In one particular case, she said an internal audit revealed a "high-ranking" priest was leaking information about eight different files related to sexual and psychological abuse via email using the blind carbon copy (bcc) function. The emails, the report claims, included the names of complainants, the other priests who were the subject of the complaints, the exchanges with an external investigation firm, and even some of the ombudsperson's emails.
"I was aghast," said Kirouack in an interview Monday, adding that such behaviour breaks the trust that complainants put into her office.
"They can then fall under potential pressures from some people that they should withdraw their complaint, or maybe just kind of change their stories, or become voluntarily very forgetful with an investigation … so it's all in place to protect the complainants."
It took three months for the priest to be fired. During that time span, Kirouack learned that in one case, the same priest had told a complainant not to file a complaint with her in a "major psychological abuse file," and in another case, he told a complainant that he would take care of the file personally, which is a violation of the archdiocese's own complaint handling protocol.
Last November, former Superior Court justice Pepita G. Capriolo issued a report that harshly criticized how the archdiocese handled the case of former Brian Boucher, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2019 for sexually assaulting two minors.
One of the recommendations in the report included the creation of a first-ever independent ombudsperson to handle complaints of abuse. Kirouack, a Montreal lawyer, was named to the role on May 5, 2021.
In her fifth report since taking on the position, she described how an archivist working on researching old files was threatened with dismissal for asking for a raise given the heavy workload and how she herself was threatened. The report covers events taking place from Aug. 1 and Oct. 1 of this year, as well as complaints received since she started her new role.
After her own computer access to "fundamental files" was revoked, Kirouack said she wrote in a mass email that no one had the right to block her access to the archdiocese's computer file system, which did not sit well with one particular employee. The employee filed a complaint against her with the Bar of Quebec.
She responded by telling one church official, "I would not be threatened in my functions," the report said.
"Is it is it because somebody wants me to resign? I've already stated clearly that I will not," she told CTV News.
"I have a job to do, and I owe it to the victims to basically stay there and keep doing my job, and keep pushing and I will keep on pushing and stay there."
When asked to comment on the report, archdiocese spokesperson Erika Jacinto wrote in an email to CTV that "the archdiocese does not comment to make sure that we respect its independency."
Normally, a quarterly report would put great emphasis on the statistics, such as the number of complaints received, but the ombudsperson said what stood out to her were the "failures" and "incomprehensible delays" in the complaints process.
While some cases are dealt with within appropriate timeframes, others, particularly older files related to complaints, are causing serious "bottlenecks."
"If, in my previous report, I mentioned that the complaints system was working better, unfortunately I have to say that this is no longer the case," Kirouack wrote in her 27-page report.
"These important delays worry and destabilize our complainants and call into question their confidence in the complaints system. It is therefore my duty to highlight in this report the mishandling and delays that are accumulating."
In two files, suspension recommendations from May and June 2022 for archdiocese members have not yet been acted on, according to the report.
Since she started her role, the ombudsperson has received a total of 188 complaints. Of those, 64 were complaints about abuse that were sent to Archbishop Christian Lépine, including 41 (64 per cent) related to alleged sexual abuse.
Kirouack was also given the mandate to investigate old complaints to see if there were any missteps. During that review, she sent 14 complaints to a new advisory committee to determine next steps, all of which were for sexual abuse.
With files from The Canadian Press
