Canada--Victims praise Canadian lawmakers & urge more reforms

For immediate release: Wednesday, April 8

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790, [email protected], [email protected]

Two more Canadian provinces have reformed archaic and arbitrary laws that protect child predators. We applaud these moves and urge lawmakers to go further.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/sex-abuse-lawsuits-ontario-nova-scotia-735695  

Specifically, we urge legislatures to make it easier for child sex abuse victims to pursue those who commit AND those who conceal child sex crimes, in both criminal and civil courts.

It’s tough to prevent a shrewd child molester from assaulting a child. But we can stop him before he assaults 30 or 40 children. How? By vigorously pursuing and harshly punishing his friends, colleagues and supervisors who ignore or hide his crimes.

Roughly one in ten children are sexually violated. If we are to reduce this horror, we must enable victims to take legal action any time they are able. Deadlines of any sort only help wrongdoers. These predator-friendly statutes of limitations must be eliminated. And laws that give a “free pass” to complicit colleagues must be reformed too.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We were founded in 1988 and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy 314-566-9790, [email protected], Barbara Dorris 314-503-0003, [email protected], Barbara Blaine 312-399-4747, [email protected]   


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