Ex-priest (Father Albert LeBlanc). Ordained 1955 for the Diocese of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. According to media account was a great hockey fan – took groups of young boys to Boston to see Boston Bruin games – because of his Boston Garden connections was able to take the boys into the dressings room to meet the players and get autographs. Left the priesthood in 1973. Initially worked as case worker with Child and Family Services in Yarmouth. In 1975 began work as a probation officer in Yarmouth.
Charged January 2011 – 40 offences related to sex abuse of boys age 7 to 11 which are alleged to have occurred between 1970 and 1985. February 10 additional charges laid. There are now a total of 6 complainants and 50 charges.
23 November 2012: sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison
14 May 2012: GUILTY plea- one for each of the six victims who had been complainants
Next courtdate: 23 November 2012: Sentencing hearing, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia courthouse; 17 August 2012: Sentencing hearing, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia courthouse [adjourned]; 14 May 2012: [GUILTY plea] – TRIAL Yarmouth, Nova Scotia courthouse- courtroom is booked for one week: 29 August 2011 (for election and plea. Yarmouth courthouse, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia) ; 30 May 2011 (Yarmouth, NS) [adjourned] ; 15 March 2011 (Yarmouth courthouse, Nova Scotia)
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23 November 2012: Former priest sentenced to five-and-a-half years
17 August 2012: Former priest’s sentencing adjourned
17 August 2012: Sex assault sentencing for former priest delayed until fall
15 May 2012: LeBlanc guilty pleas ‘important moment’ for victims
15 May 2012: Archbishop condemns abuse by ex-priest
15 May 2012: Former Yarmouth priest pleads guilty to indecent assault
14 May 2012: Abuse survivor offers his support
14 May 2012: Ex-priest pleads guilty to indecent assault
14 May 2012: Former priest pleads guilty to indecent assault
29 February 2012: Alleged abuse victims file $5m suit: Ex-Yarmouth priest Albert LeBlanc, church named in action
30 August 2011: May trial scheduled for former priest
30 August 2011: Former priest will stand trial in May on sex charges
14 June 2011: Bishops home up for sale
31 March 2011: Another adjournment for former priest
18 March 2011: More charges laid against Bouctouche man
16 March 2011: Former N.S. priest facing additional charges
16 March 2011: Ex-priest faces more sex abuse charges
25 January 2011: Former Yarmouth priest, 81, facing sex charges
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The following information is drawn from Canadian Catholic Directories of that date (CCCD) and media (M)
17 August 2012: sentencing hearing adjourned – medical reasons prevent Leblanc from travelling to Yarmouth, NS from his home in Bouctouche, New Brunswick (M)
14 May 2012: GUILTY plea to six charges
January 2011: CHARGED (M)
1985: not listed in directory (CCCD)
27 August 1975: article in Yarmouth Vanguard allegedly referenced Leblanc’s new job as a probation officer in which he would do “a lot of court work, dealing with problem people and offenders on probation.”. According the article Leblanc was involved with the parish’s youth centre, the Boys Club of Yarmouth and was active in minro hockey in the area. (M)
1974-75: According to media worked as a case worker with the Family and Children’s Services in Yarmouth (M)
1973: left the priesthood (M)
1973-74: Pastor, Notre Dames de Lourdes, Melbourne, Nova Scotia (In 1971-72 Melbourne was served by the same priest who served Butte Comeau and Pointe a Pinkney – in the ’73-’74 Leblanc is Pastor at Melbourne ) (CCCD)
Member of Diocesan youth committee or commission (with Father Claude Cote as President, and Fathers Albeni [Benny] D’Entremont, and Jean-Louis Robichaud as fellow members) (CCCD)
[if indeed Leblanc left the priethood in 1973 then he must have departed at the end of 1973? ]
1971-72: Not listed in directory (CCCD)
1967, 1968-69: : Pastor, Our Lady of Fatima, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (CCCD) (14 May 1968 Austin E Burke installed as Bishop of Yarmouth)
1966-68: a website indicated that Father Albert Lalonde took groups to Boston for hockey games. The site and pictures has been taken down since charges were laid. Here is the text of the site:
Father Albert LeBlanc’s Hockey Trips to Boston
from
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
1966-1968
——————————————————————————–
In the 1960’s, Father Albert LeBlanc, a priest at Notre Dame de Fatima parish in Yarmouth organized many trips to Boston Bruins hockey games. These trips usually included one or two NHL games and a Boston Celtics basketball game. Father LeBlanc would arrange an Air Canada (Trans Canada Airlines) charter of a 48 seat Viscount to fly out of Yarmouth to Boston. For many, these trips were a first chance to see an NHL game and this was the era of Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito and the six team NHL. There were roughly only 120 players in the entire league (compared to 600 + today) so the talent was exceptional.
