Silva Case: 'Out of Sight, out of Mind'
By Ken Peters
A Canadian legal expert says members of the public looking for answers from the Ministry of Attorney General on the Rev. Jose Silva case will have a wait on their hands. "Out of sight, out of mind. They (the ministry) will not look at it. Especially if the accused is out of the country. They can't win on this," said Alan Young, an associate professor with Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. "It's better to let it disappear than to try and justify it from a press statement," Young added. He was commenting on the attorney general's admission last week that the Hamilton Crown's Office made a deal with a defence lawyer to permit Silva to leave Canada for his native Brazil rather than face prosecution on a sexual assault case. Silva had spent two years as a guest pastor at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church when he was charged last September with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old male musician. He resigned from the church and accepted the deal rather than see the matter go to trial. Upon his departure, the Crown's office put in place a Canada-wide warrant for Silva's arrest that would see him prosecuted on the sex assault charge should he return. The ministry has indicated the deal is highly unusual and is the subject of an investigation. But there has been no word from the ministry about details beyond that. "It's a great deal. Sometimes you have to give people a great deal if it is in the public interest, but I don't know what the public interest is in this case," Young said, adding the move is "highly unusual." Hamilton Crown attorney Tim Power said Monday his office has been advised to refer all comment on the Silva matter to the ministry. But ministry spokesperson Brendan Crawley would not comment on the case Monday. Rob Talach, a London, Ont., victims' rights lawyer specializing in victims of clergy abuse, believes Young is correct that a ministry response to the Silva case will likely not be forthcoming. "I'm in agreement. This is not a matter the ministry can win in public. It's best to just let it go to sleep and stay asleep. But it's not the accountability we expect in a democracy. "Who is running the Crown's office in Hamilton? Penn State? Has Joe Paterno come back from the dead? It seems like the mindset," Talach said referring to the famous United States university and its late football coach who were widely criticized for denying a child abuse scandal in its midst. Talach said the Hamilton Crown Attorney's Office needed to push for a prosecution of Silva even if the prospects of a conviction were low. "This (deal) strikes everyone as wrong," he said. Jagmeet Singh, the NDP's critic of the Attorney General's Office, said the strength of the Crown's case must be taken into consideration. In this case, the alleged sexual assault was on the low-end of the scale, the accused planned to take the matter to trial and there was not a corroborating witness. "I don't think it is an improper use of discretion. It is not a resolution that is outside the discretion of an assistant Crown attorney," said Singh, MPP for Bramalea-Gore-Malton and a defence lawyer. Singh said if a review reveals the prosecution's case was weak, the final resolution may be a reasonable one. And Singh said it is with the discretion of a Crown prosecutor to make such a call. Contact: kpeters@thespec.com
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