A woman who knew retired Cardinal Marc Ouellet during the early 1990s alleged on Friday that he rubbed her “derrière” while she was standing on a stairway and looking at books to prepare for a mass at a Montreal seminary.
Marie-Louise Moreau, 84, was called as a witness by Alain Arsenault, the lawyer representing Paméla Groleau, the woman Ouellet is suing for $100,000 for alleged defamation. On Thursday, Groleau told the trial at the Montreal courthouse that she was sexually assaulted by Ouellet in February 2010, following the ordination of a priest in Quebec City.
Groleau, who was working as a pastoral agent at the time, alleged Ouellet ran his hand down her back, stopped at the top of her buttocks and pressed harder when he reached that spot.
On Friday, Moreau said Ouellet groped her buttocks in 1992 when he was a rector at the Grand Séminaire de Montréal. She agreed that a publication ban that had been placed on her identity at the start of the trial be lifted.
“By memory, the rector was Mr. Marc Ouellet. I was in charge of preparing the mass,” Moreau said, adding her work included selecting books for masses. “I remember it well because it was when I turned 50. I was standing on a stairway so I could reach the books, which were up high.
“I was doing that and suddenly, one day, Mr. Ouellet placed himself behind me. He placed both of his hands on either side of me and he rubbed his hands on my derrière. I was extremely stunned. Shocked.
“I freed myself and I left to Sherbrooke St., where I was safe.
“I have been carrying this for 34 years.”
Before Moreau testified, Ouellet’s lawyer, Dominique Ménard, objected to her being called as a witness in the defamation case. Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc Castonguay said he will rule on Ménard’s objection at a later date.
While being cross-examined by Ménard, Moreau said she felt “like a prisoner” when Ouellet groped her. She repeated that she was reaching for books when the incident happened.
“I was like a prisoner. I had to get away,” the woman repeated. “Between that and getting outside to Sherbrooke St. where I was safe, I don’t know what happened.”
Friday afternoon, Arsenault brought forward Melissa Trépanier, another woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Ouellet in 2014, when she was 28, and was travelling around Quebec for the Catholic church with the man she would eventually marry.
Trépanier also agreed that the publication ban on her identity could be lifted.
By that point in 2014, she said, she had already had an exchange with Ouellet, in 2008, during which she felt he had touched her inappropriately by letting his hand slide from her shoulder down to her chest. Despite the awkward moment back in 2008, she continued to exchange emails with Ouellet on a regular basis.
“Because I saw him as a spiritual father, I didn’t know what to say. I left (following the incident in 2008) and I didn’t say anything to anyone. I didn’t talk to anyone in the (religious) community.”
When she introduced herself to the court, Trépanier said she was “born into a family of believers, already involved in the church.”
“I was placed in the (metaphoric baptismal) bath when I was very little.”
Six years later, in 2014, she crossed paths with Ouellet at Notre-Dame-de-Québec Basilica-Cathedral in Quebec City and he suggested they meet the following day. It was during that meeting, attended also by her boyfriend, Trépanier alleged, that Ouellet went further.
“(The meeting) was going well until we approached the exit. When we reached the exit I decided to give him a second hug. Back then, his arms were reassuring to me. They did me a lot of good,” Trépanier said as she began to break down and cry. “Then he slipped his hand inside my shirt.”
“He took the money (a $50 bill) and he placed it inside my shirt. I was like: ‘What is this. Whoa. This is my personal zone. What are you doing?’
“When I (grabbed) his hand he moved his hand further, almost in between my two breasts, to a point where I could feel it on my ribs. I was extremely mad. I wanted to hit him. I would have hit him, but you don’t hit an elderly person.
Trépanier said she took the $50 bill and left with her boyfriend. She said that, when they were outside, he asked her: “Is that normal what just happened?” and she broke down in tears.
“For me, it was a breach of trust. It was an intrusion in my intimacy, in my sexuality,” Trépanier said. “I didn’t know what to do.”
When he testified on Monday at the start of the defamation trial, Ouellet described the moment in 2014 as one of “clumsiness.” He said he wanted to give Trépanier the $50 bill discreetly in a pants pocket, but realized she did not have a pocket.
The trial will continue on Monday.
Source: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/cardinal-marc-ouellet-defamation-trial-witness
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