Father LeBlanc was an avid hockey player, coach and fan. He later left the priesthood and is now retired in New Brunswick.
Below are several pictures. One from a January 1966 trip for Notre Dame altar boys and chaperones and the another from March 1966 and 1968 for Yarmouth area residents. There are also pictures from a trip in December 1967 when a team of Pee Wee players coached by Father LeBlanc travelled to the Boston area to play a team from Stoneham, Mass. (Yarmouth won 4-1 by the way). This is a picture of five lucky boys meeting Bobby Orr in the hallway at the old Madison Hotel which adjoined Boston Gardens and North Station.
1967: coached the peewee hockey players (M)
1966: The Yarmouth Light featured an article entitled “Group of Boys Travel Air Canada to Boston for Thrilling Weekend.” The article, which contains a picture of Leblanc with a group of altar boys on the airport tarmac, reads in part:
“Father (LeBlanc’s) . . . interest in the youth of the community has been outstanding ever since he came to Yarmouth” (M)
1959: assisting at St. Ambroise Cathderal with Father Louis Armstrong. Rector Msgr. Nil Theriault (Albert Lemenager Bishop of Yarmouth) (CCCD)
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40 sexual assault charges laid
RCMP
The Yarmouth County Vanguard
Published on January 24th, 2011
By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
A New Brunswick resident who was a priest in Yarmouth County decades ago has been charged with 40 sexual offences dating back to the 1970s.
The Yarmouth rural detachment of the RCMP has charged 81-year-old Albert LeBlanc with sexual offences relating to three victims. The offences are alleged to have occurred from 1970 to 1985 while LeBlanc resided in Yarmouth County.
The RCMP say due to privacy issues, they cannot comment on whether LeBlanc was a priest at the time any of these offences took place, saying that the Privacy Act prohibits the RCMP from disclosing LeBlanc’s employment history. After leaving the priesthood LeBlanc also worked as a probation office. The RCMP won’t comment on that either.
The RCMP say the alleged victims were between the ages of seven and 11. A publication ban issued on Jan. 24 protects their identity. All of the victims are males.
The offences are alleged to have occurred from 1970 to 1985 while LeBlanc resided in Yarmouth County. He now lives in Bouctouche, N.S., which is where the arrest took place on Jan. 6.
The 40 charges include 11 charges of indecent assault and 29 charges of gross indecency. The charges date back to the Criminal Code charges that existed at the time the offences are alleged to have occurred.
LeBlanc is scheduled to appear in Yarmouth provincial court on March 15.
While he was a priest in Yarmouth, including his time as the parish priest at the Notre Dame de Fatima parish, LeBlanc was well-known and well liked. Described as an avid hockey player, minor hockey coach and fan, he organized several trips to Boston Bruins hockey games involving large groups of young boys, along with chaperones, from this area. Charter flights were arranged with Air Canada.
Sometimes the trips involved altar boys, sometimes local residents of Yarmouth and at least once members of a peewee hockey team he coached.
The trips would include one or two NHL hockey games in Boston and sometimes a Celtics basketball game. Often there were newspaper articles written about the trips. The articles outlined how LeBlanc’s connections with Boston Gardens officials granted the group of boys and chaperons access to the dressing rooms for autographs and to meet NHL players. One article describes one trip as a father-son affair.
