Husband says Temple wife was murdered

A CANADIAN journalist, Joce-Lyne Grand'Maison, kept her rendezvous in Europe this week with the man who captivated her more than a decade ago, despite the misgivings of her husband, who yesterday described Luc Jouret, the founder of the Order of the Solar Temple as a dictator, writes Hugh Winsor in Ottawa.

Ms Grand'Maison, 44, told her colleagues on Le Journal du Quebec, a popular daily newspaper in Quebec, who did not know about her involvement with the Solar Temple cult, that she was taking a three-week holiday in Europe and left Quebec City on 22 September. She was due back on the newpaper on Monday.

Paul Grand'Maison was adamant that his wife would not have committed suicide. He said: 'Never, there was no sign, no reason. It was a murder. Joce-Lyne was taken hostage.' He told her former colleagues at Le Journal that he spoke to her in her hotel room in Lausanne on Sunday evening. She was looking forward to meeting friends in the cult but she told her husband she missed him. According to Mr Grand'Maison his wife met Mr Jouret while she was working as a television interviewer in Matane, about 200 miles from Quebec City. He said she became involved in Mr Jouret's group as an intellectual exercise, because the group was interested in ecology and improving the world.

Mr Grand'Maison met Mr Jouret many times when he accompanied his wife to Solar Temple meetings but there was always tension because he refused to join the group. Mr Jouret put pressure on her to leave her husband but instead she reduced her involvement in the group rather than let it destroy her marriage.

Last year, when the Order of the Solar Temple was under intense investigation, executives at Le Journal de Quebec received an anonymous tip that Ms Grand'Maison was a member of the group. She denied that she was associated with the group and the matter was dropped.

(Photograph omitted)