Quebec woman can sue Catholic Church for sex abuse: SCOC

OTTAWA – A Quebec woman who was sexually abused as a child at the hands of a priest will be allowed to launch a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.

Shirley Christensen was abused as a child in a Quebec City parish in the late 1970s but the assaults were only reported in 2006 and they resulted in a conviction.

Christensen has tried twice to launch lawsuits but was denied by Quebec courts which said she had waited too long because of time limits on when someone can sue for damages in a civil case.

Her lawyer had argued that the previous decisions by the courts were not consistent with decisions in the rest of Canada.

Christensen alleged that during the summer of 2006, she started to recall some memories of the abuse and resulting trauma. She argued that she had previously been incapable of acting or launching proceedings against the church which had asked her family in the 1970s not to go to police and had moved the priest to a different parish.

Rev. Paul-Henri Lachance pleaded guilty to the sexual assault charges in 2009 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

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