By Jenna Cocullo, Local Journalism Initiative
A ruling by the lower courts of Ontario allowing a survivor of sexual assault to reopen her case against the Diocese of London stands after the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case.
The Supreme Court of Canada, by convention, gave no reason for declining to intervene in the case.
The decision ends one more chapter in the legal battle between Irene Deschenes and the Roman Catholic Diocese of London. Between 1971 and 1973, Deschenes was sexually abused by Father Charles Sylvestre at St. Ursula School in Chatham. She was 10 years old at the time.
In 1996, she filed a lawsuit against the diocese on the basis that they failed to protect her from abuse. The accused said they were unaware of Sylvestre’s actions until the 1980s, so Deschenes decided to settle with the diocese in 2000.
However, it was later learned that the diocese was made aware of three other accusations against Sylvestre in 1962.
In a decision by Ontario’s Superior Court, Justice David Aston granted Deschenes her application to re-open the 2000 out-of-court settlement, acknowledging that she “would not have settled as she did in the fall of 2000 if they had known about the 1962 police reports.”
The London Catholic diocese appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal and lost in May before taking the matter to the Supreme Court of Canada.
