Canada orders Catholic Church to pay CAN$104 million in abuse cases

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) - The Catholic Church was ordered by a court-appointed monitor Friday to pay CAN$104 million ($76.1 million) to survivors of historical sexual and physical abuse in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, including 292 survivors of a Church-run orphanage.

The victims and their representatives expressed relief at the outcome of a decades-long fight, said lawyer Geoff Budden, who represents more than 200 survivors of the Mount Cashel orphanage and several schools run by the Christian Brothers of the Catholic Church.

“Some get validation from this,” he told CTV News. “They are happy that they were believed, that their claims were accepted and they're going to receive compensation ... but it triggers. It brings back memories, and it's a struggle.”

And the end has not been reached. The money is to come from the Catholic Church in the province, which knowing it would someday have to pay the survivors, began to sell off properties.

So far about CAN$45 million has been raised. Bob Buckingham, a lawyer in St. John’s Newfoundland who represents 70 victims, said he is working with Budden to come up with more sources of income from the church, CTV News reported.

The infamous Mount Cashel orphanage abuse cases became headlines in 1989. It was alleged that the Newfoundland Justice Department stopped a police investigation but the truth eventually came out.

It was also found that church officials often transferred priests who had been accused of sexual and physical abuse against children to other parishes.

The cases run from the 1940s. The orphanage closed in 1990 and was demolished in 1992.