Aside from attending church services during their trips, the itineraries also involved other activities like swimming at the YMCA or riding the subway. Even a television inside a hotel room was something not all of these young people had back home.
There were even media interviews with LeBlanc and others in the United States during these trips.
The RCMP is not saying whether any of the victims who have come forward alleging sexual abuse were involved in these hockey trips to Boston, nor will the RCMP say if any offences occurred in the United States.
The RCMP began its investigation last April after receiving a complaint of alleged sexual assault.
“The first complainant came on April 19, 2010, to our detachment,” says Sergeant Michel Lacroix. “Subsequent to that there were two more.”
The RCMP says given the fact that the allegations date back decades, this was a lengthy and complex investigation as aside from interviewing the complainants, they also had to locate and interview potential witnesses.
The police also consulted with the Crown before laying the charges.
Sgt. Lacroix says even with the passage of time, the charges still could be laid.
“On these types of offences there is no statute of limitation,” he says.
The RCMP say the investigation involving these three complainants is concluded. Whether or not more complainants may come forward is something the RCMP cannot speculate on.
“If the RCMP receive any more complaints of an alleged criminal act there will be a thorough investigation carried out,” says Sgt. Lacroix.
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Man, 81, charged with 40 sex offences
Toronto Sun
By QMI Agency
Last Updated: January 24, 2011 12:52pm
An 81-year-old New Brunswick man is facing 40 charges connected to alleged sexual offences dating back to 1970.
Albert LeBlanc of Bouctouche, N.B., who media reports say is a former priest, has been charged with 40 sexual offences against three people for acts that allegedly occurred between 1970 and 1985 while he was residing in Yarmouth County, N.S., RCMP said Monday.
The charges include 11 counts of indecent assault on a male and gross indecency, said Sgt. Brigdit Leger.
Leger said the victims were between the ages of seven and 11 when the alleged assaults occurred.
Nova Scotia RCMP said they have been investigating the alleged assaults since April after receiving a complaint.
Leger said privacy issues prevent police from confirming local media reports that LeBlanc is a former Catholic priest who worked in Yarmouth at the time of the alleged offences.
LeBlanc previously worked at Notre Dame of Fatima church. A Facebook page that highlights trips the priest organized to Boston for young people from Yarmouth to see NHL hockey games, says LeBlanc left the priesthood and retired in New Brunswick. He also coached peewee hockey in Yarmouth.
LeBlanc was arrested at his New Brunswick home and has since been released from police custody. He is scheduled to appear in Yarmouth provincial court on March 15.
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Ex-priest charged with sex offences
Date back to the 1970s in Yarmouth area
Last Updated: Monday, January 24, 2011 | 3:36 PM AT
CBC News
RCMP in Nova Scotia have charged a former Roman Catholic priest with dozens of sex offences dating back to the 1970s.
Albert LeBlanc, 81, is charged with 40 offences involving three boys in the Yarmouth area.
LeBlanc served as a priest in the Yarmouth Diocese from 1955 until 1973 when he resigned from the priesthood, Archdiocese of Halifax spokeswoman Marilyn Sweet said Monday.
Sgt. Brigdit Leger said the offences are alleged to have occurred between 1970 and 1975 involving children between the ages of seven and 11 years old.
The charges include 11 counts of indecent assault on a male and 29 counts of gross indecency.
Leger said the charges reflect the criminal code in existence at the time the offences are alleged to have happened.
She would not disclose whether more charges involving more victims were being contemplated.
The Nova Scotia Prosecution Service said LeBlanc worked as a probation officer after leaving the priesthood.
LeBlanc now lives in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, where he was arrested at his home earlier this month.
He is scheduled to appear in Yarmouth provincial court on March 15.
Another one! Read the first media report -excellent account of Leblanc’s years in Yarmouth ferrying young lads off to Boston for Boston Bruins games and opportunity to meet the players in their dressing rooms!
Make your stomach churn or what?
I had a few dates entered and the page set to go and my Internet Explorer shut down – lost it all and have to go through the directories again. Keep an eye – I will have it updated by day’s end.
