Residential school for Aboriginal people: the trial of a nun suspended

The trial of an Ottawa nun, Françoise Séguin, accused of sex crimes in residential and day schools in northern Ontario in the 1960s and 1970s, will not take place.

Assistant Crown attorney Sonia Beauchamp requested a stay of proceedings on Tuesday, citing the difficulty in obtaining the necessary evidence.

At this time, due to the unique evidentiary issues in this case, the Crown is unable to meet the high burden of proof required by the criminal law, despite healthy attempts to obtain additional documentsshe declared in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Cochrane.

The 98-year-old Franco-Ottavian, a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa, was arrested and charged last year by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). She faced three counts of gross indecency for events that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s in residential and day schools in the north of the province.

Gross indecency was a criminal offense before the late 1980s, a time when the laws were updated. A federal government briefing document describes the types of sexual activity that were historically considered immoral or unnatural, but which did not extend to sexual intercourse, were prohibited by the offense of gross indecency.

The Crown and the police maintained that the first offense took place at the Sainte-Anne residential school in 1966-1967, the second at the school Bishop Belleau of Moosonee in 1969-1970 and the third in a Sudbury detention center in 1972-1973.

An upset complainant

The case involved a single male complainant, Joseph Etheringtona young student at the time, can now confirm -/CBC News. At the opening of the procedure, Ms. Beauchamp had a publication ban on her identity lifted.

Seated next to the Crown prosecutor, Mr. Etherington addressed the court, partly in Cree, often in tears.

It was very upsetting for me to know that what had happenedhe declared.

He recalled his childhood spent speaking and with the Cree people, and his time spent within Roman Catholicism, a religion he remembers learning about at a residential school. Then he described the guilt and shame he felt, saying he had long been unaware of what had happened.

The memory of what had happened could move away from me, but at the same time remain within me. I always told myself: “I’m OK. I can do things”he declared. But then came the time when I started using drugs and alcohol.

This got me in trouble […] and made me believe it was my fault.

Allegations denied

Françoise Séguin was not present in court. On her behalf, her lawyer, Michael Tomassini, recalled that his client wholeheartedly denied the allegations.

The stay was granted under section 579 of the Criminal Code, which provides that proceedings can be resumed within one year. Contacted later by telephone, Mr. Tomassini expected that to be the end of the matter and said he was satisfied with the result.

The Crown exercised appropriate discretion in choosing to stay these proceedings as it did.

For the former chief of the First Nation of Fort Albany and well-known advocate for Sainte-Anne survivors, Edmund Metatawabin, the result is disappointing.

When we think about the legal process, the trust, the hope, for us, is absent. This has been the story of our relationships [avec le système judiciaire]he regrets.

Heavy past

Françoise Séguin is the third nun and eighth employee in total to face criminal charges in connection with abuse committed at Sainte-Anne residential school, in Fort Albanyin Ontario.

Previously, two nuns of the Roman Catholic order were convicted on charges following a sprawling investigation by the PPO in the 1990s over alleged criminal conduct at school.

Between 1992 and 1997, police interviewed more than 700 people, took 900 affidavits, and seized more than 7,000 documents from religious organizations, ultimately bringing charges against seven former employees of the school. Five of them were found guilty.

During the investigation, the Sisters of Charity of Ottawa provided investigators with a list of everyone who had worked there. The list indicated that Ms. Séguin had been a teacher and director of the Sainte-Anne school between 1958 and 1968.

The government estimates that 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools, a system of assimilation that operated across the country for more than a century. The Sainte-Anne boarding school, managed from 1906 to 1976 first by the Catholic Church, then by the federal government, has the reputation of having been one of the cruelest of these establishments.

The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation has recorded 24 deaths at this boarding school.

With information from Charles Lalande and Brett Foresterof CBC News

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