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	Inquiry Is over but Final Submissions Feb. 23 Seaway News February 13, 2009 http://www.cornwallseawaynews.com/article-302701-Inquiry-is-over-but-final-submissions-Feb-23.html After three long years, the Cornwall Public Inquiry is finally over. Well, not really. Final oral submissions will be made at the inquiry Feb. 23. However, the fact the witnesses are done must come as a huge relief to residents of Cornwall who thought the inquiry would never end. This was the longest and the most expensive inquiry ever held in Ontario and perhaps Canada! When the inquiry was launched in February 2006, it was generally believed it would end in a matter of months. The months dragged into three years and could have gone on for a few more months had the province not handed down an amendment order-in-council that mandated strict deadlines for the inquiry. The inquiry had asked for the deadline to be extended by another month. The final cost has been estimated at $44,000,000. And this does not take into account other hidden expenses or money spent by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and other educational and religious organizations. It would not surprise anyone if the final tally is around $50,000,000. Was it all worth it? It remains to be seen. A big question mark hangs here. Money spent on this inquiry would have been sufficient to build a brand new hospital and would have partly financed the much-talked about arena. If this inquiry was held during a recession, it would have kept many people employed. Cornwall, or the Friendly City, has long been rocked and plagues by allegations of sexual abuse of children at the hands of some of the city’s most prominent men, including officials and lawyers and the clergy from the Catholic Church. The inquiry heard from nearly 170 witnesses about their experience with sexual abuse allegations. Some of the witnesses were victims while others were members of the institutions the victims dealt with. The witnesses came from the Cornwall Community Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the CAS and officials from the Ministry of the Attorney General. Close to 3,500 exhibits were entered into. Officials at the inquiry filled 60,000 pages with transcripts. One thing is certain: The Ontario government has learned a big lesson from inquiry. In future, the province will pay more attention at setting up strict deadlines and strict rules on who should be heard and how long the inquiry goes on. Commissioner Normand Glaude has a huge task before him to sift through rims of inquiry material. It will take another few months, if there are no delays, in preparing and releasing his final report to the province. It also remains to be seen how the province will deal with the final report. It is obvious the inquiry will come up with numerous recommendations on how to law enforcement agencies handle sexual abuse allegations in future. Would there be any respite for people whose names were dragged into allegations of sexual abuse? What about allegations against innocent people who were dragged into the inquiry? What sort of respite will they get? Or will they have to live with allegations made against them? I did occasionally follow the inquiry. Unless I missed something, I did not hear any concrete evidence of a vicious pedophile ring existing in Cornwall. The inquiry was supposed to clear the air and restore the community’s tarnished image. The four-year Project Truth investigation, initiated by the Ontario Provincial Police, found no evidence of any pedophile ring. Project Truth did charge 15 men with 115 sex-related crime. However, only one man was convicted. A former Cornwall police officer Perry Dunlop was instrumental in getting some of the claims investigated. Several suspects died before their cases were tried. Others were acquitted and some had charges withdrawn or stayed. Let us hope the final report from Justice Glaude will help clear many allegations about the alleged sex crimes in Cornwall.
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