The Superior Court granted authorization on Tuesday to bring a class action against the Frères de Saint-Gabriel du Canada for sexual assaults allegedly occurring between 1940 and today.
Montreal law firm Arsenault Dufresne Wee, which is leading the class action, announced the plaintiff, a now 67-year-old man, has been granted representative status for all victims who claim to have been sexually assaulted by a volunteer, employee, or a religious member of the congregation.
The applicant, whose identity is protected by a court order, accused a nurse at the Saint-Arsène orphanage in Montreal of repeated sexual assaults from 1964 to 1966.
The plaintiff would have been between 11 to 13 years old.
A confidential list of suspected perpetrators was attached to the authorization request. Arsenault Dufresne Wee said the congregation is contesting its publication, a request that will be the subject of a debate before Superior Court Justice Sylvain Lussier on March 12.
The congregation, based on Gouin Est Blvd. in Montreal, is represented by the law firm Lavery.
According to Arsenault Dufresne Wee, anyone claiming to be victims of inappropriate actions on the part of members of the community of the Brothers of Saint Gabriel in Canada can now contact him and register for the collective action free of charge.
The Orphelinat Saint-Arsène, which housed an elementary and secondary school, was founded in 1906 and administered until 1976 by the community of the Frères de Saint-Gabriel du Canada, which settled in Quebec in 1888.
The old part of the building which was located on Christophe-Colomb Street, in the Villeray district, was destroyed by fire in the 1970s. The rest of the building and the land were then purchased by the City of Montreal.
-- This article was first published by the Canadian Press on Dec 16, 2020.
