Justice for Irene Network
Volume 35 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: April 4, 2021
JIN (Justice for Irene Network) is a group of concerned citizens from across Canada who sent an open letter to Pope Francis on Jan. 16, 2021 asking him to intervene in the case of Irene Deschênes who is the survivor at the heart of a decades-long legal battle with the Diocese of London. JIN is requesting that the Pope have Bishop Ronald Fabbro, Diocese of London, Ontario enter into mediation for a just and expedited settlement with Irene Deschênes instead of filing leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
JIN has also learned that the Supreme Court of Canada, in a precedent-setting decision on January 14, 2021 has rejected the appeal from the Archdiocese of St. John’s, Newfoundland, regarding the horrific sexual abuse perpetrated by Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel orphanage in the 1950s. It is unconscionable that the Diocese of London continues to pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court in Irene’s case in the face of these developments.
In 2000, Irene Deschênes settled her civil suit with the Roman Catholic Diocese of London regarding her sexual assaults as a little girl at the hands of a Roman Catholic priest – Charles Sylvestre. The Diocese of London said at this time that they had no knowledge of Sylvestre’s pedophile proclivities prior to Irene’s abuse. We now know that Sylvestre sexually molested at least 47 children while employed in the London Diocese.
In 2006, Sarnia police reports from 1962 were found to be ‘misfiled’ in a diocesan office. Irene sought to re-open her civil suit based on this new information and in 2018 an Ontario Court of Justice agreed.
The diocese appealed this decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal and lost.
The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that Deschênes could re-open her civil suit based on “misrepresentation.”
In August 2020, the Roman Catholic Diocese of London filed leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
JIN is supporting Irene Deschênes so that she (and other child survivors of clerical abuse) may finally find nominal justice from a religious institution that states they are “committed to vigilantly protecting those who are vulnerable, to supporting survivors” (Bishop Fabbro, Dec. 5, 2019) while at the same time using every resource to fight victims in court.