BREAKING Security guard shot, seriously injured outside of Drake's Toronto mansion
A security guard working at Drake’s Bridle Path mansion in Toronto was seriously injured in a shooting outside the residence early Tuesday morning, police said.
Marc Ouellet, the Quebec cardinal who oversaw the Vatican's powerful bishops' office and who has been recently been hit with accusations of sexual misconduct, announced Monday he would retire in April.
In a statement, Ouellet said it was time to turn the page. "It is time for me to take on new challenges, always in the service of the church and the Holy See."
At 78, Ouellet is three years past the normal retirement age. He was one of the few Vatican prefects Pope Francis retained from the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI.
The native of La Motte, Que., a farming community about 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal in the province's Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, thanked Pope Francis for accepting his resignation.
Ouellet did not, however, address the allegations that have been dogging him in recent months.
The first allegation surfaced last summer in a class-action lawsuit against the archdiocese of Quebec, in which a woman accused Ouellet of several incidents of sexual misconduct between 2008 and 2010. The alleged victim, Pamela Groleau, made her identity public and accused the Catholic Church of trying to silence her. She is one of 140 plaintiffs who are part of the class action.
Neither the allegations of Groleau nor of the others in the class action have been tested in court, and Ouellet countersued the woman for defamation in Quebec Superior Court, seeking $100,000 in damages.
In his countersuit, Ouellet said he has no recollection of ever meeting Groleau. "He does not know her,'' the lawsuit said. In a statement on the Vatican News website in December, he said he was suing her "in order to prove the falsity of the allegations'' and to restore his reputation and honour.
Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Quebec City confirmed it had received a second complaint of sexual misconduct against Ouellet in 2020.
In a written statement earlier in January, Ouellet said he was participating in the investigation and has "nothing to hide," adding he acted with "complete transparency'' during the entire process. Ouellet denied having committed any "reprehensible behaviour'' toward the woman and said no complaint had been filed against him in civil or criminal court.
A Vatican investigation was conducted in the wake of the second complaint against Ouellet, but Pope Francis decided "not to retain the accusation against the cardinal.''
Pope Francis named American-born Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, who has been ministering in Peru since the 1980s, to take over the Vatican's bishops' office from the retiring Canadian. Prevost will also head the Vatican's Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
That office helps vet bishop nominations and also investigates allegations of abuse or negligence against bishops.
Ouellet served as archbishop of Quebec between 2002 and 2010 before he was promoted to the high-profile Vatican post and a spot in Pope Benedict's inner circle. His name had also been floated as a possible choice for pope during previous papal conclaves.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2023.
With files from The Associated Press.
A security guard working at Drake’s Bridle Path mansion in Toronto was seriously injured in a shooting outside the residence early Tuesday morning, police said.
Prince Harry will not be seeing his father King Charles during his current visit to Britain as the monarch will be too busy, Harry's spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Movement is movement, right? Not exactly. Here’s what your body is looking for in addition to your morning walk or yoga session, according to experts.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
Quebec is looking at tightening the regulations around sperm donation in the province following the release of a documentary that revealed three men from the same family fathered hundreds of children.
As the higher cost of living continues to squeeze household budgets, many Canadians find they have even less left over at the end of every month to squirrel away for the future.
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.