ancy Saint Pierre, your fifteen minutes are up

And to think I shed a tear over all of this

It was Mom's fault: Julie
'This isn't about settling a score'. Townships teen who vanished for 3 years tells her side of story in new book

SIDHARTHA BANERJEE and ANN CARROLL
The Gazette

Friday, October 29, 2004

A bitter Julie Bureau lashed out at her mother yesterday as the principal person who drove her into exile in Beauceville for three years.

The trouble between mother and daughter will be one of the issues Bureau will address as the 17-year-old prepares to release her book, La Vraie Julie Bureau (The Real Julie Bureau), on Sunday. Bureau called her mother a controlling woman and a source of psychological harassment in her life.

Reached yesterday at her home in Milan, Bureau's mother, Francine Poulin, said she is not happy with what's she's read of the book thus far.

But Poulin said she forgives her daughter for painting her parents - Poulin especially - in a bad light.

"We see that she is very unhappy," Poulin said. "She doesn't realize what she is doing."

Poulin hopes eventually for a reconciliation.

"When I last talked to Julie in mid-August, she said we wanted to control her life," Poulin said.

"I told her, 'You are so negative, and can only see the dark side of things. In a few years, when you see the good in life, we will talk again.' "

Bureau was 14 when she disappeared in September 2001 from a Coaticook restaurant. She ended up in Beauceville, about 60 kilometres from the family home in Milan, where she moved in with Jean-Paul Bernard, 38.

Bureau said she feels rejected by her parents and nothing has changed since she left. Bureau said that in interviews, her mother would profess how much she loves her but then would take a much more harsh tone when they met.

"I don't understand ... if you love your children, you don't just tell the cameras," Bureau said, her eyes welling up with tears.

"This isn't about settling a score," Bureau insisted during a press conference yesterday, sitting side by side with Bernard, the man who took her in for three years.

"I had to free myself. It feels good. It's not a battle. I'm happy that (the book) was my therapy."

The book gives few details of what Bureau was doing in the three years she was living in Beauceviile under the name Nancy Saint Pierre. It does say she was working and living a normal existence until her discovery last July.

Bureau and Bernard, who says he knew nothing about Bureau's real identity until this summer, are not romantically involved, both have said.

Bernard, the man dubbed the Good Samaritan in this case, will have a book published on his own life early next year by the same author, Andre Mathieu.

Despite the fact she was wary of the media attention given to her case, Bureau says she felt the book was necessary to help turn a page in her life.

While she said money was furthest from her mind when she agreed to the deal, she hasn't ruled out making a movie about her life, either.

"It is my book. I'm the one who decided to do it. No one forced me to write this."

IVAC

IVAC
Indemnisation des victimes d'actes criminels

October 12, 2004

File: Theresa Marie Allore
Date of Event: November 3, 1978

Re: Acknowledgement of receipt

Mr. Allore

I am in receipt of your September 28th 2004 e-mail.

Each and every time we spoke with the investigator we did receive full cooperation and all the available pertinent answers to our questions. So, the "problem" (and there is no problem) is certainly not in relation to communication. The point is that there is a pending investigation by the Surete du Quebec in relation to your sister's death. I do understand from what the investigators told us that the pending investigation and the results (if there are some results) will enable us to decide if your sister was indeed "murdered". The applicable rule of evidence at this place is "proponderance of probabilities".

In other words, it means that the criterias for the application of the (Quebec) Crime Victims Compensation Act are not met at this moment. Otherwise, I would have already made a decision. You do understand that the delays have nothing to do with the limits (the financial limits) of the program.

Your's Truly,

Andre Beaulieu, Lawyer
514-906-3019, poste 2050

-----------------------------------------------
October 19, 2004

Mr. Beaulieu:

I am in receipt of your letter dated October 12, 2004. May I ask, when you say, that in my sister's case "the criterias for the application of the Quebec Crime Victims Compensation Act are not met at this moment"...

Just what are those criterias that I need to have fulfilled? Or, in other words, what are the criteria for being considered a victim under this Act?

The coroner determined my sister's death to be "mort violente de nature indetermine"...

The coroner noted there were "marks of strangulation on her neck"

What does it take for an IVAC lawyer to consider my sister a victim of a crime?

Yours,

John Allore

Jacques P. Dupuis
Ministère de la Justice
Palais de justice de Montréal
1, rue Notre-Dame Est
11e étage, Bureau 11.39
Montréal (Québec) H2Y1B6

October 14, 2004

M. Dupuis:

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is John Allore. Twenty-six years ago my sister was murdered in Quebec while a student at Champlain college in Lennoxville. Over the past two years I have become a victims advocate for families touched by homicide.

The purpose of my writing you is to introduce you to CAVA, a new national victims advocacy group and to ask you to please help in providing financial support to get Quebec victims to attend CAVA's first annual conference to be held this December in Richmond, British Columbia.

CAVA is the Canadian Association for Victim Assistance / Association Canadienne aide aux victmes (CAVA - ACAV), a newly formed national non-profit charitable organization which will act as an umbrella information, resource and advocacy service for Canadian victim assistance organizations, advocates, professionals and the general public. Further information is available at our website,www.infocava.ca .

In organizing our conference we are thankful for the financial support provided by Justice Canada. Unfortunately, they were not able to give us any financial assistance for travel. We are asking that your office provide that assistance in the form of $3,000 that will be used specifically to cover the costs for air travel and accommodations for Quebec victims. I must stress that none of this money will be used by myself; I no longer live in Quebec, and at this time I am able to provide for my own needs.

It is important for Quebec to have a presence at this, our first national conference; more necessary that Quebec victims have the ability to express their questions and needs at a national level. I hope you will be able to help us to this end.

I will be in Quebec the week of October 25th through the 29th attending l'Association quebecoise Plaidoyer-Victimes colloque in Montreal. It would be a privilege for me if at that time we might arrange to meet to discuss this matter at greater length.

I thank you for your attention to this matter and I hope to hear from you soon.

Respectfully,