4874, Chemin de la Cote-des-Neiges Bureau 1407, Montréal (Québec) HBV 1H4 Canada Tel, 514-737-0111 ‘Téléc, / Fax : 514-738-4046 Couniel / e-mail : epertin@sympatico.ca STRICTLY PER: LAND CONFIDENTIAL EYES O Montreal, June 22,2006 Brother Wilson KENNEDY, es.c. Provincial Stewart Society-of Holy Cross Brothers Provincial House 3745, Queen Mary Road Montreal (Quebec) HBV 1A7 My dear Brother Wilson: First, let me tell you what a pleasure it was to meet with you again. It has already been more than four (4) years since I have left my duties as attorney and legal counsel for the Canadian Province of the Holy Cross Brothers. How time goes by so very quickly! And, what can I say about the Twenty-Four (24) years I have spent at those duties! I remember you when you first came to us as a Novice. And now, look at you...an active participant in the life of your Congregation. | am proud of you. Our meeting was an interesting one indeed. After first hesitating to comply with your request for awhile, I have finally decided to grant it, and write to you about all those subjects raised in our lengthy meeting, Two (2) reasons have motivated me to do so. First, you are a Religious Brother in authority, having been elected provincial Counselor by the 2003’ Chapter, and are also Provincial Stewart, as you were so appointed by the present Superior Provincial You are therefore a duly appointed representative of the client that has retained my services, and paid for those services during all through those Twenty-Four (24) years.‘avocat * attorney Thave known seven (7) of your predecessors, and have always complied with their requests. [ am not therefore breaking my oath to maintain privileged and secret the work I did during my tenure as legal counsel, but simply answering questions by the same client. Indeed, individual members of the Congregations are not my clients. The institution which is the Brothers of Holy Cross was my client. Secondly, I was often called, during my tenure as civil and criminal legal counsel for Notre- Dame College and the Canadian Province, to work with our beloved and regretted Father Pierre Poisson, c.c., Who Was, as you know, our resident expert on Canon Law, and who has honored me with his friendship and good advice for many years Father Poisson's philosophy was always simple: If you can be helpful, then be so. And, if that help can further advance the Congregation, then do so. It is thus in that spirit, that this letter is now written. My original reservation in writing to you, as you might well imagine, stemmed from the very nature of the events, and the people implicated in those events. ‘The most arduous task I was called to perform, as an attorney for your Society in all those years, was to learn how to maneuver between that fine line separating the religious and the profane, what was purely of a Congregational matter, from what was civil in nature, ‘That fine line, trust me, was not always easy to respect, nor evident or apparent. Let me give you a first example of this. Some years back, when Brother Raymond Lamontagne was Superior Provincial, a former student of the Collége Notre-Dame, by the name of DED PAM, asked to meet with Brother Réginald Robert, then Director General of the College. DEMME PAMMB told Brother Robert at that meeting, that he had been sexually abused, this on a two (2) to three (3) year period, by Brothers Olivain LeBlanc and Ellery LeBlanc, and by former Brother Brian Melancon. He was demanding that the Congregation pay him a Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand dollar (250,000,008) compensation for such abuse After that meeting, I received instructions from Brother Réginald Robert to meet with Mr. PEW), as to determine the facts, and evaluate his credibility.svoeat * altorney IT met with Mr. PE for nearly three (3) hours. | took down pages and pages of notes. I made no comments on what was being told to me during that meeting, and then proceeded to report back, in writing, to Brother Robert. ‘The details given by Mr, POY all checked out. Brother Olivain LeBlanc later on admitted having had sexual relationships with Mr. PI. So did Brother Ellery LeBlanc. Now the case went to the Brother Provincial, who was on a trip to India at that time. We were informed to await his return before doing anything. During that period, I met several times with Mr. PI's attorney. [ even convinced him to abandon his client, whom I had summarily described as a profiteer, a drug dealer and a blackmail artist. Upon his return, the Superior Provincial, Brother Raymond Lamontagne, was given a copy of my report. He also sought the opinion of another criminal lawyer and from the Legal Offices of Monette, Barakett. All concluded that no payment should be made. We received a telegram from the Superior General, Father Claude Grou, who was in Brazil at the time, instructing us not to pay. While all of this was happening, the then Superior Provincial, replaced Brother Réginald Robert as head of the College, and appointed Brother Charles-E. Smith as Director General. Mr. PE got himself another lawyer, less scrupulous than the first one, and came back with his compensation request. Brother Smith phoned me, and asked if | would negotiate a settlement with Mr. PIMMEP’s new lawyer. I answered him that we had all received specific instructions from the Major Superiors of the Congregation, not to proceed to auch negotiations, and that he should leave it alone. Brother Smith simply did as Mr. P&M had done himself. He bypassed the Religious chain of ‘command process, choose new lawyers, and paid out to Mr. Pil #f the Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand dollars (250.000,00$) he was requesting, I could not, in good conscience, ignore instructions received from the Father General, the Superior Provincial and Brother Réginald Robert. Nor could 1, nor would | ever agree in any way, to use public funds (remembering that the College is subsidized by the Government) to pay out money for a sexual abuse case.