TOPIC: CBC MONTREAL INVESTIGATES

CBC Investigates

Hope for student refunds dries up after lawsuit attempt dismissed

Since January 2022, hundreds of international students have fought to get their tuition money back after M College, CDE College and CCSQ College closed and filed for creditor protection. Eighteen months later, the avenues for compensation have all but dried up.
CBC Investigates

Ukrainian Canadians fight to save a forgotten cemetery in Quebec's Abitibi region

The Spirit Lake internment camp operated between 1915-17. Some of the detainees were buried in a cemetery near the town of Amos, in Quebec's Abitibi region. For years, Ukrainian Canadians have fought to have the cemetery restored.
CBC Investigates

Flood repair fiasco leaves Quebec couple on the hook to pay back $90K in financial aid

A couple in Deux-Montagnes, Que., hired a contractor to repair their home after a flood, but the repairs were never done. Now, the province is asking the couple to reimburse $90,000.
CBC Investigates

Patients fear their health will decline while they wait for Quebec family doctor

In Quebec, more than 857,000 patients who are registered on the government's website for a family doctor, are still waiting to be matched. In some regions, depending on demand, the wait can drag on for years. So what can be done to fix it?
CBC Investigates

ICU staff battle patients' regret, denial and mistrust during Quebec's 4th wave

Since the fourth wave of COVID-19 began, ICU staff at Laval's Cité-de-la-Santé Hospital say they are dealing with more hostile patients. Some minimize how sick they are and are skeptical of the care and treatments being offered.

Lawyer appointed to investigate abuse complaints at Montreal archdiocese

Montreal lawyer Marie Christine Kirouack has been named the church's first ombudsperson. The post was one of the key recommendations in a report tabled last November on improving accountability in the diocese.

Report blames top Montreal Church officials for ignoring complaints about priest who preyed on young boys

Brian Boucher was able to sexually abuse two young boys and terrorize several others over a 20-year span because top officials in the Catholic Church ignored complaints about his behaviour and, in some cases, tried to keep serious allegations secret, according to a damning report.
CBC Investigates

Pandemic has lengthened wait times for surgery in Quebec, leaving hundreds of patients in limbo

The pandemic put many surgeries on hold last spring and Quebec hospitals are having a difficult time whittling down waiting lists as more patients get added, and surgical nurses leave the job.
CBC Investigates

Peace bonds alone aren't enough to protect conjugal violence victims, shelter directors say

A peace bond is supposed to protect conjugal violence victims from their abusive partner, but some shelter directors say too often, danger signs are ignored — by both the police and the courts.
CBC Investigates

Quebec couple pleads for IVF funding to help them conceive a baby without Huntington's disease

Anna Lambert and Joey Lapointe know any child they conceive has a 50-50 chance of inheriting Huntington's, a debilitating and fatal disease. IVF and genetic testing of the embryo before it's implanted would prevent that, but the government won't pay for it.
CBC Investigates

Montreal woman alleges negligence at group home put her autistic sister in danger

Electra Dalamagas said she's appalled the CIUSSS West-Central Montreal didn't cancel the contract of the newly hired manager who runs the group home where her adult sister has lived for many years, after Dalamagas flagged several instances of alleged negligence.

Years before Brian Boucher became a priest, families warned of his troubling behaviour with boys

Despite a letter from concerned parents sent to the Montreal Roman Catholic archdiocese in the mid-1980s, Brian Boucher was accepted as a candidate for the priesthood. He's now serving eight years in prison for sexually abusing two boys.
School Violence

'I felt constantly attacked': Bullied Montreal teen recounts the toll high school years took on her

More than half of Quebec youth say they've been on the receiving end of hateful comments and name-calling in high school, according to the results of a CBC poll of young Canadians asking about physical and sexual violence in school.
CBC Investigates

Impostor used fake ID to steal money from Quebec woman's line of credit

A Longueuil, Que., woman is questioning her bank's security measures after a woman posing as her reported her debit card lost, then withdrew $2,500 from her line of credit.
CBC Investigates

Forgotten safety deposit box of late husband claimed by widow after 18 years

Hundreds of safety deposit boxes go unclaimed in Quebec every year, likely forgotten by their owners. Revenu Québec, the provincial revenue ministry, keeps an online register of unclaimed assets, but many people don't know it exists.
CBC Investigates

Months-long wait for death certificates taking emotional, financial toll on Quebec families

The delay to get death certificates in Quebec has more than tripled since last summer, making it difficult for people to settle the estates of their loved ones. The minister in charge of the civil status registry hopes processing times will be back to normal by the end of the year.
CBC Investigates

Montreal sexual abuse victim says Catholic clergy interrogated him, looking for inconsistencies in his story

A victim of a sexually abusive Montreal priest says he's still shaken by what happened after he took his complaint to police in 2016: invited to a meeting at the same building where he'd been molested as a child, nine clergymen grilled him for hours, some trying to poke holes in his story.

Repeat offender tenant racks up nearly $17K in unpaid rent

Over the past three years, Nigel Calder, a Montreal tenant, has been evicted four times for not paying his rent. Some landlords didn't do a background check — a mistake they quickly came to regret.
CBC Investigates

Students, staff left in the dark after Concordia's investigation of prof's behaviour

University investigators were told Jim Pfaus, an international expert in the psychology of sexual behaviour, pursued, dated or had sexual relationships with students in his classes or under his supervision. Pfaus retired at the end of 2018.

McGill dentistry prof found guilty of sexual misconduct by Quebec Order of Dentists

Dr. Nareg Apelian faces a possible five-year suspension from practising dentistry and is no longer assistant professor of dentistry at McGill University, after the order's disciplinary council ruled he touched a patient inappropriately at his off-campus clinic in 2016.
CBC Investigates

Montreal woman stunned to find her Walmart gift cards drained

Gift cards are convenient and popular purchases, and last holiday season, Quebecers bought nearly $250 million of them. But as Samantha Vandzura discovered, scammers like them too.
CBC Investigates

What Montreal police can learn from other Canadian police forces about cracking cold cases

The SPVM is not divulging much about how its new cold case unit will work, so CBC looked at what police elsewhere in Canada are doing to catch killers whose trails have gone cold.
CBC Investigates

Montrealer loses thousands in inheritance to bogus online investment firm

Jérôme Huard entrusted thousands of dollars to an online investment firm that turned out to be a fake company called HQ Broker, which was blacklisted last summer by Quebec's security regulator. Canadians have lost over $14 million since 2015 to such scams.
CBC Investigates

Jessica Neilson's parents feel abandoned by Montreal police, 10 years after her death

Jessica Neilson was found dead nearly a decade ago in St-Henri. Her parents say Montreal police haven't done enough to solve the murder.
CBC Investigates

Charity watchdog says Habs children's foundation lacks transparency

The Montreal Canadiens Children's Foundation is one of the largest charities in Canada. In 2016-2017, it raised $4.7 million. So where does that money go?

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