Sudbury Star
03 November 2010
By CAROL MULLIGAN THE SUDBURY STAR
A former Sudbury-area man was among an audience of 200 men who participated in a two-part episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show that the television icon says is among the most phenomenal she has produced.
Robert Berube, 55, was one of about 30 Canadians in the audience at two programs Winfrey produced to shatter the stigma of male childhood sexual abuse.
In a first for Oprah, her audience was comprised solely of men who suffered childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests, teachers, parents, men and women, at least in the first half of the two-parter.
In the second part, wives and mothers of male sex abuse victims are featured.
The best-known survivor to appear in the two programs, scheduled to air Nov. 5 and Nov. 12, is actor and director Tyler Perry, who speaks about his own sexual abuse as a kid.
The audience came from across Canada and the U.S., said Berube, a retired school principal who lives in London, Ont.
“What I realized throughout the process was it’s all the same story for all the guys,” said Berube in a telephone interview from the London area. “Tyler Perry is a remarkable man. Unlike some other famous guys, he doesn’t say, ‘I’ll stand in front of you.’ He said, ‘I’m standing with you.’ ”
Berube was interviewed several times by Oprah producers and asked to tell his story, although he will not be interviewed on air. Just being in an audience with men who suffered much as he has was enough for Berube.
Berube and another northeastern Ontario man won a settlement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie in 2008.
The settlement came after they sued the diocese for sexual abuse at the hands of Father Jean-Claude Etienne when he was parish priest at St. Thomas Apotre Parish and St. Thomas Separate School in Warren, which the men attended at different times.
Berube came forward in July 2005 with claims of having been controlled, brutalized and raped by Etienne for 3 1/2 years, starting in 1969 when he was 13.
Several other men have come forward with charges against other area priests since Berube first spoke out and he has begun a support group called Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Violence.
He also runs a Facebook site by that name.
Berube said he didn’t learn anything new about male sexual abuse during the Oprah tapings in Chicago, but said Oprah has made the subject mainstream.
There were only the 200 men and Oprah at the taping of the first episode, said Berube, and it was a powerful experience.
Each member of the audience was asked to stand and hold up a photograph of themselves at the approximate age at which they were abused.
Ten of the audience members, including Berube, had their childhood pictures enlarged to 3×4 feet and they were posted on the wall in the studio for the episode.
“Before the show started, (Oprah) came in on stage and spoke to us. She’s a very kind, sensitive soul, totally different than the person that shows up on TV. And when we stood up with our pictures, she started crying.
“She was the only woman there. It was quite the moment.”
Rob Talach, the Londonbased lawyer who represented Berube in his lawsuits against the diocese, said Oprah has helped remove the social stigma of male sexual abuse.
Instead of hiding it, she gave 200 men an opportunity to feel proud and respected for what they survived.
The show was so important to Berube because it showed “he’s not alone,” said Talach.