Woman says she felt like a ‘prisoner’ during 1992 encounter with Quebec cardinal

MONTREAL — Two women testified on Friday to experiencing alleged inappropriate behaviour from Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet, including one who told the court she felt like a “prisoner” during a 1992 encounter.

Marie-Louise Moreau testified that Ouellet came up behind her while she was preparing items for a mass in Montreal, put his hands on either side of her, and allegedly rubbed his pelvis against her behind.

“I was a prisoner,” she said. “I had to get away.”

Moreau, 84, was a witness in the Superior Court civil trial of Paméla Groleau, who is being sued for defamation by Ouellet after she named him in a class action launched in 2022, alleging sexual misconduct by members of the Quebec City diocese.

Ouellet responded to the allegations by launching a $100,000 defamation suit against Groleau, alleging that she damaged his reputation, honour and dignity. He has denied acting inappropriately with her or anyone else.

Moreau told the court that after she freed herself from Ouellet she ran out of the building. She said she never went back to any place she thought he might be, and would cross to the other side of the street when she passed the building for fear of meeting him.

The 84-year-old said she didn’t tell anyone about the encounter until 2023, after Groleau came forward publicly with accusations of misconduct against the cardinal, as part of the 2022 class-action lawsuit against the Quebec City diocese and dozens of its clergy or lay members.

“I have carried this for 34 years,” Moreau said.

Groleau previously told the court that Ouellet touched her without her consent on three occasions, including one time when he allegedly he ran his hand down her back to the top of her buttocks in 2010.

Under cross-examination, she said that last event is the only one that she considers a sexual assault.

The allegations in the class action have not been tested in court, and Ouellet has never been charged with a crime in relation to Groleau’s allegations.

Moreau told the court on Friday that her conscience prompted her to speak out after Groleau went public. “I knew someone had to know that she wasn’t alone,” she told the court.

Later Friday, the court heard from a witness who described how Ouellet allegedly put a $50 bill down the front of her sweater in 2014.

The woman, Mélissa Trépanier, said the incident came at the end of a meeting between herself, her boyfriend and Ouellet in which she had discussed financial challenges.

Trépanier said she immediately grabbed Ouellet’s hand to try to stop him when she felt his hand inside her shirt.

“I was frozen, I was stunned, how could he allow himself to do this?” she testified thinking. “And when I took his hand, he pushed his hand down further, ending up about between my two breasts.”

Trépanier said her first instinct was to hit Ouellet, but she held back because he was older. She said she had known Ouellet for about 10 years, going back to when she was involved in church youth activities, and had considered him a spiritual father figure.

“For me, it was a breach of trust, an abuse of power, an intrusion into my privacy,” she said.

Trépanier said she was left devastated by the encounter, and wondered if he’d acted similarly with others.

“I thought about all the young people he spends time with, and I was scared,” she said.

Trépanier and Moreau, like Groleau, have agreed to have their names published, waiving the publication ban that usually applies in cases involving sexual assault allegations.

Ouellet’s lawyer has objected to the two women’s testimony, arguing that they speak to “similar facts” but not the specific case. Justice Martin Castonguay allowed the testimony to proceed but said he would rule on whether they will be included at a future date.

Lawyer Dominique Ménard indicated late Friday that she intended to put Ouellet back on the stand to address some of the testimony before closing statements take place. Ouellet already addressed Trépanier’s story earlier in the trial, calling the $50 incident a clumsy mistake on his part.

At Trépanier’s request, Ouellet sat in the audience on Friday during her testimony, instead of next to his lawyers as he usually does, to avoid having him in her field of vision.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press