Cap-Pel church abuse victims can turn to ex-judge

The Archdiocese of Moncton is asking people from Cap-Pel who were victims of sexual abuse by former priest Camille Lger to contact Michel Bastarache, the retired Supreme Court of Canada justice.

Archbishop Andr Richard said in a letter the church will continue to offer counselling to Lger's victims who come forward.

But now the church has obtained the services of Bastarache, who will set up and manage a conciliation process for people with complaints about Lger.

Bastarache told CBC News that his conciliation process is outsideof the usuallegal system and that allows victims to remain anonymous.

"Its important to say this is not a judicial process, not a mediation, not an arbitration, it is just basically a conciliation which means that - totally outside of the legal system - people can come to me and retain their privacy entirely," he said.

Bastarache said it's important to some victims to remain anonymous.

"If people have to go through a judicial process, they have to identify themselves, they have to answer questions in court and 95 per cent of people I met wanted to be anonymous," Bastarache said.

"They haven't told their children, their spouses, their family what happened and want to retain that. So if we don't give them an opportunity like this, probably the most affected people will not show up and not be able to claim the indemnity to which they are entitled."

He said this process allows more money to go directly to victims.

"I think this way, the money available will go directly to the victims. It wont be spent on lawyers's fees and, of course, the process is meant to be very rapid," he said. "I think within a year everything will be completed."

Richard said Bastarache's sense of justice and understanding of people in the community and the province will allow him to help those who have been wronged.

"His reputation for fairness and his unique understanding of the people of our community and of our province will hopefully see that those harmed by Camille Lger may have redress," Richard said in an open letter to the diocese.

"Our hope in taking this step is to achieve reconciliation and peace with those harmed. Our thoughts and prayers are with these people and their families."

Richard said it will be a confidential process that will give victims access to a quick settlement of their claims.

Bastarache said he will run the entire compensation process from start to finish.

"The whole process -the questionnaire, the credibility issues -all of that is left entirely to me. Even the determination of the amounts to be paid," he said.

In terms of compensation amounts,Bastarache said he's read 200 to 300 similar casesand he's come up with fivecategories of compensation.

Each category takes into account several criteria.

"That depends on the severity of the acts, the age of the victims, how long the abuse lasted and of course the direct impact on the persons' lives," Bastarache said.

Compensation between $15,000 to $300,000 will be given out to Father Lger's victims.

Victims of Father Lger have until the end of the month to contact Bastarache directly.

People coming forward to report abuse

Several people in the small, southeastern New Brunswick village have come forward recently to talk about being abused by Lger.

The priest died in 1990 and was never convicted of any crimes.

The debate started when the village council announced it would hold a referendum on whether to remove the former priest's name from the local hockey arena.

There was an immediate groundswell of support around the idea of removing Lger's name from the arena. TheCap-Pel council had the sign removedand cancelled the plebiscite.

In March,Richard apologized to anyonewho was abused by Lger. But he did not mention how the church had already compensated at least one individual for abuse.

Normand Brun, who now lives in Vancouver, said he was abused by Lger.

He said the abuse started when he was nine years old and it went on for four years.

Brun took his complaint to the Catholic church in 1997 and received financial compensation. He is unable to discuss how much money he received due to legal reasons.

Bathurst report in 2010

This is the second time Bastarache has handled a church-related sex abuse file in New Brunswick.

The Diocese of Bathurst hired Bastarache in 2010 to speak to anyone in the church who was abused by any clergy in the Acadian peninsula.

The northern diocese sought Bastarache's help after two former priests were charged with sex-related offences.

In November 2010, the Catholic diocese said it would offeran apology and financial compensationto the 35 individuals who came forward during the conciliation process led by Bastarache.

Bastarache said the Bathurst diocese'sconciliation was a success in this case.

"It was very successful," he said, "We had over 90 victims and close to 80 came to settlement."

Shortly after Bastaraches report was finished, a New Brunswick judge granted a request from the Roman Catholic diocese ofBathurst to seal any details surrounding financial awardsgiven out by the church.