Police searching for 1990s sex assault victims of onetime high-level Raelian
A onetime well-known member of the "Raelian" cult is facing a charge of sexual assault in a case dating back to the 90s, and Montreal police are now asking other potential victims to come forward.
Bobby Potvin, also known as "Lear," appeared in court on July 26, police said.
They provided no further details about the accusations in a news release Monday but said they're looking into "a sexual assault case that occurred in the 1990s."
"Lear" is "Raël" backwards, some Rael-watchers have pointed out. Potvin, now 57, was a high-profile member of the cult for years, telling the Globe and Mail in 2001 that he was the right-hand man to Raël, the cult leader, and was officially also a Raelian "bishop" and "continental head" for North America.
Montreal police didn't mention Raelians in the release, however, and told CTV they are simply looking for potential victims, regardless of the context where they met Potvin.
"We're looking at victims around this man," said Montreal police spokesperson Raphael Bergeron.
"It's not an investigation around this movement or anything."
Potvin told The Globe and Mail that he became a Raelian at age 14 after a neighbour in his hometown gave him a copy of Rael's first book, The Message Given by Extra-Terrestrials.
Raelians believe that aliens put humans on Earth as an experiment, and that cloning is the key to immortality.
It's clear from Potvin's media interviews that he was a member of the group through the 1990s, the same era that Montreal police are looking into.
The cult used to have tens of thousands of members worldwide and was based in Quebec. The Raelians largely dropped out of the public eye after the early 2000s, but they do still exist, VICE News reported last year.
It's unclear if Potvin is still connected to the group. In 2019, French-language news outlet QMI interviewed a man by the same name and nickname about his battle, as a landlord, to exterminate bedbugs and cockroaches.
He said he owned 60 buildings in Montreal, more specifically in the neighbourhoods of Saint-Laurent, Villeray, Saint-Michel and Hochelaga, and that he had been a landlord for at least 15 years, meaning dating back at least to 2004 at that point.
He even got an exterminator's licence in order to keep down the costs of pest-fighting, he said at the time. He called his new business "Zen Extermination," saying it was a nod to how he was trying to make life more peaceful for his tenants.
Potvin is six feet tall, 230 pounds, has blue eyes and brown hair. He speaks French.
Police are asking anyone who might have been victimized by him to go to their local police station or to directly call the sexual assault unit of Montreal police at 514-280-8502.
People may also make anonymous, confidential calls to Info-Crime Montréal at 514 393-1133 or online at infocrimemontreal.ca.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.