Former priest pleaded guilty to sexual assault involving Quebec City boys
CBC News
Posted: Feb 10, 2012 2:38 PM ET
Last Updated: Feb 10, 2012 4:55 PM ET
Rev. Raymond-Marie Lavoie pleaded guilty in July 2011 to committing sexual crimes against young students at a seminary for more than a decade. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)
A former Catholic priest has been sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting more than a dozen boys who were in his care in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was in charge of a school dormitory in the Quebec City region.
Raymond-Marie Lavoie, 71, pleaded guilty last year to assaulting 13 boys.
The crown prosecutor had recommended he be given an eight-year sentence, but the judge in the case decided that was too long.
The three-year sentence is a disappointment to Frank Tremblay, one of Lavoie’s victims who was just 13 years old when he was first assaulted by the former priest.
“Some things you just can’t erase,” Tremblay said after the sentencing hearing, adding he intends to seek an appeal of the judge’s decision.
“No prison term would be enough for a guy like that.”
The president of the Association Representing Abuse Victims of Priests, France Bédard, said her group is seeking harsher sentences for pedophiles.
“The justice minister has to modify the law,” Bédard said, to reflect the impact on children whose lives have been ruined by their abusers.
_________________________________
Quebec priest gets three-year prison term for sexual abuse of numerous boys
By: The Canadian Press
Posted: 02/10/2012 12:58 PM
QUEBEC – A Quebec priest has been sentenced to three years in prison for sexually abusing 13 boys over more than a decade.
The abuse took place between 1973 and 1985 when Raymond-Marie Lavoie was a teacher at the now-defunct St-Alphonse Seminary near Quebec City.
He was responsible at the time for overseeing the dormitory.
Lavoie received the sentence in a Quebec City courtroom today.
The Crown had been seeking an eight-year prison term and will appeal the sentence.
Lavoie is in his early 70s.
He pleaded guilty last summer and said he was sorry for the crimes.
Comments
Intangible
1:07 PM on 2/10/2012
What a pathetic sentence!! I’m glad the Crown is appealing it.
________________________
Robert4
1:36 PM on 2/10/2012
3 years. That works out to less than 3 months per child.
Yes, Religion. Untouchable Religion. Billion dollar tax free business … answerable to know one.
Religion has over 6000 years to get it right, but nope, they screwed it all up.
Shut it all down.
________________________
mmb1:58 PM on 2/10/2012
3 yr sentence is pathetic…. he should get 5-10 years for each boy!! I have no sympathy for a priest doing this!!
________________________
Raymond Ethier
2:06 PM on 2/10/2012
That only serves to show the rest of us that our system of justice doesn’t value victims needs.
________________________
Netropolis
2:07 PM on 2/10/2012
Sick of hearing about these cases…
These poor children!
Any parent who would allow their child near a priest oughta have their head examined!
________________________
Robert4
3:00 PM on 2/10/2012
No man chooses to become a catholic priest unless there is something very wrong mentally.
To choose a life of celibacy ?
Where is celibacy mentioned in the bible? Was it not god’s (lower case g) plan for all to be fruitful and multiply ?
________________________
DanielinPEI
3:04 PM on 2/10/2012
The Catholic church should be declared a terrorist organization and outlawed in Canada. If raping and abusing young children does not constitute terrorism, I don’t know what would possibly fit the definition. Church members pay these people and then have to pay when courts award victims millions of dollars. They are all responsible!!
________________________
acorn93A
3:52 PM on 2/10/2012
If the three years is served among the general prison population it will feel like a lifetime (as it should).
________________________
Female = Sexual Assault
Male = Sexual Abuse
Wrong, Both = Sexual Assault
________________________
Luke Strauman
5:32 PM on 2/10/2012
another reason why the Conservatives need to overhaul the justice system, pathetic.
Why do some in the media insist on saying retired priests are “ex-priests”? This does nothing but create confusion,
Sad to say, Father Raymond-Marie Lavoie is still very much a priest. Until such time as he is laicized/defrocked he and every other predatory priest is still a priest. That is why I still refer to them as “Father” – a constant reminder that the Church has not done what must be done: defrock them!