81 years of age.How many hundreds of other victims of this sickos are there?
This is a 35 or more years old case!!!!! It did not happen when this guy is 81 years old???? The victims are now 40 0r more. Good time to get some money???? Wonder what they were doing all these years???? When does one becomes an adult??? Is it that when they become fourty or above??????? You judge it………..
Michael:
Your intentions and your motives are clear.
good that you understood that there is always two sides in all stories, which many of you think you are right 100 percentage. Instead of condemning catholic church as a whole, condemn the individuals who make mistakes, also condemn all who are wrong. I , like millions, can not tolerate my faith and my church is being attacked with false accusations and ulterial motives by some who write on this blog. By the way only person who could tell me not to write on this is Sylvia who owns this site.
This is free country everyone has right to his own or herown opinions.
God forbid Michael that you ever have the misfortune of having a child or grandchild who was sexually abused by a priest. I wouldn’t wish that on any child, but neither would I wish them to have a family member like you who just doesn’t understand the damage done to that young soul and the years it takes to muster the courage to speak about it.
Are you truly as cold and callous as you sound?
I am a Roman Catholic. I practise my faith. I love my Church. I do not however think that a victim coming forward and charges being laid against a priest is an attack on the Church. Nor do I see it as an attack on the Church when a victim sues. To the contrary, I commend those victims. The Church will not be healthy again until the priesthood is purged of these men and all those enabled them to hijack our beloved Church.
It is the clerical sexual predators and those who have enabled them, covered up for them and deceived us who have brought and continue to bring disgrace to the Church. It is they, not the victims, who have made and continue to make the priesthood the object of ridicule and scorn.
You do the Church no good by demeaning the victims as you do Michael. All you do is affrim their resolve to never again set foot inside the doors of a Catholic Church.
Of course there are good and decent priests in the Church Michael. You know that. I know that. But until such time as Church authorities take decisive action to rid the priethood of all sexual predators all priests will of necessity and parental prudence be painted with the same brush. That’s not the fault of the victims. That’s the fault of Church authorties who refuse to do the right thing, namely defrock predatory priests.
Do you want sexual predators in the sanctuary saying Mass? Do you think sexual predators should hear confessions? Do you believe it is right for bishops to quietly recycle known molesters and therby wilfully put children at risk ? Do you think it’s right to subject the sick and dying to hospital chaplains who are known clerical molesters?
I don’t.
That’s a long-winded way of saying, stop blaming the victims Michael. This mess we’re in is not their doing!
Sylvia….thank you for posting this gem, it’s a keeper.
I do don’t expect all people to agree with my point of view. That is not being realistic.
My brother is very Catholic and shares similar views to some here. I shared with him during the holiday season get together about a certain Catholic priest from the Pembroke Diocese that he himself the priest admitted he was abused by a caregiver when he was around 4 and 5 years old. It took many decades for this priest to come to terms with what happened to him. I believed the priest when he said those evils acts were done to him. I hope he got good help.
My brother told me and his wife and others also supported him on saying this.
‘There is no way a 4 year old or a 5 year old could remember such stuff. The child somehow must have misunderstood the actions or added things to the story.’
Implying there may be some mental issues now.
I may have had my ups and downs with this certain priest, (about difference of opinions) but when I heard this brother of mine that I love so dearly say that…it really broke my heart, I had these deep feelings of helplessness and lonesomeness Sylvia.
Is there any wonder why victims are so fearful to come forward? Why it takes them so long to muster their energy to say they were hurt so terribly by abusers. They want to be believed but they are so many hurdles they face…sadly, even in many cases from their own loved ones.
Justice and closer is needed for these victims. It should be their choice of course how to deal with it.
What happened to me (it was a stranger) I just wanted to be believed that it did happened to me. To those who think I just may have misunderstood this stranger actions, I just do not care what they think now. They were not the ones that were there. It was in the early sixties, it was dark and this little girl was so scared. It was not my fault it was that big man with the large hand’s fault.
God knows what really happened. That is important to me.
My experience is nothing compare what numerous others went through here and are still going through.
