Victims of sexual abuse by religious brothers at Collège Notre Dame dismissed an apology issued Friday by their congregation, saying Brothers of Holy Cross have failed for years to address a problem whose tendrils stretched to the Vatican.The apology, which comes almost two years after The Gazette uncovered the scandal at the prestigious private school, is simply a public-relations exercise to ward off a class-action suit that is awaiting approval by the court, victims say.
“I wish to express our profound compassion and our most sincere apologies for the suffering caused by those who have abused their position of trust and authority,” Jean-Pierre Aumont, Canadian Provincial Superior of the congregation, said after a report on the abuse aired on Radio-Canada.
“These acts should never have occurred.”
Montreal police also opened an investigation into the abuse this week, but were unable to explain why it has taken almost two years for them to do so.
The apology marks an about-face in the congregation’s position.
In December 2008, just before The Gazette published its report, Aumont claimed that a blackmailer was behind damning documents about abuse that showed the hierarchy knew about it but did nothing.
Although Aumont didn’t name him, he was referring to Wilson Kennedy, a former religious brother who recently left the order and exposed the wrongdoing of several brothers.
“They’re frightened,” Kennedy said of the apology Friday.
If they were serious, he said, Charles Smith, who approved the payout of hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy abuse victims’ silence, would no longer be on the provincial council of the order.
Such “out-of-court settlements,” Aumont said in the statement, were meant to “compensate their suffering, to the extent possible.”
“(They) were never meant to protect those responsible for such reprehensible acts.”
One victim, Richard Sébastien, also scoffed at the apology, saying his alleged abuser, Claude Hurtubise, recently denied any wrongdoing to Sébastien’s face.
The college, which once had only male students, many of whom were boarders, is now coed, and no longer run by the brothers, although they still own it.
Another victim, who spoke on condition that his name not be published, said the abuse he suffered as a 13-year-old at the hands of Latin teacher Gérard Poirier has affected him deeply. Poirier has since died.
“I was in denial and felt shame for many years,” said the man, now 37.
He said when he recently attended the 40th anniversary of the Petit Chanteurs de Mont-Royal, the school’s choir that is associated with the Oratory, some members complained of sexual abuse by the director.
“And I know the Oratory was informed and nothing was done at that time,” he said. “I’m now realizing that we were surrounded by pedophiles when we were in college.
“Not just a couple, but a lot of them.”
Kennedy said that whenever abuse allegations arose, brothers would be moved, rather than getting police or social services involved.
SIC: MG/CANADA