The Superior Court of Quebec, in Canada, has ruled in favor of Cardinal Marc Ouellet in the civil defamation lawsuit he filed against Paméla Groleau, the woman who accused him of sexual assault. Judge Martin Castonguay has declared the accusations against the prelate unfounded and has ordered Groleau to pay him 100,000 Canadian dollars.
The ruling, issued this Monday, August 31, concludes that Ouellet was the victim of defamatory statements and strongly questions the credibility of the complainant. According to CTV News, Castonguay determined that Groleau changed her account several times regarding the physical contacts she attributed to the then-archbishop of Quebec.
The judge questions the credibility of the complainant
Groleau had accused Ouellet of touching her without her consent on three occasions between 2008 and 2010, while she was in formation or working as a lay pastoral agent for the Church in Quebec. During the legal proceedings, however, she modified her version of events and ultimately maintained that only one of those episodes constituted, in her view, sexual assault.
The woman explained that the previous encounters should be understood as part of a progression of increasingly intrusive behaviors. The court rejected this explanation and cast doubt on the reliability of her account.
The episode that Groleau ultimately identified as sexual assault allegedly occurred during a priestly ordination in 2010. According to her account, Ouellet greeted her and then slid a hand down her back until touching the upper part of her buttocks. The cardinal denied that this had occurred.
Castonguay gave credence to Ouellet’s version and noted, among other factors, that the then-archbishop was holding the episcopal crosier at the time the contact described by Groleau supposedly took place. The ruling concludes that the woman’s account of that episode was neither credible nor reliable.
The magistrate also points to the modifications introduced in the complainant’s account and concludes that she acted with recklessness that amounted to “malice” toward the cardinal.
The defamation trial was held last March. During the hearings, other women also testified, attributing inappropriate behavior to Ouellet. One of those testimonies addressed an incident in 2014 in which the cardinal himself acknowledged having slipped a 50-dollar bill into the neckline of a woman’s sweater. Ouellet described that gesture at the time as a “clumsy mistake” and denied any sexual intent.
The impact of the accusation against Ouellet
The case gained international attention in August 2022, when Ouellet was named in a class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec that included numerous complaints of sexual abuse attributed to clergy and other individuals connected to the Church.
Castonguay considers that the inclusion of the cardinal’s name in that proceeding aggravated the damage to his reputation. The class-action lawsuit included numerous cases of sexual abuse against minors, whereas Groleau was an adult at the time of the encounters she attributed to Ouellet.
Read also: The Archdiocese of Quebec will pay 31.5 million dollars to settle a class-action lawsuit over abuse
On August 21, Canadian justice approved the agreement under which the Archdiocese of Quebec will pay 31.5 million Canadian dollars to resolve that class-action lawsuit, which covers claims of abuse occurring over more than eight decades.
The accusations against Ouellet had previously been examined by the Holy See. After receiving the complaint, Francis commissioned a preliminary investigation from Jesuit Jacques Servais.
In August 2022, the Vatican announced that, after receiving Servais’s conclusions and conducting further consultations, Francis had determined that there were insufficient grounds to open a canonical investigation for sexual assault against Ouellet, who was then prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
The cardinal publicly denied the accusations and, months later, decided to take the matter to civil court to defend his reputation.
Read also: Cardinal Ouellet sues the woman who accused him of committing abuse
Ouellet will donate the 100,000 dollars
Ouellet filed the defamation lawsuit in December 2022 and sought 100,000 Canadian dollars. The prelate maintained that his purpose was to publicly restore his reputation after the impact caused by the accusations.
During the trial held in March, he insisted that he did not intend to obtain any financial benefit from the proceedings, but rather to defend his honor and integrity.
The Superior Court of Quebec has now awarded him the full amount claimed. Ouellet has announced that he will donate the 100,000 dollars to organizations dedicated to combating sexual abuse suffered by Indigenous people in Canada.