BishopAccountability.org
 
  Dunlop May Get Slammed

By Trevor Pritchard
Standard Freeholder
May 8, 2008

http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1016820

Former Cornwall cop Perry Dunlop could be slammed in the final report issued by the commissioner of the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

A document obtained Tuesday by the Standard-Freeholder shows that Dunlop - whose investigations into a suspected ring of pedophiles in the 1990s helped spark the multi-million dollar judicial probe - was served a "notice of alleged misconduct" by commission lawyers in April.

The confidential notice outlines eight areas of Dunlop's police work in which the inquiry is considering delivering findings of misconduct.

It was met with angry resolve by Dunlop's wife, Helen.

"The games are continuing. The harassment is continuing. The coercion is continuing," she said from the family's B.C. home.

Dunlop is currently serving a six-month jail sentence on contempt charges for refusing to testify at the inquiry.

He has repeatedly said he has no faith in the justice system's ability to unearth the truth.

"We're not changing (our position)," Helen said. "We're standing our ground."

The notice was issued under subsection 5(2) of the Public Inquiries Act, which states that no person can be found to be at fault unless they were fully advised of the allegations and given a chance to testify.

"Mr. Dunlop's been given every opportunity to come here and tell his side of the story, with the assistance of counsel," said Peter Engelmann, the inquiry's top lawyer.

"And we still welcome him."

Many of the allegations in the two-page document concern potential breaches of the Cornwall Police Service's policies, including that Dunlop:

investigated criminal conduct without the knowledge or authorization of his superiors;

handed over statements of abuse victims and witnesses to third parties;

communicated with witnesses in on-going criminal investigations; and,

disobeyed an order not to speak to the media.

The notices are only allegations, not findings of fault, said Engelmann. They will be given to all parties who may eventually make their way into Comm. Normand Glaude's final report, expected sometime next year, he said.

Engelmann would not say how many other people or institutions have received the confidential notices.

Dunlop is often credited with shining the spotlight on decades of sexual abuse allegations in the Cornwall area.

In 1993, he hand-delivered a statement by David Silmser to the Children's Aid Society after his force decided not to lay charges against Silmser's alleged abusers - one of whom was Roman Catholic priest Charles MacDonald.

Dunlop's subsequent off-hours investigations into claims that a pedophile ring was operating in the Cornwall area helped spark Project Truth, a four-year OPP probe that laid 115 charges against 15 men.

Only one man was ever convicted during the investigation.

The notice of alleged misconduct appeared Tuesday on a blog written by ardent Dunlop supporter Sylvia MacEachern.

MacEachern said that given the inquiry's mandate, it was "no surprise" the inquiry would be considering misconduct against Dunlop.

"Just the fact that they issued it spoke volumes," she said. "Are they speaking about (MacDonald) in those terms?"

MacDonald was later charged by the OPP in 1996 with a number of sex crimes against young men.

The charges were dropped in 2002 after a judge decided they'd taken too long to come to trial.

Engelmann said the "vast majority" of people following the inquiry - which is examining how institutions like the city police and the CAS responded to historical abuse allegations - know it was never set up to find anyone criminally responsible.

"What's troubling is the question's still being asked, two years into this," he said.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.