The announcement comes as Pope Francis has just completed a trip to Canada, where he asked forgiveness for the violence committed against many children in residential schools.
Canada has requested the extradition of a French priest accused of sexually assaulting Inuit children more than 30 years ago.
"It is important to Canada and its international partners that serious crimes be fully investigated and prosecuted," Canadian Justice Minister David Lametti said Thursday.
For its part, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed having received this extradition request, "being processed by the Ministry of Justice".
An arrest warrant issued in February
Father Johannes Rivoire, who spent three decades in Canada's Far North, has been the subject of an arrest warrant in Canada since February after a new complaint was filed in September 2021 for a sexual assault that occurred there. about 47 years old.
He has so far never been charged and the authorities have not specified the total number of his alleged victims.
The man of the Church had already been the subject of an arrest warrant between 1998 and 2017 for sexual assaults against three minors, which was never acted upon.
The priest, now in his nineties, left Canada in 1993 and now lives in France, in Lyon.
Recently questioned by the media, he claims his innocence.
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