Canada seeks extradition of French priest accused of child molestation

Published on: 05/08/2022 – 08:09 Ottawa confirmed Thursday that Canadian justice had demanded in Paris the extradition of a priest accused of sexual assaults on Inuit children. Father Johannes Rivoire, who now lives in Lyon, has been the subject of an arrest warrant in Canada since February. Canada has requested the extradition of a French priest accused of sexually assaulting Inuit children more than 30 years ago, who has become for many a symbol of impunity within the Church, confirmed, Thursday 5 August, the Canadian Minister of Justice, David Lametti “I am aware of the fact that an extradition request transmitted to France has been made public, which the officials of my ministry have just confirmed”, indicated the federal minister in an email sent to AFP, refusing to give more details. “It is important for Canada and its international partners that serious crimes be fully investigated and prosecuted,” he said. he added. An arrest warrant since February The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed having received this request, “being processed by the Ministry of Justice”. This announcement comes as Pope Francis has just completed a trip to Canada , where he asked for forgiveness for the rapes crimes committed in residential schools, where many children had been victims of abuse. Father Johannes Rivoire, who spent three decades in the Canadian Far North, has been the subject of an arrest warrant in Canada since February, after the filing of a new complaint in September for a sexual assault that occurred about 47 years ago. He has, for the moment, never been worried and the authorities have not specified the total number of his alleged victims. Request to the PopeJohannes Rivoire had already been the subject of an arrest warrant between 1998 and 2017 for sexual assaults against three minors. This was never acted upon. The priest left Canada in 1993 and now lives in France, in Lyon. The religious, who has dual nationality, represents a “problem” because it is “very complicated” to extradite French people, said ‘AFP a source familiar with the case. The nonagenarian, recently questioned by the media, proclaims his innocence. In the Canadian North, his case remains emblematic of the impunity of sexual aggressors in the Church. “We would like Rivoire to be extradited to Canada to face his charges in court and we have asked the pope to intervene to ask him to return to Canada,” Kilikvak Kabloona, an Inuit representative from Nunavut, told AFP during the pope’s visit. .With AFP