Lucien Lussier

Roman Catholic priest in Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, Ontario.  Sexual abuse allegations from Gareth Smith and G.R.  Charged.  Charges stayed.  Represented by ex-Crown attorney Don Johnson.  American citizen.  I believe he was born in Fall River MA (have found sibling born and raised there.  Reports of sex abuse and expressions of concern re Lussier back in 1967.  Nothing was done.)

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[The following information is limited to that which I have on hand regarding Father Lucien Lussier’s assignments and activities in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall and beyond.  According to media reports he served in Curry Hill, Glen Robertson, Martintown, Dalkeith and Moose Creek in the Archdiocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, Ontario. Lussier’s lawyer was ex-Crown attorney Don Johnson.  Johnson has represented a number of Cornwall’s “alleged” paedophiles/molesters.  Nearly four years after the first charges were laid the charges were quietly stayed.]

Ordained: 1955

1959: Fatima Retreat House, Alexandria, Ontario

1963-1965: St Lawrence Roman Catholic Church, Curry Hill, Ontario

1965-1968: St. Martin de Tours Roman Catholic Church, Glenn Robertson, Ontario

1967:  Diocesan Vocations Committee (with Monsignor Cyrille R. Contant, Fathers Thomas Villeneuve and Bernard Cameron, and Chairman Bishop Joseph Aurele Plourde)

– testimony at the Cornwall Public Inquiry indicated that in 1967 Father Rejean Lebrun heard of Father Lussier molesting a boy

– testimony at Cornwall Public Inquiry that school teacher Michel Lalonde wrote to Bishop Adolphe Proulx advising that he had seen Lussier taking pictures of boys at the Glen Robertson school yard, and that parishioners were disturbed that Father Lussier was often with a one boy in particular.

1968-1972:  St William’s Roman Catholic Church, Martintown, Ontario

1972-1979:  Saint Paul Roman Catholic Church, Dalkeith, Ontario

October 1979 – 1991 (?): Our Lady of the Angels (Notre Dames des Anges) Roman Catholic Church, Moose Creek, Ontario

• Knights of Columbus Ontario District 1919

1995-1998:    870 Smith Neck, South Dartmouth, 02748, Massachusetts

1999 –  :  back in Cornwall.  Retired.  Does not have a parish but may be assisting as needed.

September 2007:  Charged

January 2008:  More charges laid

August 2010:  Trial date set for 12 January 2010

07 June 2011:  Trial scheduled for 14-15 March cancelled

31 May 2011:  fitness hearing – presumably to determine if Father Lussier was fit to stand trial – cancelled

17 June 2011:  charges quietly STAYED

Priest ‘not prepared’ to deal with allegations of abuse

Standard Freeholder

22 July 2008

Trevor Pritchard

A North Stormont clergyman told the Cornwall Public Inquiry he was “not at all prepared” to handle abuse allegations he received in the 1950s and 1960s against his fellow priests.

Msgr. Réjean Lebrun, who was ordained by the Alexandria- Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese in 1962, told a lawyer for a community group he didn’t turn over complaints against Paul Lapierre, Lucien Lussier, and Carl Stone to the authorities because of his inexperience.

“I was not at all prepared for that type of situation,” said Lebrun, 73.

“It was completely beyond me.”

Testifying in French, Lebrun told the inquiry -which is probing how institutions like the diocese handled allegations of sexual abuse from decades earlier -that Lapierre was the vicar in the parish where he grew up.

It was there, Lebrun said, that he first heard rumours Lapierre had assaulted another youth.

Lapierre was found guilty in 2004 by a Quebec judge for assaulting a 13-year-old Montreal boy in the 1960s. He had previously been charged and acquitted in Ontario.

Lebrun said he tried to divulge the rumours to the victim’s mother after Lapierre’s trial, but she didn’t want to hear them.

“That was the end of that story,” Lebrun said. “So I did not follow up.”

