Witnesses called at civil trial for Quebec cardinal suing accuser for defamation

Cardinal Marc Ouellet arrives for a meeting at the Vatican on March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

MONTREAL — A woman who has accused Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet of sexual misconduct once said she had felt "tracked" by him, a witness told a defamation trial in Montreal on Tuesday.

Rev. Marcel Pellerin took the stand as a witness for Ouellet, a high-ranking member of the Catholic Church once considered a front-runner to become pope. Ouellet launched a defamation suit against Paméla Groleau after she named him in 2022 in a wider class-action lawsuit against the archdiocese of Quebec and dozens of other clergy members.

On Tuesday, Pellerin recalled introducing Groleau to Ouellet at an event in late 2008, and said the cardinal took her hand and leaned in to speak with her. He said she later told him and others about interactions with the cardinal that she felt were "inappropriate."

"She recounted other times when the cardinal took her in his arms and put his hand on her back," Pellerin said at the Montreal courthouse. "These are things she recounted to us more than once."

Several other witnesses took the stand in Superior Court to testify, as Ouellet tries to clear his name in the wake of an allegation of sexual misconduct.

In the 2022 class action, Groleau accused Ouellet of several incidents of sexual misconduct between 2008 and 2010, including that he slid his hand down her back and touched her buttocks at an event in Quebec City.

She went public with her identity in 2023.

Ouellet has denied the accusations in the class action, which has not been heard in court, and countersued Groleau for $100,000 on the grounds that she damaged his reputation, honour and dignity.

Pellerin said Groleau told him about other interactions with Ouellet, including at an event in 2008 in which he allegedly put his hands on her shoulders. "She told us that often, when she arrived in a place and the cardinal was there, the cardinal went to see her," Pellerin said. "She felt a little bit tracked by him."

Pellerin said he was surprised to hear Groleau's accounts since they didn't match his image of Ouellet.

Earlier Tuesday, three women took to the stand to defend Ouellet as a person of kindness and integrity. The witnesses had all worked with Ouellet, and described him as warm and caring.

"He shook hands, looked people in the eye," testified Isabelle Théberge, a former communications director for the Quebec diocese. "I felt like he wanted to use these events to show people they were important to them.”

Each of the three women said they were shocked to learn of the allegations against Ouellet and had never heard any prior complaints about his behaviour. "I was speechless, sad, angry," Théberge said. "Angry because for me it makes no sense."

Théberge said she was a young mother at the time she worked for Ouellet, and he always took time to check in with her to make sure she was OK. Théberge said she did not know Groleau, while the other two women who testified said they had met her but didn't know her well.

The women had been present at some of the events when the alleged misconduct is said to have occurred, but none remembered witnessing any specific interactions between Groleau and Ouellet.

Sister Doris Lamontagne said Ouellet would meet between 100,000 and 125,000 people per year during various meetings and events. She said he would regularly greet people by shaking their hands or putting a hand on their shoulder, and that people would be surprised by his warmth. "He was very fraternal in his contacts," she said.

Michelle Gauthier, another diocese employee, was asked to describe her recollection of the 2008 event in Beauport, Que., during which Groleau has alleged that Ouellet touched her back and massaged her shoulders.

Gauthier said about 200 people were present at the "festive" event, and that Ouellet had been surrounded by people wanting to greet him and was never alone. She said people in the diocese are like a "family," and that it's common for them to greet each other warmly at events.

"We shake hands, we hug, we take each other by the shoulders, we embrace," she said. "We've always had that warm way of meeting each other."

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 civil trial is expected to continue for several more days.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press