MONTREAL -- The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal of the Religieux de Saint-Vincent de Paul du Canada to overturn the Superior Court's May 19, 2021 judgment granting the application for authorization to bring a class-action suit for sexual assaults that allegedly occurred between 1940 and the present.

The class-action will, therefore, proceed.

The plaintiff, now 61 years old, has been granted representative status for people who claim to have been sexually assaulted by a religious member, employee or attendant of the religious congregation.

The man alleged to have been sexually assaulted when he was 12 years old by a priest at the Patro de Jonquière in the 1960s. He alleges that the Quebec City-based congregation was aware of the sexual abuse, but covered it up.

His identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

The petition had been filed in December, 2019. It is possible to register for class-action status, free of charge and confidentially, by contacting the law firm Arsenault Dufresne Wee.

The law firm is also behind sexual assault proceedings against the Congregation of Holy Cross and St. Joseph's Oratory, the Oblats de Marie Immaculée, the Clercs de Saint-Viateur du Canada, the Frères des écoles chrétiennes and the Frères de Saint-Gabriel du Canada. He also took the dioceses of Montreal, Longueuil, Joliette, Quebec and Trois-Rivières to court.

The statute of limitations, which imposed a 30-year limit on the ability to bring a civil suit against an alleged abuser, was abolished last summer.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 13, 2021.