MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — The Catholic Church will pay C$104 million ($76 million) to hundreds of victims of sexual abuse in eastern Canada, according to a statement released on Friday.
In 2020, the Archdiocese of Saint John was held responsible for one of Canada’s largest child sexual abuse scandals, which took place at Mount Cashel Orphanage, a now-closed boys’ orphanage in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The court found that sexual abuse by priests and church officials at the orphanage began in 1940 and continued for decades.
A total of 292 victims will receive compensation ranging from C$55,000 to C$850,000, according to the report seen by AFP.
Accounting firm Ernst & Young was retained as a third-party intermediary to determine how much would be distributed to each victim.
One of the victims’ lawyers, Jeff Budden, told AFP the amount was comparable to “similar awards from other courts”.
“People didn’t really understand the scale of the problem and how widespread the abuse was,” he said.
The Archdiocese of Saint John declared bankruptcy in 2021, despite raising C$40 million through the sale of buildings it owned.
But Budden said he was optimistic the victim would receive the full compensation awarded by the court.
“We still have assets that need to be dealt with, such as insurance products,” he said.
