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

By Canadian Press on March 6, 2026.

MONTREAL — A witness told a defamation trial on Friday she felt like a “prisoner” during a 1992 encounter with Quebec Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

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 alleging sexual misconduct by members of the Quebec City diocese.

Ouellet has launched 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.

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

Groleau’s 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. 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.

She, like Groleau, has agreed to have her name published, waiving the publication ban that usually applies in cases involving sexual assault allegations.

The trial continues Friday afternoon.

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

The Canadian Press