'Little darlings' are lying, ex-nun says

Beatings that God ordered were not excessive, trial told

National Post/October 2, 2002
By Richard Foot

Charlottetown -- The self-proclaimed prophet of a Prince Edward Island commune was accused yesterday of suffering delusions, and of going on a "frolic" with the words of the Bible to satisfy her megalomania.

Lucille Poulin, who is on trial for allegedly assaulting five children in her care, admits hitting the children with a homemade wooden bat, or rod, but says the harsh discipline was justified by the Bible, and by God's direct spoken orders.

Darrell Coombs, the Crown prosecutor, told the 78-year-old nurse and former nun that she was so hungry for power she twisted the words of the Bible to gain control over three families who followed her to P.E.I. from Alberta in 1995.

"I'm suggesting you're on a frolic," he barked during two-and-a-half hours of aggressive questioning in the Supreme Court of P.E.I. "You're on a mission of your own, quite apart from what God really says."

"That's not true," said Ms. Poulin.

It was the final day of testimony in a sensational trial that has astonished residents of this close-knit province. Dozens of court spectators listened intently yesterday as Ms. Poulin sparred with the prosecutor.

Why did she forbid intimacy between the commune children and their parents, banning use of the words mother and father? Mr. Coombs asked.

"There is only one father in heaven," Ms. Poulin replied. "God was showing us a new way of living. It was accepted in our group that we'd stop all this mushy, fleshy stuff, all this love, love, love, love."

"Well, I've seen numerous pictures of Jesus being mushy and intimate with little children, of comforting little children," he said.

"This is why we have no more Bible pictures in our home," said Ms. Poulin, explaining that commune members had ripped out illustrations from their Bibles because they were false depictions of Jesus Christ.

"Where in the Bible does it say inflict pain on little children?" asked Mr. Coombs.

"It says, chasten the child, spare not the child, even though he may cry," said Ms. Poulin.

"But didn't Jesus say, 'bring the children to me so I can comfort them'?" he asked. "Jesus didn't say, 'beat the children up,' did he?"

"A child is born wicked," she replied. "He has to be trained.... It was difficult for me to hit the little darlings, but I had to do it to obey God."

Ms. Poulin said the children were beaten for a long list of offences. A small girl was once given the rod for putting a ball under her shirt and pretending she was pregnant. Others were given the rod for taking food without permission and then denying it.

"Have you ever heard of the expression, 'When I was a child, I acted as a child'?" said Mr. Coombs. "Can't you consider that little white lies are a way of acting childlike?"

"White lies are not in the Bible," said Ms. Poulin, who claimed she was simply trying to teach good behaviour.

"Isn't it true you weren't teaching these children?" said Mr. Coombs. "You were training them like someone might train a little puppy dog. He pees in the corner, and he gets hit until he learns not to do it again."

"That's what God said -- train," said Ms. Poulin.

"Like you'd train a tiger or an elephant?" Mr. Coombs asked.

"Yes," she said. "Exactly."

Ms. Poulin said she would never renounce using the rod on children, even if it meant breaking the law and getting arrested again.

With a code like that, said Mr. Coombs, new followers were unlikely to flock to her ministry or to join the commune.

"But better to inflict pain on children," he said, "than to have them burn in hell, right?"

"Right on," she said.

Despite such testimony, Ms. Poulin insists the beatings she inflicted were not so excessive as to contravene the law, which allows parents to use reasonable corrective force on their children.

The five children she is accused of assaulting testified earlier that they lived a slave-like existence and endured severe, daily beatings before they were removed from the commune in 2001.

Ms. Poulin said the children all lied to the court. "They suffer from delusions," she said, adding that their testimony was the result of coaching by older siblings bent on destroying the commune.

"Lucille," said Mr. Coombs, "have you ever entertained the possibility that you're suffering from delusions?"

"It's not possible," she said. "My love for God is so great that I'm not [telling] lies."

Ms. Poulin was accompanied yesterday by four adult followers who remain loyal to the commune. The group sang an enthusiastic hymn outside court in front of television cameras in the morning, but left in silence after the day's testimony.

Ms. Poulin is expected to return on Oct. 15, when the judge will hear closing arguments.