Class action filed against Montreal’s Grey Nuns over alleged abuse at orphanage

MONTREAL — A class action lawsuit has been filed against Montreal’s Grey Nuns religious order alleging physical and sexual abuse of children under its care at an orphanage in the city.

The lawsuit filed in Quebec Superior Court and dated July 2 is on behalf of a man who lived at the orphanage for about a year in the late 1960s and who alleges he suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of those in charge.

Lawyer Jean-Daniel Quessy says the plaintiff came forward after seeing reports about a similar lawsuit filed in 2018 against the Sisters of Charity of Quebec for alleged assaults at the order’s Mont d’Youville orphanage in Quebec City.

The action is on behalf of any person who believes they have been a victim of physical or sexual by the order or anyone entrusted into its care, between 1925 and 1972, at the Creche d’Youville, which housed orphans and children whose parents were unable to take care of them.

According to the filing whose allegations have not been proven, the orphanage welcomed 78,200 children over its history.

The lawsuit has not been authorized by a judge and could take more than a year to be certified, Quessy says, adding it could take several years to play out before the courts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 7, 2020.

The Canadian Press