Cardinal Marc Ouellet wins lawsuit against woman who accused him of sexual misconduct

MONTREAL — Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet has won his civil defamation suit against a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct as part of a class-action lawsuit.

Superior Court Justice Martin Castonguay ruled that Paméla Groleau’s accusations against Ouellet are unfounded and ordered her to pay him $100,000.

“The court finds that the allegations describing the four events cited by Ms. Groleau in the context of the class action are false,” he wrote in a decision released Monday.

Groleau had accused Ouellet of touching her without consent on three occasions between 2008 and 2010, while she was training or working as a lay pastoral agent for the church.

She also said she felt “hunted” by him at a fourth event, during which Ouellet moved across a room to come sit down next to her.

Castonguay noted in his judgment that Groleau changed her story several times, including eventually saying that she only considered one of the alleged interactions to be a sexual assault.

“Her allegations are unfounded to a point that, strategically, she decided to downgrade the three first events,” the judge wrote.

Groleau testified in court to the incidents involving Ouellet that she felt were inappropriate, which all took place at church gatherings with other people present.

The final alleged incident came in 2010, at an event celebrating a priest’s ordination, when Groleau said Ouellet slid his hand down her back to the top of her buttocks and left them there for “several seconds.”

Castonguay concluded that her testimony “was neither credible nor reliable.”

The allegations first surfaced in 2022 as part of a wider class-action lawsuit against the archdiocese of Quebec and dozens of its clergy or lay members.

In response to being named in the class action, Ouellet launched a $100,000 defamation countersuit against Groleau, alleging that she damaged his reputation, honour and dignity.

The judge said the damage to Ouellet “is amplified by the chosen vehicle, meaning that of a class action aimed principally at religious pedophiles, thereby equating Cardinal Ouellet, in the eyes of the ‘ordinary citizen,’ with that group of individuals.”

Quebec Superior Court approved a $31.5-million out-of-court settlement for the class action earlier this month.

In 2013, Ouellet was touted as a front-runner to replace former pope Benedict XVI, a role that went to former pope Francis. Ouellet headed the powerful Dicastery for Bishops, the Vatican office that oversees the selection of new bishops, from 2010 until his retirement in 2023.

The news that he had been named in a class action created a media firestorm.

The trial also heard from two other women who testified to having interactions with Ouellet that they felt were inappropriate. Castonguay ruled that their testimony was not pertinent to the question of whether Groleau had defamed Ouellet.

He also concluded that Ouellet was “not the author of the gestures” described by one of the two women.

The woman had testified that Ouellet had come up behind her and allegedly rubbed his pelvis against her behind as she prepared items for a mass in Montreal in 1992, but Castonguay said the evidence showed that the cardinal was not the person officiating masses at the time.

Castonguay said the true impact of the allegations on Ouellet “is difficult to quantify,” and awarded him the $100,000 he’d been seeking.

Ouellet has promised to donate the damages he’s awarded to organizations fighting against sexual abuse experienced by Indigenous people in Canada.

Lawyers for Groleau did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ouellet’s lawyers said in a statement they were pleased the court had recognized he had suffered an injustice that would result in him getting compensation.

“This judgment reaffirms a fundamental principle: even in the context of judicial proceedings, serious allegations must be based on accurate and relevant facts and advanced with the rigour required by their gravity,” said lawyer Dominique Ménard, in the statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press