MONTREAL – Joseph Albert Gery, 77, is the victim of a decades-old scandal in Quebec that refuses to go away, and now, he’s desperate for closure.
A Duplessis orphan, Gery says the Quebec government is getting in the way of his search to find his family.
In the 1940s and 1950s, during Maurice Duplessis’ time as Quebec Premier, children from impoverished families and those born out of wedlock were put in the care of the Catholic Church.
These children became known as the Duplessis orphans and many, like Gery, endured a life of abuse.
“The first few days or weeks, I had a punch right on the face by a Brother,” said Gery, who now lives in Vancouver.
“I had some abuse myself…I got sexually abused by a Brother at night time.”
His life, Gery told Global News, was full of lies and secrets – starting with his mother’s identity.
Current adoption laws protect the identities of the Duplessis orphans’ parents, but Gery insisted knowing who his mother was, is his last hope to finding out who he really is.
Gery’s daughter, Angie Gery, has taken up her father’s wish to find his birth mother, as well as any living family they might have.
“I do walk around and people that I see that look like my dad I’m like ‘wow, could he be related to my father?'” she said.
Gery said she believes it’s time for the government to close the book on the scandal and show good faith.
“I do feel like the government is an accomplice, because they know this is wrong and they are actually giving reason,” she said.
The Quebec government, responsible for adoption legislation, declined multiple requests for interview by Global News.
Representatives insisted that, although they’re sensitive about the matter, the law is the law.
Global News also reached out to the federal government to see what they had to say, but was told it is out of their hands as it’s a provincial matter.
Lucien Landry, who runs the Comité des Orphelins de Duplessis Victimes D’Abus (COVAC), has been negotiating with the Quebec government on behalf of Duplessis orphans for years.
He explained they reached a deal back in 1999 with the Lucien Bouchard government, but a change in power slowed things down.
“It’s not in their priorities, that’s what’s sad,” said Landry, speaking of the current Liberal government.
Meanwhile, Angie Gery has started an online petition in the hopes that she can give her father some closure.
“Please Mr Prime Minister, let the Duplessis orphans know who their mothers were, to find out if they have brothers and sisters and to let them rest in peace once they pass away,” she wrote.
“My father is not able to show me childhood pictures because he has none. My father has never had maternal loving and he has never had a true hug from his mother. My father will die without knowing who he is.”
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