MONTREAL - In a dark episode of Quebec's postwar history, as many as
8,000 children were falsely declared mentally retarded and then
mentally, physically and sexually abused by nuns who ran the orphanages
where they lived, according to hundreds who have claimed to be victims.
The alleged misdeeds occurred in the 1940s and '50s, when the Roman Catholic Church dominated Canada's French-speaking province, and they remained a secret for 40 years. But in the last year, the orphans - as they are called here, although most were illegitimate children - have begun speaking out.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930402&slug=1693917
The alleged misdeeds occurred in the 1940s and '50s, when the Roman Catholic Church dominated Canada's French-speaking province, and they remained a secret for 40 years. But in the last year, the orphans - as they are called here, although most were illegitimate children - have begun speaking out.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930402&slug=1693917