Assault charges laid against Algonquins

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More than 30 members of a small Algonquin band in northern Quebec have been charged with a string of sexual and physical abuses on about 50 of the band's women and children.

And the number of accused men from the 300-member Grand Lac Victoria band could reach 40 when provincial police conclude their investigation, said spokesman Ghislan Blanchet.

The charges include sexual and physical assault, incest, sodomy, sexual touching and threats. The victims range in age from five to 50 years old.

"I don't think there is a single woman of the age of 14 who has not been assaulted," said Andre Lebon, a Montreal mental health expert who spent 10 months planning child protection services for the community.

The arrests were made after groups of women came forward one after another and made more than 30 complaints of physical and sexual assault to provincial police.

This is the first time in Quebec that a band has broken what is called by Natives in the region the "code of silence." Their goal is to end widespread abuse in the community.

"You are not supposed to turn to the white society for help," said one woman who was the victim of two assaults. "It's the code of silence. But how long are we supposed to be silent?"

"People of exceptional courage have come forward," said Richard Kistabish, a former grand chief of the Algonquin Council of Western Quebec, now a Grand Lac Victoria community worker.

"We tried a number of approaches - alcohol treatment centres, battered women's shelters, parenting courses. But in the end people had to come forward and lay charges."