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	Negotiations 'Concerned' Police By Trevor Pritchard Standard Freeholder April 5, 2008 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=972975 City police had "serious concerns" in 1993 about negotiations that were going on between David Silmser and the local Roman Catholic diocese, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Friday. But Staff Sgt. Luc Brunet said the negotiations - which culminated with Silmser receiving $32,000 in exchange for not pursuing sexual abuse charges against Rev. Charles MacDonald - were "dangerous territory" for lead investigator Const. Heidi Sebalj to get involved with. "She expressed to me that he had talked to her about meeting with the church. He was talking about a civil settlement with them," said Brunet. "(I told her) don't get involved in the civil settlement." In December 1992, Silmser went to police and accused MacDonald of abusing him when he was an altar boy in the 1960s and 1970s. Brunet, who took the force's criminal investigations branch in January 1993, assigned Sebalj to investigate Silmser's allegations. Sebalj's nine-month investigation - which ended with no charges being laid against either MacDonald or Ken Seguin, whom Silmser also accused - has been closely scrutinized over the past two months at the inquiry, which is examining how institutions like the Cornwall police responded to historical sex abuse allegations. Lead commission counsel Pierre Dumais, questioning Brunet for the second straight day, continued to walk the veteran officer step-by-step through Sebalj's investigation. Dumais asked Brunet about Sebalj's handwritten notes, in which she wondered aloud about Silmser's motives for seeking the settlement. "Was Const. Sebalj telling you that the fact that Mr. Silmser was negotiating some type of a civil settlement (affecting) his credibility?" asked Dumais. "Not the fact that he's negotiating a civil settlement," said Brunet. "I wouldn't say that part of it has any bearing on his credibility." Silmser testified in January 2007 that he accepted the $32,000 settlement - $10,000 from the diocese, $10,000 from MacDonald, and $12,000 through an insurance claim for counselling - after city police told him the allegations would be tough to prove in court unless another victim came forward. Dumais asked Brunet why MacDonald was never given a polygraph, even though MacDonald was willing to undergo one in the early months of Sebalj's investigation. Brunet said that when MacDonald made the offer in February 1993, it was "premature" to take him up on it. "Your best avenue with using the polygraph is after you've done your investigation, and you've got some information you can put to (the accused)," he explained. "That's when you'll find out if he's truthful or not." But that didn't happen at the end of Sebalj's investigation, Brunet said, because Silmser had changed his mind about testifying. Under those circumstances, the chances MacDonald would agree to a polygraph were "nil," he said. "Did you ask him?" asked Comm. Normand Glaude. "No, we did not ask him, sir," Brunet replied. Dumais also asked Brunet about an internal memo which suggested that Sgt. Claude Lortie, who was briefly involved in the Silmser investigation, had angrily accused the force of orchestrating a cover-up after no charges were brought against MacDonald. Lortie was originally assigned to lead the investigation in Dec. 1992. It was given to Sebalj after he went on medical leave. "I don't know that he (Lortie) had any information to make that judgment," Brunet said. MacDonald was later charged with more than a dozen sex-related charges in 1996 by the Ontario Provincial Police's Project Truth team. Those charges, which MacDonald has always strenuously denied, were stayed in 2002 after a judge decided they had taken too long to come to trial. Seguin was never charged and committed suicide in 1993. Brunet is scheduled to resume testifying Monday morning.
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