God help and love you all!
Lina
I agree to diagree to some of your opinions. I too am a practicing Catholic. Even if we both are Catholics we can have different view points. There are many in the catholic church who hold your view points as well as mine. Suing the individual I agree but suing the church for money I disagree. You are tlking about sthing that happend back 20 or more years! That time like all the church believed that some of the priests who abused children would not do it again and many were send for treatment etc. But today the world , the society and the church know that it does not work in that way. Once a an abuser is always an abuser. So today the church takes actions on all the clergy and immediately remove them . I did not see even one child abuse case by the priests, on your web page which happend in the past 10 years oe so. 100 percentage of the cases are twenty or thirty years old.
But I read in every day newspaper many child abuses that is happening in the society.
You can not blame the church as a whole, blame the people or individual. If an event occures NOW and the church or bishop did not take immediate action, then all have a reason to question or attack the church.
I certainlly fell sorry for the victims, and I understand that they want the persons who abused them to be punished and be locked up in prison. But one thing I do not understand why do they ask for Millions of Dollars???? Millions of Dollars??? When it comes to this I doubt your comment is true “who just doesn’t understand the damage done to that young soul and the years it takes to muster the courage to speak about it.”
Because they did not go early when they were old enough (21, 25, 30 ,35) because there was no law that time that they could get money. I may be wrong in it. But it is to let you know that millions of people who believe it like me. Whomever I tlk to, even some aglican minister I met too are of that opinion.
Everything you tlk about recycling, transfering of priests happend many years back.
Twenty years back parents smacked their kids! Now it is child abuse. If you ask the people wo are thirty or older they will say that one time or other in their life time they were punished by their parents, which is called now abuse for which they can be send to jail. This is just one example.
Ofcourse child abuse is more severe crime. I certainly disagree to the fact some condemning the Church as a whole. Indiviuals , yes
You say once an abuser always an abuser, and that today action is taken to remove clerical molesters immediately. How then do you explain the fact that as recently as last Fall Father Michael Walsh, a convicted child molester, was saying Mass and hearing confessions at St. Brendan’s in Newfoundland? and that Father Ed McNeil was doing likewise with the Kateri Native Ministry in both Ottawa and Pemroke, Ontario?
That’s the problem Michael. Those are only two. There are many more. It’s been going on for years, and, sad to say, it continues.
What are people to think?
Sylvia when was this Father Ed McNeil was in Pembroke ? Do you know at which church?
He wasn’t in a parish Larry, he was at the Marguerite Centre in Pembroke for the Kateri conferences. Check the pictures and links on this page – scroll down.
Thanks Sylvia
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1233341.html
Does this help Sylvia?
Lina
You’re a doll Lina 🙂 Thank you. It is now posted:
LeBlanc will be entering pleas 30 May 2011.
Sylvia
I was an alter boy for Father LeBlanc back in the mid-sixties. There were a few times that he would take me to the rectory and let me listen to tapes. I remember once when I was there, it was about the birds and the bees and how babies are made. There were other times when he brought me out for ice-cream (being from a very large family and poor, this was great). Even though I was only 9-11 at the time, I, at times felt very uncomfortable around him, however, going home to tell my family back then was like telling them that the nuns at St Ambrose was beating me everyday. The parents back then did not think it was happening and would not listen to a child over a priest or a nun so life just went on. I can honestly say that I was abused quite a bit (not sexually) at school by the nuns.
Thanks for that info Paul. You might consider passing that information about the brids and the bees on to the police – it may just be of assistance to them.
A trial date has been set for May 2012. The courtroom has been booked for one week.:
30 August 2011: Former priest will stand trial in May on sex charges
I went to a high school where Father Leblanc was a reputible name. Our gym was named after him. It hits home a lot more when it happens with someone you know…
A GUILTY plea in court this morning from ex-priest Albert LeBlanc.
LeBlanc actually entered pleas of guilty to six charges of indecent
assault.
