Video shows suspect setting Toronto-area barbershop on fire
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
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.
Video of a suspect lighting a Richmond Hill barbershop on fire earlier this week has been released by police.
A New Brunswick woman suffering from sarcoidosis, a disease that limits your lung capacity, is in need of a double lung transplant.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
Quebec Premier François Legault reiterated that the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University must be dismantled while police remain 'on the lookout for new developments.'
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 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.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.