BishopAccountability.org
	Shortchanged by Inquiry Report Standard Freeholder December 17, 2009 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2225338 There's an old saying that you get what you pay for. This wasn't the case with the Cornwall Public Inquiry. We were shortchanged. The inquiry wrapped up--finally--on Tuesday with Commissioner Normand Glaude releasing his 1,600 page report and 404-page "executive summary". They're still adding up the bills, but the final cost of the inquiry is expected to come in at around $53 million. It will easily become the most expensive and longest running (four years) public inquiry in Canadian history. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find another public inquiry anywhere that cost this much and took this much time. And what did we get for all that time and money? The report contained some useful recommendations and some well-deserved criticism of the way several public institutions dealt with complaints. What we didn't get in the commissioner's report was a clear-cut opinion on allegations that a pedophile clan made up of high-profile people operated in the community and district. The clan story was the oxygen that fuelled the rampant sex abuse fires. The clan story was the cornerstone of a website dedicated to exposing suspected pedophiles. The man behind the clan story, Ron Leroux, claimed in an affidavit that he attended the clan's sex orgies where young boys were passed around and abused. The affidavit included numerous names of prominent citizens. It was amended several times to add names. It became one of the best read online documents in Cornwall. On the witness stand, Leroux recanted. Said he made up the story to please Perry Dunlop. In fact, he didn't even write the affidavit. He just signed it. It was a major turning point at the inquiry. But in his report, Glaude refused to draw a firm conclusion on the pedophile clan rumour. Instead, he blamed the Ontario Provincial Police investigators, who said there was no evidence of a clan, for not going far enough to disprove the tale. Glaude said it wasn't his "role to make such a finding." We disagree. His sitting on the fence and ignoring the obvious in light of Leroux's recantation, has left the door open to lingering rumours of a clan. For $53 million we deserved better.
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