Court was to resume at 2 pm this afternoon (EST). we will find out
later if the 50 charges LeBlanc faced have been bargained down to six,
or if trial will proceed on a number of charges to which LeBlanc has no
entered a guilty plea
14 May 2012: Former priest pleads guilty to indecent assault
It looks as though GUILTY to 6 of 50 charges is it. Court is adjourned to 17 August 2012 for sentencing. If the other 44 charges were not addressed in court today that’s it. The trial is over:
12 May 2012: Ex-priest pleads guilty to indecent assault
*Ever since I first read about this man, on this site…about his rape of children, I have been waiting for this announcement. I feel an inexplicable pain and sorrow for having met that man in the late 70’s…Someone introduced me to him, with a “funny” introduction…I didn’t think was really funny…but I remember the feeling of laughing along to ease out of an awkward moment. I forget what was said but I remember the gut feeling about my “dislike” of this person…or at the very least feeling the “hypocritical”, “empty”look in his eyes…I had to deal with him a few times and as I recall I always felt he was “artificial”…
This was in the late 1970’s…and the charges are right into the early 1980’s…
What an awful feeling to think I might have been able to do something…This is so painful! I am so sorry! Just a gut feeling that might have made a difference …if only for ONE CHILD…
This is really mind boggling! My sincere heartfelt affection for all the victims and their families….to have been so close and to have not known.
What a terrible legacy these men are leaving us, what terrible guilt…and they don’t even seem to feel that! So cold and distant. At least he pleaded guilty. I just hope he gets a sentence which fits the crime.
jg
LeBlanc’s sentencing hearing has been adjourned until 23 November 2012. Some sort of medical condition allegedly prevented LeBlanc from travelling from his home in New Brunswick to Yarmough Nova Scotia for the hearing.
According to the media report, the Crown and defence are seeking a joint sentence of five-and-a-half-years in prison.
The adjournment must have come as a terrible disappointment to the victims. Keep them in your prayers.
An 83-year-old former Roman Catholic priest, who pleaded guilty to molesting six children decades ago, was sentenced to five and half years in prison in a Yarmouth court on Friday.
Albert LeBlanc pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault in May. Some of the crimes date back to when LeBlanc was a priest in Yarmouth County in the 1970s.
Judge Jim Burrill accepted the Crown and defence’s joint sentencing recommendation.
The Crown said at least one case of abuse started when the boy was only 8-years-old. The court heard how Leblanc would entice his underage victims with alcohol and allow them to drive when they were only 13.
Leblanc’s victims have filed victim impact statements, but none of them wished to read them aloud in court Friday.
“There will come a day when your child victims muster the courage, no matter what your age, to ensure that silence is broken and you will account for your actions before a court,” said Burrill.
LeBlanc was a priest in the Yarmouth diocese from 1955 until 1973, when he resigned and left the priesthood. He got a job as a probation officer.
LeBlanc was charged last year after RCMP received a complaint in 2010. He faced 40 charges initially, accused of sexually abusing children as young as seven in the 1970s and 80s.
This from : http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/11/23/ns-albert-leblanc-sentencing.html
Early in my (first) marriage, my husband was the Director of the Notre Dame Boys’ Club. We were also both at the summer camp where we lived for the summer with all those boys!
Albert LeBlanc was in essence our employer and at our home very frequently.
I am filled with anger and disgust now as I recall how much access he had to those little boys. We never suspected. He was so outgoing and friendly. What a disgrace.
Adolphe LeBlanc another pedophile priest actually married my parents in 1938!
I am not a Catholic anymore nor have I been for many years and I am appalled at the stories of all the abuse, the richness of the Vatican and all that implies.
Thinking back I can remember Albert LeBlanc with boys all my school years in Southend. I found it odd that boys would could out of Albert LeBlanc house un happy.I had a feeling he was doing something with these boys, The boys who did come forward I am proud you did, Doesn”t matter how long it took you boys to come forward, Albert LeBlanc is now behid bars, he hurt so many kids and just a few came forward. No matter how many years he got in Jail it will never take away the pain he cause you boys, , You bouse did nothing wrong and you are not to blame, Hope you boys can move on with your life,