Eric Dejaeger returns to Canada from Belgium

(Updated Jan. 19, 2:10 p.m.)

Eric Dejaeger, a former Nunavut priest who faces six sex charges related to his stay in Igloolik during the late 1970s and early 1980s, has been expelled from Belgium, where he has lived and worked since 1995.

In an press release, Lieve Halsberghe of Belgium, an activist with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Dejaeger boarded a flight for Montreal on the morning of Jan. 19 and was expected in Montreal by early afternoon.

Halsberghe said in the press release that if Dejaeger is brought to trial on his old sex charges, she hopes he will plead guilty so the complainants will be spared the pain of having to testify.

She also urged that Georges Vervust, the provincial superior of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in Belgium turn over relevant document to authorities in Canada.

In a statement issued Jan. 18, the Nunavut RCMP said police will escort Dejaeger to Iqaluit for a court appearance as soon as he arrives back in Canada, but for security reasons they did not give a date.

Dejaeger, who had been jailed in 1990 on charges of sexually molesting children in Baker Lake, faced six new Igloolik-based sex charges in 1995, when he had served out his jail time.

But he failed to show up for a court appearance schedule for June 19, 1995. Some time before that date, Dejaeger fled Canada for Belgium, where he worked openly for the Roman Catholic church.

Belgian police arrested Dejaeger Jan. 3 and held him in a detention facility for illegal migrants in the city of Bruges, pending his Jan. 19 expulsion from Belgium.

In a statement issued Jan. 18, the Nunavut RCMP said police will escort Dejaeger to Iqaluit for a court appearance as soon as he arrives back in Canada, but for security reasons they did not give a date.

The Oblate priest faces six counts, including indecent assault and buggery, related to allegations made by four complainants.

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