Lebrun said he also received an allegation against Stone in 1965 from a Cornwall high school student.

Stone -who died two years ago – had left the diocese in 1963. Lebrun said when he went to another priest for an explanation for Stone’s departure, the priest threw his hands up and said “young boys.”

Lebrun also said he learned of a relationship between Lussier and another boy “in very little detail” during a meeting with Lussier’s parishioners sometime around 1967.

Lussier was charged in September 2007 and again in January 2008 with indecent assault charges going back five decades. His case is still before the courts.

Peter Wardle, an attorney for the Citizens for Community Renewal, suggested that in the 1960s, the clergy viewed sexual abuse allegations as something “the bishop was dealing with.”

It was likely Lebrun wouldn’t have felt obligated to go to the police or the Children’s Aid Society, Wardle said.

“You’re absolutely right,” said Lebrun. “I only had three years’ experience. I was a very, very new priest.”

Lebrun told Dallas Lee, an attorney for The Victims Group, he also learned of an allegation against a fourth priest, Hollis Lapierre, in the 1960s.

A young man in his 20s had come for advice on whether it was all right to sleep with his same-sex lover. When Lebrun said it wasn’t, the man replied: “So what do you do with Father (Hollis) Lapierre, who plays with the young people?”

Lebrun said he was “really angered” by the allegation, which he delivered to the bishop’s office.

Hollis Lapierre, Paul Lapierre’s brother, died in 1975.

Lebrun testified there was still no official protocol in place two decades later when allegations surfaced against another priest, Gilles Deslauriers.

Deslauriers pleaded guilty in November 1986 to four counts of gross indecency and was sentenced to two years’ probation.

“We were profoundly shocked,” said Lebrun. “It was the first time we had to manage such a crisis. We were lost.”

Lebrun was the priest at the former St. John Bosco parish from 1972 until 1987, and knew Deslauriers from the time he boarded there while he was chaplain at la Citadelle, a local high school.

One of Deslauriers’ victims told police that Deslauriers would molest him in his office, stopping temporarily as Lebrun walked by.

Lebrun said he never saw the abuse happen.

“The windows were frosted,” said Lebrun. “I never saw anything, really. I never heard anything.”

After the allegations against Deslauriers became public, rumours spread through the parish without any official statement from the bishop’s office, Lebrun said.

Still, then-bishop Eugene LaRocque was saddened by the situation and wanted to take action, Lebrun said.

“I don’t remember the exact words but I remember enough to tell you that Msgr. LaRocque was deeply troubled by these events,” he told Lee.

Over the next decade-and-a-half, Lebrun would take part in many meetings with the goal of hammering out a protocol for dealing with abuse complaints.

He helped craft the diocese’s 2003 guidelines, and said Monday that he regretted not having a similar protocol to refer to decades earlier.

“Had I had the knowledge I have today, the guidelines I have today, the protocol I have today, it’s clear that the reactions I would’ve had would be very different,” Lebrun said.

Retired priest faces new sex assault charge

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

19 January 2008

For the second time in four months, police have arrested a retired eastern Ontario Catholic priest in connection with alleged sexual assaults from five decades ago.

Father Lucien Lussier, 84, was charged Wednesday with one count of indecent assault on a male.

The assault allegedly happened sometime between 1955 and 1960 while the complainant, then a young teen boy, was visiting Lussier in Alexandria, police said.

He was previously charged last September for allegedly assaulting another young teen boy sometime between 1954 and 1960.

Lussier was released on an undertaking and is scheduled to appear in Alexandria court Feb. 6 to face the most recent charges. Lussier served in numerous parishes around eastern Ontario, including churches in Curry Hill, Glen Robertson, Martintown, Moose Creek, nd Dalkeith. At the time of the alleged offences, he is believed to have been living and working at the Fatima Retreat House in Alexandria.

