New Age | Canadian church must pay $104 million for sexual abuse

The Catholic Church must pay 104 million Canadian dollars (76 million U.S. dollars) to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse in eastern Canada, according to a statement released on Friday.

In 2020, the Archdiocese of St. John was found liable for one of Canada’s largest child abuse scandals, at the Mount Cashel Orphanage, a now-closed orphanage for boys in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The court found that priests and other church officials committed sexual abuse in the orphanage beginning in 1940 and that this abuse continued for several decades.

A total of 292 victims are to receive compensation ranging from 55,000 to 850,000 Canadian dollars, according to the report, which AFP has seen.

The accounting firm Ernst & Young was brought in as a third-party intermediary to determine the amounts paid out to each victim.

Geoff Budden, one of the victims’ lawyers, told AFP that the amount was “equivalent to similar compensation awarded by other courts”.

“People don’t really understand the magnitude of the problem and the prevalence of abuse,” he said.

The Archdiocese of St. John filed for bankruptcy in 2021, but was able to raise C$40 million by selling properties it owned.

However, Budden expressed optimism that the victims will receive the full amount awarded by the court.

“There are still assets that need to be processed, including insurance products,” he said.