Canadian sex abuse victims pursue claims against Christian Brothers

Canada -

THE Canadian government did not sign any special deal with the Catholic Church to compensate people who had been sexually abused in religious institutions like the State has done here.

Instead, it took the view that all victims of clerical sex abuse should be allowed to pursue their cases against the Catholic Church through the courts. However, when an avalanche of claims started going through the Canadian courts against Christian Brothers, the order pleaded inability to pay.

The Christian Brothers had set up a trust fund for all their assets and based it in Dublin, which was outside the jurisdiction of the Canadian Courts. And this is how they pleaded inability to pay.

This was revealed when a number of the Canadian abuse victims hired Irish accountancy firm KPMG to check out the nature of the trust fund and the level of the Christian Brothers’ assets.

Read the article at Irish Examiner dated 2003/01/30