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	Former Deputy Police Chief Offers Blanket Apology Cornwall Public Inquiry St. Denis Also Encourages Perry Dunlop to Testify By Trevor Pritchard Standard-Freeholder June 24, 2008 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1085803 The city's former deputy chief of police offered a blanket apology at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Monday to any sexual abuse complainants he had "offended" while serving as the force's second-in-command. Joseph St. Denis told Comm. Normand Glaude he was in a "healing mode" as he shouldered some of the blame for investigations that were later found to have been flawed or mismanaged by the Cornwall Police Service. "Yes, some mistakes were made. Yes, there were some mismanagement of files. But overall, Mr. Commissioner, that represented in my opinion less than one or two per cent of the overall workload at the time," St. Denis told inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude. "If during my tenure as deputy chief of police I offended any victims of sexual abuse, historical or otherwise, I do sincerely apologize." St. Denis was deputy chief with the CPS from 1987 until 2001. A number of cases from his tenure have come under the microscope at the inquiry, which has a mandate to explore how institutions like the local police handled historical allegations of sexual abuse. One major case -- which served as the spark for many of the events that led up to the inquiry -- began in December 1992, when David Silmser came forward with allegations he was sexually abused by a local priest and a probation officer. HALTED INVESTIGATION Police halted their 10-month investigation in 1993 after Silmser settled with the Alexandria- Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese for $32,000. Former cop Perry Dunlop later turned Silmser's statement over to the Children's Aid Society, and from there the statement ended up in the media. St. Denis had originally assigned Claude Lortie, the force's intelligence officer, to handle Silmser's complaint, but pulled him off the case when he learned Lortie was going on medical leave. "I was most concerned because it was already tardy," St. Denis explained under cross-examination yesterday. "The file should have been acted on sooner." Silmser's investigation was eventually given to a female officer, Heidi Sebalj, even though Silmser had asked to deal with a man. Sebalj also had only two months' experience investigating sexual assaults -- a major problem highlighted in a subsequent review by Ottawa police of how the CPS handled Silmser's allegations. St. Denis told Dallas Lee, an attorney for The Victims Group, that Lortie "possibly" could have been put back on the case since he ended up only being off for a few weeks. "I would never have reassigned the file (if I had known)," St. Denis said. St. Denis adamantly denied any suggestion that the CPS was part of a coverup of historical abuse allegations. He urged the public to stop spreading "false rumours and innuendo" about people in the community. "No single person, and in my opinion no single institution or agency, is totally to blame or totally at fault with respect to any potential investigative shortcomings," said St. Denis. He then offered an olive branch to Dunlop, who has staunchly refused to testify at the inquiry and is currently serving a six-month jail sentence for contempt. "It is important for Perry. It is important for Perry's family. It is important for sexual abuse victims," said St. Denis. "And it is very important for all citizens in Cornwall to hear from Perry, as he can only enhance the healing process in our community." The inquiry resumes this morning.
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