Quebec’s Cardinal Ouellet vindicated in abuse lawsuit

A judge has found sexual misconduct accusations against Quebec’s Cardinal Marc Ouellet to be unfounded and ordered his accuser to pay him 100,000 Canadian dollars (about $72,000).

The cardinal, retired since April 2024, had been under a cloud of suspicion since Paméla Groleau accused him of touching her without consent on three occasions between 2008 and 2010 while she was training or working as a lay pastoral agent. She also told the court she felt “hunted” at another event, saying Ouellet came from across the room to sit next to her.

“The court finds that the allegations describing the four events cited by Ms. Groleau in the context of the class action are false,” Superior Court Justice Martin Castonguay wrote in a decision released Aug. 31.

Castonguay concluded that Groleau’s testimony against the now-82-year-old Ouellet “was neither credible nor reliable,” noting in his judgment that she had changed her story several times.

Two other women testified against Ouellet at the trial, but the judge ruled their testimony was not pertinent to the question of whether Groleau defamed Ouellet. He also concluded Ouellet was “not the author of the gestures” brought into evidence by…