thestar.com

18 February 2010 

Allan Woods

Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–The former top chaplain with the Canadian Forces paid in excess of $24,000 to a teenage boy whose family complained that the Roman Catholic priest had engaged him in inappropriate behaviour, church officials have told the Toronto Star.

The revelation comes one day after Roger Bazin, 72, was charged with buggery, sexual assault and gross indecency for an incident that occurred while the chaplain, then a captain, was posted to CFB Borden two years into his illustrious career.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service confirmed on Wednesday that Bazin is alleged to have committed the illegal acts in 1972 against an underage boy at the base near Barrie.

But a shocking secret has apparently been lurking for at least four years in the confines of the Manitoba Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface, where Bazin was assigned as a pastor before joining the military in 1970 and after his retirement in 1995.

In late 2005, a family from Thunder Bay contacted former Saint-Boniface archbishop Monsignor Emilius Goulet with serious allegations involving Bazin.

The family said the retired chaplain had engaged in "inappropriate behaviour" with their 16-year-old son while living and helping out in Thunder Bay's Roman Catholic community after leaving the Canadian Forces, Father Léonce Aubin, chancellor of Saint-Boniface archdiocese, said in an interview.

The family did not want to file a criminal complaint with the police, which allegedly occurred when Bazin was living in Keewatin, Ont., and volunteering as a pastor at St. Louis parish.

"If I remember correctly, the family said ... `We just think maybe this priest needs help,'" Aubin said.

Aubin would not say what alleged behaviour led to the complaint.

A lawyer for Saint-Boniface archdiocese was appointed to work with Bazin and arranged for a cash settlement that the retired pastor paid to the family in 2006.

"It would have been in the line of $24,000, I believe," Aubin said. "He had already contributed a fair amount for (the boy's university) studies."

Bazin was contacted Wednesday at his home in St. Claude, Man., but the conversation ended abruptly after about 30 seconds.

"I'm not well and I have nothing to say," he said. When asked about the financial settlement he negotiated in 2006 to deal with the boy's complaint, he hung up the telephone.

In an earlier published report, Bazin said he was surprised by the criminal charges announced earlier this week and intended to "give it a good fight" when his trial goes to court in Barrie on April 28.

"All of my life was helping people," he said. "I can see that it's all going to come to a screeching end because of those allegations."

Bishop Fred Colli – head of the Thunder Bay diocese, which oversees Keewatin – said he was shocked by the allegations against Bazin, who was helping to run the diocese when he arrived in 1999.

"He was a retired chaplain. He's not a priest of this diocese. He was just retired and living here. He had a home here, outside of Keewatin with his sister," Colli said.

"When I came as the bishop I took over and he worked for a couple of years in a little parish in the north, just on weekends. But he wasn't really hired by the diocese per se. He was just doing this as a kind of a favour as a retired priest. After a few years I appointed a pastor there ... and he moved to Manitoba where he lives now with his sister."

Bazin was penalized for his alleged transgression by the Saint-Boniface archbishop, Aubin said. He was barred from performing at religious services or taking any official functions in the archdiocese.

Bazin was never sent for counselling or psychological evaluation, Aubin said. The incident also appears to have been hushed up in the church, which is extremely sensitive to alleged wrongdoing.

"I was never contacted, I was never asked any questions, it never went through my office at all. I don't even think I have that or anything like that in his file," said Colli after being informed by the Star of the Thunder Bay family's accusation and the financial settlement that allegedly stemmed from an incident in his jurisdiction.

"In all the years I've been here as the bishop, no one's ever come to me with an accusation against Monsignor Bazin. I've never handled anything concerning him."

CatholicCulture.org

 February 18, 2010

A day after the former chief Canadian Catholic armed forces chaplain was charged by military police for an alleged 1972 homosexual assault, the chancellor of a Canadian archdiocese said an additional abuse allegation was settled in 2006.

Msgr. Roger Bazin, who retired from the armed forces in 1995, was charged with one count of buggery, one count of indecent assault on a male, and one count of gross indecency for the 1972 incident. Msgr. Bazin now lives with his sister in his Manitoba hometown, which is located in the Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface.

After his retirement, Msgr. Bazin served in the Diocese of Thunder Bay (Ontario). A family there alleged in 2005 that Msgr. Bazin engaged in “inappropriate behavior” with their son and reported the incident to Archbishop Émilius Goulet of Saint-Boniface. Archbishop Goulet suspended Msgr. Bazin from ministry, and a settlement was paid to the family.