OPP charge retired priest in 1950s sex assault 

Man accuses elderly Cornwall-area cleric 

Ottawa Citizen

15 September 2007

BY ANDREW SEYMOUR

A retired Cornwall-area priest is facing criminal charges after being accused of sexually assaulting a young boy more than five decades ago.

Father Lucien Lussier, 84, was charged by the OPP on Tuesday with three counts of indecent assault on a male after a man came forward to police last month alleging he had been sexually assaulted by the priest in the 1950s.

According to police, the alleged incidents occurred in Alexandria and area between 1954 and 1960 while the boy visited Father Lussier in OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae said the alleged assaults started when the boy was young and continued into his teenage years. She would not elaborate on the nature of the alleged assaults.

Attempts to reach Father Lussier at his Cornwall home yesterday were not successful.

Bishop Paul-Andre Durocher of the Alexandria-Cornwall Archdiocese also did not re-turn messages for comment yesterday.

According to church records, Father Lussier was ordained on March 27, 1955.

In 1963, he began work with the St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church in Curry Hill before stints across eastern Ontario at Catholic churches in Glen Robertson, Martin-town, Dalkeith and Moose Creek.

In the late 1990s, he spent time in Massachusetts before returning to Cornwall in 1999. It is not clear what his du-ties included during the years when the alleged assaults occurred.

Police said Father Lussier was released on an undertaking and is scheduled to appear in Alexandria court on Nov 7.

aseymour@thecitizen.canwest.com

Local priest charged

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

15 September 2007

A Catholic priest is facing charges he sexually assaulted a young boy in the 1950s.

Police Friday charged Rev. Lucien Lussier, 84, with three counts of indecent assault on a male.

The incidents are alleged to have occurred when the complainant, then a young teen boy, visited the priest in Alexandria between 1954 and 1960.

Lussier did not return calls made to his Cornwall home Friday afternoon, but the Ottawa Sun reported the priest proclaimed his innocence when contacted by a reporter.

The police began investigating the allegations in August and Lussier was charged Sept. 11. He will appear in court in Alexandria on Nov. 7.

Two members of The Victims Group at the Cornwall Public Inquiry have alleged in affidavits they were assaulted by Lussier.

No charges have ever been laid in either of those two cases.

Lussier has served at several parishes in eastern Ontario. At the time of the alleged offences, he is believed to have been living and working at Fatima Retreat House in Alexandria. He went on to serve in parishes in Curry Hill, Glen Robertson, Martintown, Dalkeith and Moose Creek. Lussier is retired and lives in Cornwall.

Priest, charged with sex crimes, says he’s innocent 

Ottawa Sun

15 September 2007 

By SUN MEDIA

An 84-year-old Eastern Ontario priest says he is innocent of sex-related charges laid earlier this week in connection with alleged incidents from about 50 years ago.

OPP announced this morning that they have charged Father Lucien Lussier three counts of indecent assault after allegations of incidents over several years in the mid-to-late 1950s in the Alexandria area.

When contacted by the Sun today, Lussier proclaimed his innocence.

“The charges are false,” Lussier said, adding that he is surprised about the allegations. “The truth is I’m innocent.”

Police last month began investigating a complaint, which alleged Lussier sexually assaulted a teen boy between 1954 and 1960.

On Tuesday, police arrested and charged Lussier with with three counts of indecent assault on a male. He was released on an undertaking and is to appear in Alexandria court on Nov. 7.

Ont. priest charged half a century after alleged sexual assaults on teen

CBC.ca

Fri Sep 14, 11:09 AM

OTTAWA (CBC) – A priest in eastern Ontario has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy more than 50 years after the first of the alleged incidents took place.

. Lucien Lussier, 84, is to appear in court in Alexandria, Ont., on Nov. 7 to face three charges of indecent assault on a male that were laid Tuesday, said an Ontario Provincial Police news release.

He has been released with conditions.

Police began investigating in August after the victim complained.

He said he was assaulted while visiting Lussier between 1954 and 1960, when he was a young teenage boy, the release said.