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	Cornwall Public Inquiry: Silmser May Get Last Word By Terri Saunders SQLFusion [Canada] March 29, 2007 http://www.theinquiry.ca/Silmser_Freeholder_290307.hide.php David Silmser might have left the Cornwall Public Inquiry before all the parties could ask him questions but it looks as if he might have the last word. On the same day parties began sifting through the evidence Silmser gave during several days on the witness stand earlier this year, a letter he wrote to Comm. Normand Glaude was front and centre at the hearings. Silmser has testified he was sexually abused by a city priest, a now-deceased probation officer and a teacher in the 1960s and 1970s when he was a teenager. Charges were never laid against the teacher, the probation officer committed suicide before charges could be laid against him and charges against the priest were stayed in 2002 when a judge determined it had taken too long to bring the matter to trial. Over the course of several days, Silmser testified about the abuse, the effect it had on his life and the contact he had with a variety of public institutions. On Feb. 1, Silmser abruptly left the witness stand while being cross-examined. He returned several days later but was ultimately unable to continue his testimony for medical reasons. On Feb. 27, commission counsel received a letter from a physician indicating Silmser was medically incapable of returning to the witness stand. A number of parties were unable to cross-examine Silmser on his evidence and alternatively have decided to present the issues they would have raised with him to the commissioner using transcripts of the testimony on record. In his letter, which has not been made an exhibit at the inquiry, Silmser is highly critical of the process and suggests the decision to return is not that of a doctor but his own. "I could return. I could take the stand," the letter reads. "But for what purpose? To be held to ridicule? To be portrayed in the media as a drugged, violent, criminal? It's not worth the battle." Silmser goes on to say he believes he knows why the parties which did not have the opportunity to cross-examine him are anxious to do so. "They would love to have the opportunity to have me on the stand to rip to shreds the over 15 years and tens of thousands of pages of documentation that has been collected by various police forces, lawyers and government institutions that have been involved with my case," the letter reads. "If I had the fight still in me, I would meet them head on; I would take the stand and state what I have always stated - the truth." While some attorneys at the inquiry suggested Wednesday the clarity of Silmser's letter suggests he's perhaps more capable of attending the inquiry to complete cross-examination than his own lawyer and physician have purported him to be, Glaude was mindful of the effect being physically in attendance at the inquiry may have on Silmser. "Perhaps now he's in a good space and he can write this," said Glaude. "But if you back him back there (on the stand) under pressure, he would perhaps sustain harm to himself." Silmser says he's not prepared to come back to the commission in any formal capacity.
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