“It would have been in the line of $24,000, I believe,” said Father Léonce Aubin, chancellor of the archdiocese. “He had already contributed a fair amount for (the boy's university) studies.”

Bishop Frederick Colli of Thunder Bay said he had no knowledge of the incident, even though it allegedly took place in his diocese.

“I was never contacted, I was never asked any questions, it never went through my office at all,” said Bishop Colli, who has governed the Diocese of Thunder Bay since 1999. “I don't even think I have that or anything like that in his file.”

thestar.com (Toronto Star)

17 February 2010

Brig-Gen. Roger Bazin is charged with buggery, sexual assault and gross indecency related to an incident in 1972.

Allan Woods

 Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–A former head chaplain with the Canadian Forces has been charged with buggery, sexual assault and gross indecency in a 1972 attack, dealing the military its second blow in as many weeks.

Roger Bazin was a Roman Catholic chaplain at CFB Borden and a young man in the early stages of his career when the incident is alleged to have occurred at the base. He rose through the ranks of the military to become a brigadier-general with command of all Catholic chaplains in the Forces.

"He was a very, very nice man. Very congenial, gracious. Lots of sensitivity to people as a chaplain general. Very positive, so this really comes as a shock to us," said Bishop Donald Thériault, head of the Roman Catholic Military Diocese of Canada. "This was right at the beginning of his career ... so to reconcile any of that, it just doesn't fit yet..."

While the charge of buggery no longer exists, it was contained in the 1972 Criminal Code of Canada, which was in effect at the time of the offence.

The allegations that Bazin assaulted a male while serving as a captain in the military come one week after Col. Russell Williams was removed from command at CFB Trenton and charged with the murder of two women and the sexual assault of two others. The charges rocked the military establishment, which viewed the colonel as one of its brightest lights.

The allegations against the former head of the military chaplaincy have also been met with dismay. The charges reportedly stem from accusations made by the alleged victim in June 2009, which led to a military police investigation.

"The military police consider this to be a serious matter," said Col. Tim Grubb, Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, in a statement. "These types of alleged acts, if proven, are illegal and represent unacceptable conduct."

Brig.-Gen. David Kettle, the Forces' current chaplain general, served in the Protestant chaplaincy stream before Bazin engineered the unification of all military chaplains before his retirement in 1995.

Kettle said in an interview that all chaplains hold positions of trust and alleged violations of that confidence are unacceptable.

"Our concern is always for the victim. It's part of what a chaplain is. He's the guy that always sticks up for the underdog or those who are afflicted."

Still, Bazin appeared to be an upstanding officer and military leader.

"What I saw I liked," said Kettle. "He was a sophisticated and brilliant man."

Screening procedures for military chaplains have become more rigorous since the chaplaincy streams were transformed to accommodate other religions.

Chaplain candidates must now pass through a religious screening process, military testing and an interfaith committee before being awarded the position. Once in the Forces, there are regular performance reviews and a strict code of ethics that chaplains must follow.

But all accounts suggest Bazin would have passed the modern tests. Local newspapers in northern Ontario published glowing reports of Bazin as a parish priest. He even served as a representative of the Diocese of Thunder Bay after he left the Forces in 1995.

In 2002, he survived a car crash near his childhood home of St. Claude, Man. He suffered a broken back.

A year later he was back at the altar.

"Being the wonderful, kind, considerate man he is," the Kenora Daily Miner and News wrote in June 2003, "Bazin located his monsignor's robes and was back amongst his people once again."

Ottawa Citizen 

17 February 17, 2010   

Canwest News Service

Roger Bazin, a retired head of the military chaplaincy, has been charged with buggery, indecent assault and gross indecency for incidents that allegedly took place at CFB Borden in Ontario in 1972, military police investigators announced Tuesday in Ottawa. Bazin, a retired brigadier-general and former chaplain general of the Canadian Forces who held the rank of captain at the time of the alleged incidents, is charged with one count of "buggery, one count of indecent assault on a male, and one count of an act of gross indecency, all Criminal Code violations."

Toronto Sun

16 February 2010

By LAURA PAYTON, Parliamentary Bureau

Last Updated: 16th February 2010, 7:55pm

OTTAWA — A former chaplain general in the Canadian Forces faces charges of sexual assault stemming from incidents at Canadian Forces Base Borden in 1972.

The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service said Tuesday retired Brig.-Gen. Roger Bazin has been charged with one count of buggery, one of indecent assault and one act of gross indecency.

