Grâce à une caméra cachée, l’émission W5 expose un guérisseur québécois qui utilise ses prétendus dons pour abuser ses victimes
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“I am the best, but I am painful. My hands are like that. It’s a power from God. I’m able to heal backs, I’m able to heal cancer, hearts, lungs, everything.”
These are the kind of astounding claims made by 58 year-old faith healer Claude Provencher.
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Court history
According to court transcripts obtained by W5, Provencher treated his mostly female clients on a massage table. There was a large crucifix hanging on the wall and Provencher would stare at it during the sessions.
“He would take his hands and he would place them on my forehead, at my throat, on my breast bone and then just below my sternum,” said Breault. Provencher told her this is how he would receive messages from God about what was wrong with her. He would then proceed to rub his hands all over her body.
At first Breault was reluctant to press charges. Then she learned that Provencher was already on the sex offender registry. In 2008, while practicing in Sudbury, Ont., he was charged and then convicted of sexually assaulting two of his female clients.
She was also troubled by what she’d seen while awaiting her sessions: 13- and 15-year-old girls waiting to be treated by the faith healer. That’s why Breault felt obligated to go public with her allegations of sexual assault.
(…) On April 8, 2011, Temiskaming OPP charged Provencher with six counts of sexual assault involving Breault.
Provencher convicted of sexual assault
On Jan. 21, 2013, he was convicted of sexually assaulting Breault and was sentenced to one year in prison. After his release, he was placed on probation with strict conditions, including not conducting any healing sessions.
But Trina Breault remained convinced not even a conviction and a court order would stop Provencher. W5 decided to investigate, using hidden cameras. Two women posed as patients – one a W5 producer and the other a private investigator with 20 years experience investigating questionable or abusive health care practitioners.
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This isn’t the first time Provencher has diagnosed medical conditions. In 2005, Quebec’s College of Physicians and Surgeons charged Provencher with the “illegal practice of medicine”. He was fined $1,200.
Groups attempt to stop Provencher
Dr. Charles Bernard, head of the College, told W5 they had been receiving complaints about the faith healer from pharmacists and doctors since 1996. That’s when they first learned he had been advising clients to stop taking their prescribed medications.