Settlement in Quebec minor hockey coach abuse class action [Video]

Quebec Superior Court has approved a class action settlement that could provide as much as $10.25 million to victims who were sexually abused by a minor hockey coach in a Montreal suburb.

François Lamarre, a former Montreal police officer who retired in 1994 and died in 2020, was a boys hockey coach in Greenfield Park for about 30 years until 2001.

The former town is now a part of Longueuil, just south of Montreal.

Lamarre died in July 2020, about seven months after having been charged with gross indecency, indecent exposure, sexual assault, sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching involving four complainants.

A civil trial was scheduled to begin this fall but that was cancelled with word of a possible settlement, which was formally authorized by Justice Suzanne Courchesne on Tuesday.

The class action brought by John Cormier, one of Lamarre’s victims, named the City of Longueuil and Lamarre’s …