‘Ruined my life’: Montreal woman suing for $600k after 2021 sexual assault on campus at John Abbott College

A Montreal woman is suing her former supervisor at John Abbott College after she was sexually assaulted in 2021.

She was 17 years old at the time and a social science student.

For a psychology class in the fall of 2021, she was taking part in a volunteer program on campus that the perpetrator supervised.

The lawsuit alleges the supervisor, in the first few months of her program, would sometimes give her “pressure point massages” to relieve stress. The woman says his office became a safe space for her.

Until Nov. 9, 2021, when she confided in him in his office, crying over a family matter.

“He cleared his desk, he closed the door, he turned the lights down and put some music on and he told me to lie down on my back on his desk and proceeded to start pressure points and touched me in very sexual intimate places,” she said.

CityNews agreed to keep her identity anonymous, as she was a minor at the time of the assault.

“I was paralyzed physically but inside, I was freaking out and crying in my mind and shouting for him to stop and I don’t know why I wasn’t able to actually move,” she said.

In early September, 61-year-old Boris Stanley Paredes, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault. He received three years of probation, along with 240 hours of community service as part of his sentence.

“I don’t think he suffered as much as I did,” she said.

Now 20 years old, married and a mom to a seven month old, she’s suing Parades, the college and the West Montreal Readaptation Centre, which employed him and ran the program out of the school, for $600,000 in damages.

“I just really have never been the same since and it’s basically ruined my life,” she said.

She is seeking $250,000 in moral damages and loss of enjoyment of life, $250,000 in loss of future income, and $100,000 in punitive damages.

It also that the woman faced life-altering effects after the assault, losing out on her future hope of becoming a nurse.

“Especially my future income, my mental state, it made me drop out of CEGEP twice. I ended up tapping into drugs and self-harm,” she said.

She “has had modest earnings in odd jobs […], this work does not offer the same salary or job security that a nurse would enjoy,” the lawsuit states.

It also says she suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome: she has nightmares, flashbacks, and hallucinations about the incident.

In a statement to CityNews, John Abbott College says they take matters like these “very seriously” and “wants to ensure that all members of our community feel safe and are part of an environment that is free of sexual violence and harassment of any kind.”

They say when they were made aware in 2021, the College Sexual Assault Resource Team (SART) “swiftly moved into action to support the student in question.”

“The individual the student identified as being responsible for the assault was the onsite educator with the West Montreal Readaptation Centre (WMRC). He was not employed by the College. The quick response and support of the student by the SART team resulted not only in her care, but also the immediate removal of the WMRC employee.”

The West Island regional health authority, the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal that employed him told CityNews they can’t comment in order to not to harm the ongoing legal process.

CityNews reached out to Paredes’ lawyer in his criminal case but did not hear back.

Jeff Orenstein, lawyer at Consumer Law Group, representing the victim says the college is liable since he worked on school grounds and appeared to have worked there.

“The issue perhaps will come as to what is the liability of everybody, including of course the school and the WMRC. I think those are more legal questions than really issues about whether or not the facts happened,” he said.

The woman she says she hopes something good comes out of this lawsuit, to help get her life back on track.

“It was three years down the drain, but no, he didn’t completely break me,” she said.

“I know that because I am pushing forward now. I am more angry than sad and I am doing the lawsuit and I am putting justice in the system and that’s a bit of hope to keep going.”