No details of the charges were given but they were filed in civilian court, not under the military justice system.

Bazin says he’ll fight the accusations.

The news comes as Canada’s military is still grappling with charges of murder and sexual assault earlier this month against 8 Wing commander Col. Russell Williams of CFB Trenton.

Bazin told QMI Agency he had no warning he’d be charged.

“This fell upon me this morning,” he said. “The only thing I can say is I’m certainly going to defend myself.”

“I need prayers and I’m going to give it good fight,” said the 72-year-old, who lives with his 78-year-old sister.

Bazin drove from his St. Claude, Manitoba, home to meet military police in Winnipeg Tuesday.

“All of my life was helping people,” he said. “I can see that it’s all going to come to a screeching end because of those allegations.”

Retired Col. Michel Drapeau, an Ottawa lawyer and commentator on military affairs, called the charges “devastating” news for Canada’s Armed Forces.

The investigative service said Bazin was a chaplain in the forces who became the military’s chaplain general from 1992 to 1995, a position Drapeau describes as being akin to the “Armed Forces’ bishop.”

In a press release, Col. Tim Grubb, Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, said, “The military police consider this to be a serious matter.

“These types of alleged acts, if proven, are illegal and represent unacceptable conduct.”

Murray Farwell, a former chaplain general who himself retired from the military in 2002, worked with Bazin in the chaplain general’s office in Ottawa from 1989 to 1992.

“I’m just totally surprised at this information,” he said. “My impression of him was he seemed OK to me.”

Brig.-Gen. David Kettle, the current chaplain general, said he was “shocked by these allegations.

“I will not comment on the charges as they are being dealt with by the criminal justice system, but I am certain that I speak for all chaplains when I say that my heart goes out to the victims of such crimes, and their families,” he said in statement.

Farwell said he worries the charges against Bazin will affect how people view the military chaplaincy.

“When anything like this happens, it’s an incident that is going to somehow reflect upon other people. I think that’s a shame but that’s the way life is.”

As chaplain general, Bazin would have had access to the chief of defence staff, and would have provided advice and feedback about stress and morale among lower ranks to the top brass.

— with files from Christina Spencer

CBC News

Last Updated: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 | 8:58 PM ET

A former top military chaplain is facing sex charges for incidents that allegedly happened in 1972 at CFB Borden in Ontario, military investigators said Tuesday.

Roger Bazin, a retired chaplain-general, was arrested in Barrie, Ont., and has been charged with one count of buggery, one count of an act of gross indecency, and one count of indecent assault on a male, according to the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service.

The alleged crimes fall under the 1972 Criminal Code of Canada, the statute in effect at the time of the offences, hence the now-discarded "buggery" charge.

Bazin held the rank of captain at the time of the alleged incidents. He later served as head of the military chaplaincy from 1992 to 1995.

The alleged victim made the allegations against Bazin in June 2009, which led to a military police investigation.

"The military police consider this to be a serious matter and will thoroughly investigate any such allegations related to CF [Canadian Forces] members, DND employees or defence establishments," Col. Tim Grubb, Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, said in a statement.

"These types of alleged acts, if proven, are illegal and represent unacceptable conduct."

Bazin has been served with a notice to appear in Barrie Provincial Court on April 28.

Brig.-Gen. David Kettle, the current chaplain-general, said he was shocked by the allegations.

"I will not comment on the charges as they are being dealt with by the criminal justice system, but I am certain that I speak for all chaplains when I say that my heart goes out to the victims of such crimes, and their families," he said in a statement.

Canadian Press

16 February 2010

OTTAWA, Ont. — A former chief Roman Catholic chaplain of the Canadian Forces is facing sex-related charges, including "buggery" and indecent assault on a male.

Roger Bazin, a priest and retired brigadier general, is to face trial in the civilian court system on charges stemming from his time as padre at Canadian Forces Base Borden, north of Toronto, in 1972.

He was a captain at the time the incidents are alleged to have taken place. He was later promoted and served as Catholic chaplain general of the Forces, 1992-95.

Brig.-Gen. David Kettle, the current chaplain general, said he was shocked by the allegations.

"I take very seriously the charges laid against a former chaplain general for alleged actions committed while serving as a unit chaplain in 1972," he said in a statement.

"I will not comment on the charges as they are being dealt with by the criminal justice system, but I am certain that I speak for all chaplains when I say that my heart goes out to the victims of such crimes, and their families."