A $14.7-million settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit brought against the Montreal Roman Catholic archdiocese, and a judge will be asked to sign off on the deal in the coming weeks, the plaintiffs’ lawyer said Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019 and authorized by Quebec Superior Court in 2021, covered victims of sexual abuse committed by priests and lay employees of the archdiocese since 1940.
The lead plaintiff in the class action was a victim of Brian Boucher, a since-defrocked priest who was convicted of sexually abusing two boys under his supervision. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2019.
The settlement agreement covers abuse by diocesan priests but not priests who belong to specific religious orders, said Alain Arsenault, the plaintiffs’ lawyer….