Sunday

The Maurice Duplessis Era Abuse Horrors for Quebec's Children

Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis
Martin Lecuyer, now 69, still chokes back tears when he talks about the abuse he first suffered when he was an 11-year-old living in an orphanage north of Montreal.
"At that time, we thought it was normal to have sex between men," an emotional Lecuyer said Thursday as Quebec announced $26 million in compensation for 1,700 Duplessis Orphans who were abused in Roman Catholic Church-run institutions in the 1940s and '50s.
"I saw a lot of kids who were physically abused by a bunch of guys. . .I have this in my head since I was 11 years old. You can't forget that, it's impossible, you can't forget that."
Lecuyer vividly remembers his birthday party in 1951 when he went to complain about being sexually abused by a religious brother at his orphanage.
He said he was first given a small bag of peppermints, but when he tried to explain to a superior what happened, Lecuyer was given the strap.
"That was my gift," he said in an interview.
Lecuyer said he was sexually abused by two religious brothers "about two or three times a week" over a five-year period.
Many of the orphans say they suffered beatings, sexual abuse, electroshock and even lobotomies."
Macleans
December 21, 2006