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	Priest Never Thought of Going to Police, CAS By Trevor Pritchard Standard-Freeholder July 3, 2008 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1097955 ARoman Catholic priest who learned in 1986 two young men had been sexually abused by one of his colleagues didn't think of telling the police or the Children's Aid Society, the Cornwall Public Inquiry heard Wednesday. Rev. Denis Vaillancourt said that Benoit Brisson and Claude Thibault wanted their allegations against Rev. Gilles Deslauriers "resolved quietly within the confines of the church." "These individuals were victims," said Vaillancourt, who testified in French through a translator. "They were victimized by a priest and I did not want to go counter to what they wanted." Deslauriers was initially charged with 16 sex-related offences after Brisson went to the media with his allegations. He pleaded guilty in November 1986 to four counts of gross indecency, and received two years' probation. Before the allegations surfaced, Deslauriers had been a full-time chaplain at La Citadelle, a Frenchlanguage high school in Cornwall. He and Vaillancourt also ran a spiritual retreat for young people between 18 and 25 at the time. Vaillancourt testified he was part of an ad hoc committee that the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese struck after then-bishop Eugene LaRocque removed Deslauriers from his parish in February 1986. Dallas Lee, an attorney for The Victims Group, showed Vaillancourt a comment he made to that committee in which he appeared to be "scared" the school board might become legally involved in the case. Vaillancourt told Lee that, as was the case with the police and the CAS, he didn't inform the school board because Brisson and Thibault wanted the matter dealt with by the church. "I have never had any intention of going against the law, obviously, and when the police got involved, you can see by the documents that I cooperated fully," said Vaillancourt. Brisson's mother, Lise, told the inquiry in October 2006 one of the reasons her family went public with the allegations against Deslauriers was a lack of action on the diocese's part. Vaillancourt testified last week that the diocese had no strict protocol in 1986 for dealing with sexual abuse allegations against priests. One of the reasons the ad hoc committee formed was to deal with complaints that Deslauriers had begun serving at a parish in the Gatineau- Hull area, Vaillancourt said. "This was fresh ground for you, and there's others involved in this who were concerned, correct?" asked Peter Wardle, an attorney for the Citizens for Community Renewal. "Yes, that's so," said Vaillancourt. Lee asked Vaillancourt if the diocese ever canvassed its employees to see if there were any other "problem priests" after Deslauriers was convicted. Vaillancourt said while there were annual "assessments" of the clergy's job performance, he didn't know if the diocese was ever looking at whether priests were abusing children. Yesterday's testimony wrapped up early after Lee announced his intention to put a list of 19 names to Vaillancourt, in order to see if he'd ever received allegations against them. That led to vigorous objections from diocese lawyer David Sherriff- Scott, who said it would be "grossly prejudicial" and time-consuming to publicly name the names. Lee argued that the people on his list had already been named in statements or affidavits posted on websites or had come up during previous testimony. "It is inconceivable to me that any person on this list would come as a surprise to anybody in this room," Lee said. Inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude adjourned the hearings before delivering his decision. It's expected the matter will be cleared up, and that Vaillancourt will finish testifying, when the inquiry resumes this morning.
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