Canadian Priest Arrested for Sexual Abuse of Girl
Priest Arrested for Sexual Assault on 8-Year-Old Girl in Winnipeg Area
A 48-year-old priest, identified as Savari, was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Winnipeg for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl from the Little Grand Rapids First Nation community. According to RCMP Spokesperson Scott McMurchy, Savari was charged with “sexual assault, sexual interference, sexual abuse of a teenager, deception, and forced imprisonment of a child”. The RCMP believes that there may be other victims of the priest, as he served in two different indigenous communities in the region.
The news comes at a time when Canada is trying to come to terms with its dark past of forced detention and abuse of indigenous children at church boarding schools. The schools were operated from the early 1880s to 1998 and were considered “the sites of the greatest child abuse in Canadian history”. More than 150,000 indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological violence and abuse by priests, nuns, and other teachers. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission established in 2010 uncovered a long list of abuses, including medical experiments. The Canadian Federal Government has officially apologized to the victims for the loss of thousands of children’s lives due to hunger, cold, and disease.
Spokesperson McMurchy emphasized that they don’t want to traumatize the young victim further by sharing her ordeal publicly. However, they believe other children may have been similarly harmed and urged anyone with information to come forward. The recent arrest of the priest has again raised questions about the protection of children and the role of institutions such as the church in safeguarding them.
