By Trevor Pritchard
Standard-Freeholder
January 29, 2009
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1411734
 |
| John D'Amour vacuums the carpet inside the hearings room at the Cornwall Public Inquiry. Thursday was the final day of testimony at the long-running sexual abuse probe, which heard from more than 160 witnesses over the past three years. 2. (Staff photo/Pritchard) Sorting through three years' worth of complex, at times contradictory, testimony will be a "huge task," says lead commission counsel Peter Engelmann. |
More than 3,400 exhibits, 60,000 pages of transcripts
It will surely go down in Canadian history as one of the most comprehensive public commissions ever held.
Thursday, the final witness left the stand at the Cornwall Public Inquiry, a $40-million endeavour that heard nearly 170 people over the past three years testify about their experience with historical sexual abuse allegations in eastern Ontario.
Some were victims, many of whom were coming forward publicly for the first time. Others were members of institutions the victims dealt with. Those included, among others, the Cornwall Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Children's Aid Society, and the Ministry of the Attorney General.
More than 3,400 exhibits were entered into evidence over 345 hearings dates.
The testimony - which could be startling and compelling one moment, tedious the next - generated more than 60,000 pages of transcripts.
The inquiry had a scope that made other Ontario fact-finding commissions pale in comparison. The recently completed Goudge Inquiry into the forensics work of Dr. Charles Smith, for example, heard from a mere 47 witnesses over 52 days. The O'Connor Inquiry into E. coli-related deaths in Walkerton, Ont. lasted 95 days and heard from 114 witnesses.
While it's too early to talk about the inquiry's legacy, lead commission counsel Peter Engelmann said one thing is for sure: commissioner Normand Glaude now has a "huge task" in front of him.
"We're talking about a situation where we were looking at sexual abuse, both historical reporting and current reporting, that took place from the 50s right up until the early 2000s," said Engelmann.
"There are a lot of complicated issues, and a lot of evidence to go through."
Last October, the province handed down an amended order-in-council that mandated strict deadlines for the inquiry - including that testimony would have to wrap up by today.
The commissioner has been given until the end of July to submit his final report to the province. By that time, 41 months will have passed since the first witness, child sexual abuse expert David Wolfe, took the stand in February 2006.
The first witnesses were experts in a variety of areas, and their testimony set the context for what would follow.
In October 2006, Larry Seguin, the first victim, began testifying. Over the next 12 months, 37 additional victims would reveal horrific tales of sexual abuse to the public.
Many decided to share their stories of survival openly, without the protection of an identity-protecting moniker.
The victims had pointed questions about the way their allegations were handled by the institutions. Many felt they weren't taken seriously. Some wondered why their alleged abusers were never charged, or if the were, why they weren't convicted.
Two of the most anticipated witnesses were David Silmser and Ron Leroux. In 1992, Silmser had gone to the Cornwall Police Service alleging he'd been sexually abused by a local priest, Rev. Charles MacDonald, in the 1960s and 1970s.
By 1993, Silmser had signed a $32,000 settlement with the AlexandriaCornwall Roman Catholic Diocese. In return, he had to agree to stop pursuing criminal charges. Silmser's statement to the CPS eventually ended up in the media after former Cornwall cop Perry Dunlop turned it over to the Children's Aid Society.
It could be argued that, without Silmser, Dunlop, and Leroux, there would never have been an inquiry in the first place.
Leroux's allegations that a ring of pedophiles had ritually abused boys -allegations that were taken down and believed by Dunlop - eventually formed the basis for the OPP's four-year Project Truth investigation.
Project Truth never found any evidence of a ring, but did charge 15 men with 115 sex-related crimes.
Only one of those men, Newington bus driver Jean-Luc Leblanc, was convicted in Ontario. A number died before their cases came to trial, while one priest, Rev. Paul Lapierre, was convicted in Quebec after being exonerated in Ontario.
Leroux recanted significant parts of his story when he testified in June 2007.
After the victims' testimony, the inquiry heard from about a dozen "community context" witnesses - people who didn't fall under the mandate of any particular institution, but whose evidence was still considered extremely relevant to the inquiry's mandate.
Perhaps the most relevant of all was Dunlop, who had garnered a reputation locally - as one lawyer put it - as the "go-to guy" for sexual abuse victims in Cornwall.
Dunlop, however, refused to testify at the inquiry. He was convicted on two contempt charges in 2008, and spent seven months behind bars.
His supporters were vocal: one man drove across Canada on his motorcycle in support of the jailed cop, while last August, a raucous protest rocked the typically staid Weave Shed.
The inquiry also heard from Garry Guzzo, the former judge and Tory MPP who threatened to name names of alleged pedophiles on the floor of the legislature, and current OPP commissioner Julian Fantino, to whom Dunlop sent statements and affidavits that supposedly proved the ring existed.
In November 2007, witnesses for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services began to testify, the first public institution to do so.
Then came the CPS.
Its 19 witnesses, who testified over more than three months, surpassed any other institution required to testify.
While the public heard about flawed investigations and a near-epidemic of poor morale, they also heard for the first time the voices of the officers themselves, many of whom were frustrated by the fact they couldn't respond while stories that they conspired to cover up sexual abuse cases made their way into the media.
Witnesses for the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese spoke at length about their role in the $32,000 payout. One of the most anticipated witnesses, former bishop Eugene LaRocque, told the commission he signed the deal against his better judgment - but also against the opinions of a Canada-wide conference of bishops who advised him not to.
Current and former CAS employees testified in September and October 2008 about abuse in area group homes - in particular, the infamous Second Street group home in downtown Cornwall.
In the 1970s, children at the home alleged they were beaten, verbally abused, and forced to perform menial chores after being stripped to their underwear.
The final two institutions to take the stand, the OPP and the Attorney General's office, both testified about their involvement in Project Truth, about delays in getting cases prosecuted, and personality conflicts between police officers and attorneys.
The cases of two alleged abusers in particular came under the microscope: MacDonald and city lawyer Jacques Leduc, both of whom left court free men after different judges stayed the charges against them.
Despite having wrapped up testimony, the parties will be returning to the hearings room at the end of February to deliver final oral submissions.
- - -
BY THENUMBERS:
INQUIRIES IN ONTARIO
Here's how the Cornwall Public Inquiry stacks up against some other high-profile Ontario commissions: O'Connor (Walkerton)
Inquiry:95 hearing days, 114 witnesses, 447 exhibits Ipperwash
Inquiry:229 hearing days, 139 witnesses, 1,876 exhibits
Goudge Inquiry into Pediatric Forensics:52 hearing days, 47 witnesses, 2,800+ exhibits Cornwall Public Inquiry:345 days, 166 witnesses, 3,400+ exhibits
- - -
Perhaps the most relevant of all was Dunlop, who had garnered a reputation locally -as one lawyer put it -as the "go-to guy" for sexual abuse victims in Cornwall.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.