Confidential settlement reached in abuse suit against priest

Bishop Accountability - March 28, 2026

Winnipeg, MB - Lawyers for a man who alleged he was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a child by a now-dead Catholic priest in rural Manitoba and Winnipeg in a 2023 lawsuit recently reached a confidential settlement with the Archdiocese of St. Boniface.

The plaintiff, now in his early 60s, claimed the alleged abuse began when he was eight-years-old in 1972 and lasted until 1982. The man, who the Free Press is not naming due to the nature of the allegations, claimed the sexual abuse came at the hands of that church’s priest, Fr. Rene Touchette.

Several other lawsuits filed in recent years against the St. Boniface and Winnipeg archdioceses over alleged historical sex abuses by their priests remain before the court.