Abbé Pierre and ‘Palestine’
Abbé Pierre has been, until very recently, a revered figure in France, where he spent much of his life helping the poor. He was born as Henri Marie Joseph Grouès in 1912, into a family of rich silk merchants in Lyon. In 1928, at 16, he made the decision to join a monastic order, but he had to wait until he was seventeen and a half to fulfill this ambition. In 1931, Grouès entered the Capuchin Order, renouncing his inheritance and offering all his possessions to charity.
He set up a series of Emmaus stores, where people could donate household goods — furniture, linens, utensils, candle holders, ceramics, tools, everything you can imagine. Those goods, in turn, would be cleaned up and put on sale at modest prices. The amounts brought in by the Emmaus stores are then spent on support for the poor, especially the homeless, providing both temporary shelter and longer-term affordable housing, help with vocational training and job placement, and a steady support system for those who are alone, disabled or addicted. There are 425 local branches of Emmaus worldwide, in 41 countries, and many thousands of Emmaus stores all over the world.
But there is a fly in this ointment. When it came to Israel, Abbé Pierre’s warm heart turned cold. Despite his work in the Resistance, which included helping a Jewish couple escape from the Gestapo, he had no sympathy for the embattled Jewish state. He did not understand that the Arab aim was to destroy Israel, and replace it with a twenty-third Arab state. The Palestinians, being in his eyes the weaker party, naturally attracted his sympathy, for he “was always on the side of the weak.” He apparently forgot that the Palestinians have twenty-two Arab states, and another three dozen non-Arab Muslim countries staunchly behind them, offering financial, diplomatic, and in some cases, military support, as in the wars of 1948, 1967, and 1973.
So I was pleased to see that the Great Man, with his Palestinian sympathies, has posthumously had his reputation undone, beyond repair. For it turns out he was a serious sexual abuser of both women and girls. As the head of Emmaus International, delegate-general Adrien Chaboche, said recently, that image of Abbé Pierre had now changed beyond recognition.
“From now on,” he said, “Abbé Pierre – for everyone, and especially for the people that have been victims of violence – is the picture of a sexual predator.”
Twenty-four women have so far come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment against the man born as Henri Grouès, accusing the once-celebrated priest of non-consensual kissing, forced fellatio, rape and sexual contact with children, including 17 new allegations released as part of a new report published in July 2024
Many of his victims were minors. The youngest was eight years old at the time the abuse occurred.
Portraits, statues, and frescoes of Abbé Pierre in France are now being taken down and destroyed. His name has been erased from Emmaus stores and logos, from street signs, from schools, from prizes. The Abbé Pierre Foundation is to change its name, and the Abbé Pierre memorial center in Esteville, Normandy, where the late monk resided for many years, will close permanently.
We can only hope that that embarrassed distancing from this sexual predator will extend to include his ill-informed and unpleasant views on Israel and the Palestinians.
Jacob Hoggard drops bid to challenge
2022 conviction at Canada’s top court
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard has abandoned his bid to appeal his 2022 sexual assault conviction before Canada’s top court.
The Supreme Court of Canada website shows the former Hedley frontman discontinued his application for leave to appeal last Friday.
That’s the same day Hoggard, 40, was found not guilty of sexual assault in a separate, unrelated case in northeastern Ontario.
In the 2022 case, a Toronto jury found Hoggard guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm against an Ottawa woman, but not guilty of the same charge and of sexual interference in relation to a teenage fan.
His lawyers appealed the conviction on four grounds, including that the trial judge made an error in admitting expert evidence on the neurobiology of trauma.
In August, the Appeal Court found that while the judge had erred in allowing the testimony of clinical psychologist Lori Haskell, the judge had corrected any potential misuse of that evidence in answering the jury’s questions.
There was thus was no “substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice” as a result of the error, the appeal panel said in a unanimous ruling. The court did not find any errors related to the other grounds for appeal.
Hoggard started serving his five-year sentence after his appeal was dismissed.
The singer turned to the Supreme Court in early September, and the Appeal Court rejected his request for bail pending the outcome of his application to the Supreme Court.
Allegations of sexual misconduct involving Hoggard first surfaced in early 2018, and he was charged in the Toronto case that July.
He was then charged with sexual assault in an alleged incident in Kirkland Lake, Ont., while the Toronto trial was underway. Jurors acquitted him in that case last week after deliberating for less than six hours.
Hedley went on an indefinite hiatus in 2018 and Hoggard has testified that they broke up that year.
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