The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations says granting parole to a man who sexually assaulted young boys at a residential school is “a slap in the face” to his victims.
The FSIN says it is outraged at the decision in April by the Parole Board of Canada in the case of Paul Mary Leroux.
In December 2013, Leroux was convicted of indecent assault and gross indecency for attacks on young boys while he was a dormitory supervisor at the Beauval Indian Residential School between 1959 and 1967.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, but that was overturned on appeal by the Crown and changed to eight years.
The Appeal Court decision said Leroux was not remorseful and had not accepted responsibility for his crimes.
FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron says the legal and judicial process surrounding the case has revictimized the residential school survivors Leroux assaulted.
“This sexual predator is basically allowed to destroy the lives of innocent children with minimal consequences,” Cameron said in a news release Tuesday.
Eric Sylvestre, chief of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, said survivors have been victimized again by the decision to grant Leroux parole.
“The detrimental effects of Leroux’s criminal actions have impacted our people for their entire lives and caused irreparable damage to them and their families. The decision by the national parole board to release Leroux shows that the suffering he has caused means nothing to the … parole board,” Sylvestre said in the same release.
The Beauval school was operated by the Roman Catholic Church from 1895 to 1983.
It wasn’t Leroux’s first conviction for abusing boys and youth.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1998 for abusing 14 boys and young men at Grollier Hall, a residential school in Inuvik, N.W.T., run by the Roman Catholic Church. Those convictions were for gross indecency, indecent assault and attempted buggery between 1967 and 1979.
Leroux worked as an activities supervisor and guidance counsellor at Grollier.
“The FSIN says it is outraged at the decision in April by the Parole Board of Canada in the case of Paul Mary Leroux.”
And rightly so. An insult to the victims. Keep them in your prayers.