The Franco-Canadian priest Joannes Rivoire, accused of sexual assault on young Inuit in the far North of Canada in the 1960s and sought for years by Canadian justice, died in France, his congregation announced on Friday April 12. The one who was seen, particularly in Canada, as the symbol of the impunity of sexual attackers within the Catholic Church,
“died Thursday after a long illness”
, indicated Father Ken Thorson of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI ), in a statement sent to AFP.
The nonagenarian, who lived near Lyon, was ultimately never worried despite several extradition requests from Canada.
“We understand that this news will be difficult, particularly for the survivors and their families who have advocated for him to be brought to justice in Canada
,” continued Ken Thorson.
“We regret that despite all efforts, Mr. Rivoire never made himself available and that he never had to respond to the accusations made against him
,” he added.
Targeted by an arrest warrant
Joannes Rivoire has always disputed the accusations. This priest, who left Canada in 1993 after 33 years in the field, was targeted since 2022 by a new Canadian arrest warrant for having sexually assaulted a child in the Canadian Arctic between January 1974 and December 1979. But, in October 2022, France had rejected the extradition request to Canada, explaining that it was a complex case and that it did not extradite its citizens.
A decision very poorly understood in Canada where Marc Miller, the Canadian Minister of Indigenous Crown Relations at the time, declared that it was
“disappointing to see this serious injustice happening again”
. Even the congregation's exclusion procedures, targeting the French religious, failed. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), which has 3,700 missionaries around the world, has always explained that it was only informed in 2013 of the existence of the first arrest warrant issued against him... in 1998 in Canada.