Black Collar Crime
Church panel didn't share tales of abuse
Outside agencies weren't told about historical allegations
Neco Cockburn, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008
CORNWALL - A church committee set up in the mid-80s to look into allegations of historical sexual abuse by a priest did not recommend that outside agencies be notified about the complaints, a public inquiry heard yesterday.
Jacques Leduc, a Cornwall lawyer who acted for the Alexandria-Cornwall Catholic diocese "from time-to-time" between 1978 and 1994, was on an ad hoc three-member committee that, in May 1986, made six recommendations in a case involving Rev. Gilles Deslauriers.
The recommendations included suspending the priest and barring him from public ministry, the inquiry into the institutional response to allegations of systemic historical sexual abuse heard yesterday.
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Mr. Leduc himself eventually appeared on police radar as a result of allegations that a group of pedophiles had been operating around Cornwall for years, with high-ranking members of the community trying to cover it up.
More:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=beac0ab1-964b-4902-ae0a-8615f3aacb4d