Canada let priest charged with sex abuse leave country: Oblate official

A priest who this week is to face 76sex charges involving Inuit children mighthave been tried years agobut for a quiet nod from Canada that allowed him to leave thecountry, says a church leader.

Georges Vervust is the top official with the Belgian Oblates, anorder of Catholic priests that sent Eric Dejaeger to severalcommunities in what is now Nunavut.

Vervust sheds light on questions that have troubled Dejaeger'salleged victims for nearly a decade: How was a man facing childabuse charges allowed to leave the country days before his trial?And why did it take so long for him to be returned?

• A timeline of events in Nunavut abuse case involving former priest

"What I have heard is that he got advice from people from theJustice Department, off the record, that he should leave," Vervustsaid in a Belgian documentary. He confirmed his comments to TheCanadian Press.

Dejaeger's trial beginning Monday includes allegations from Feb.19, 1995, when he was originally charged with three counts ofindecent assault and three counts of buggery, a charge no longer inthe Criminal Code. They relate to his time as a priest in thecommunity of Igloolik between 1978 and 1982.

Dejaeger has pleaded not guilty and will be tried by judge alone.There was no preliminary hearing in the case, as the accused waivedhis right to one.

In 1995, Dejaeger had just completed a five-year sentence, mostof it served in a halfway house and on probation, on 11 counts ofsexual assault and indecent assault against children in Baker Lake,where he was posted after Igloolik.

He was scheduled to return to court on the Igloolik charges onJune 13, 1995, but never showed. By then, he was in Europe.

An arrest warrant was immediately issued, but the disgracedpriest was able to live quietly in Oblate communities in France andBelgium until he was returned in early 2011.

Documents show Dejaeger's plan to leave

Internal Oblate reports obtained by The Canadian Press show thatDejaeger was planning to leave Canada almost right away.

On March 26, 1995, five weeks after the Igloolik charges werelaid, he wrote Oblate officials in Belgium proposing a return. OnApril 20, 1995, he was invited to come back.

Some in the order knew Dejaeger was planning to leave, includinghis superior Jean-Paul Isabelle.

"He had finished his sentence," said Isabelle in 2011. "Theygave him back his passport.

"I didn't agree with him leaving. I told him, 'Well, I don'twant to know anything about this. But when you get to whereveryou're going, here's a code that we're going to use to let me knowwhere you are.'"

With Belgian and Canadian passports in hand, Dejaeger left. TheOblates were informed on June 20, 1995, that he had arrived inBelgium.

A few weeks later, an Oblate in Canada wrote Dejaeger telling himhe was home free.

"It seems to me that they (Canada) will do nothing unless youcome to Canada."

Vervust suggested Canada seemed glad to be rid of him.

"People from the police and his lawyer told him, 'Get out ofhere. As long as you don't come back to Canada there is not aproblem.' And that's what he did," said Vervust in the documentary.

He made similar comments in a 2010 letter to fellow Oblates inwhich he said "people of the Canadian courts" told Dejaeger unofficially that he should leave the country and never return. Thecases were old, said Vervust's Dutch-language letter.

Dejaeger "left Canada without any problem."

In an email to The Canadian Press, Vervust said: "I heard thatEric was told off the record to leave Canada by some persons ofthe police and his lawyer and some Oblates.

"At that time it was thought that was the best thing to do. Withhindsight, it turns out to have been a mistake."

Justice Canada has declined comment.

"As extradition requests are confidential communications, we canneither confirm, nor deny, the existence of an extradition requestin this matter," said an official in response to a 2010 query aboutthe Dejaeger case.

The Canadian Press could not reach Dejaeger's lawyer for comment.

An access to information request on Dejaeger was almost entirelyredacted except for news reports.

Dejaeger's lawyer in 1995, John Scurfield, died in 2009.

Dejaeger'scharges 'didn't stand out'

Pierre Rousseau was Justice Canada's regional director for theNorthwest Territories, which then included Nunavut, from 1992 to1998. He said he wasn't involved with decisions around Dejaeger's1995 trial, but added it wouldn't have been considered an unusualcase.

"You wouldn't believe how it was at the time," he said in arecent interview. "We were dealing with hundreds of serious cases.It was very difficult."

In Baker Lake alone, there were two other major sexual assaulttrials. One involved an Anglican priest and another involved 17 menand the abuse of a mentally disabled girl.

"We were understaffed," said Rousseau. "When I remember thosedays, for every Crown, it was quite an ordeal."

Dejaeger's charges didn't stand out, Rousseau said. The number ofcounts against him didn't balloon until the late 1990s, when morealleged victims from Igloolik began coming forward. New charges werestill being laid after his return to Canada.

In the end, it was an immigration violation, not an extraditionorder, that brought him back to face the charges he ran away from 18years ago.

Dejaeger was eventually returned in January 2011 when a Belgianjournalist realized that Dejaeger had lost his Belgian citizenshipin 1977 when he became a naturalized Canadian. He had been living inBelgium since 1995 without a visa and was kicked out.