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	Macdonald Delays 'Major Concern': Crown By Trevor Pritchard Standard-Freeholder January 13, 2009 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1386434 It was "an uphill battle" to keep a Cornwall-area priest facing sexual abuse charges from having his charges stayed for taking too long to come to trial, the Crown attorney who prosecuted the case testified Tuesday. In April 2001, Lorne McConnery was assigned to handle the prosecution of Rev. Charles MacDonald, who was facing 19 sexual abuse charges involving nine complainants, some of them former altar boys. The first charges against MacDonald had been laid in 1996, with more charges tacked on in 1998 and 2000 during Project Truth, the Ontario Provincial Police's four-year investigation into allegations a pedophile ring had operated in Cornwall. McConnery was given the case after Shelley Hallett, the previous Crown, had to step down from prosecuting Project Truth trials. "It was a major concern for me, from day one, that we would be facing an 11(b) application (under the Charter)," McConnery told the Cornwall Public Inquiry. "And to be very frank about it, it was an uphill battle for the Crown on some, if not most, of the counts." Section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees anyone charged with a crime will be tried within a reasonable amount of time. McConnery testified Tuesday that he was concerned about ensuring MacDonald's defence team had access to all the relevant documents - including more than 10,000 pages of material compiled by former city cop Perry Dunlop, who'd conducted his own off-duty investigations into sex abuse allegations in the Cornwall area. Charges against another man arrested during Project Truth, city lawyer Jacques Leduc, had been stayed in March 2001, after Hallett inadvertently failed to disclose an important memo to Leduc's lawyers. In one letter introduced into evidence yesterday, Hallett told McConnery he would have her entire file on the MacDonald case by July 2001. Subsequent letters, however, showed the entire file was not handed over until February 2002, one month before MacDonald's trial was scheduled to begin. McConnery told commission counsel Mary Simms he'd been trying throughout 2001 to expedite MacDonald's trial, and Hallett's delays didn't help. "This was not an ideal transfer of the file from one Crown to another?" Simms asked. "Fair enough," said McConnery. MacDonald walked out of court a free man in 2002 after a judge stayed the charges against him, ruling his right to a timely trial had been violated. McConnery also testified about the stormy relationship between Hallett and Det. Insp. Pat Hall, Project Truth's lead investigator. "They both expressed anger at each other," said McConnery. "Mr. Hall, on a number of occasions, took the opportunity to tell me that he thought she was a princess." Hallett has yet to testify at the inquiry, which is exploring how institutions like the province's justice system dealt with allegations of historical sexual abuse. McConnery's testimony continues when the inquiry resumes at 9:30 a. m.
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