A priest and his power: Consent and the doomed rape case against a residential school principal

Bishop Accountability - August 6, 2025


Williams Lake, BC - Bishop Hubert O’Connor was one of the first Catholic clergy in Canada charged with sexual offences committed at a residential school. In the 1990s, he faced trial for rapes and indecent assaults at St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School in B.C., where he had been principal in the 1960s. The case centered on whether young Indigenous students and staff could genuinely consent to sexual advances from a respected religious authority.


O’Connor was initially found guilty of raping a former teenage student and one count of indecent assault, but was acquitted of other charges. The B.C. Court of Appeal later overturned parts of the ruling, citing that consent under the law at the time did not automatically account for power imbalances. Despite the controversy, Crown prosecutors stayed remaining charges after a restorative justice healing circle in 1998, where survivors addressed how his actions affected their lives.

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Brampton priest charged with sexual assault, removed from ministry

By Patricia Grell • January 9, 2026
Bishop Accountability - December 23, 2025 Brampton, ON - A Catholic priest in Brampton, Ont., has been charged with sexual offences and removed from the ministry, the Archdiocese of Toronto says. It says the man is accused of one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference, an offence that applies when the victim is under 16 years old. It says the decision to remove the man from the pastoral ministry was made in accordance with its protocols and procedures relating to allegations of misconduct.

Archdiocese denies sex claims in latest historical lawsuit involving late priest

By Patricia Grell • September 25, 2025
Free Press - September 23, 2025 Somerset, MB - The Archdiocese of St. Boniface has denied a man’s claims he was sexually abused by one of its priests in rural Manitoba decades ago. The man, who’s in his late 60s, claimed in a lawsuit filed in the Court of King’s Bench earlier this year that he was sexually abused by now-deceased Catholic priest Rene Touchette in the village of Somerset, about 150 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg. In a statement of defence filed in late July, the archdiocese argued the lawsuit should be tossed out — and that the man has provided no proof of the alleged abuse.
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