CANADA
The Telegram
Barb Sweet
Published on April 18, 2016
Videotaped evidence from only one witness at the Hughes Inquiry nearly 30 years ago will be allowed as evidence in the Mount Cashel civil trial on now at Newfoundland Supreme Court.
Geoff Budden, lawyer for claimants in the trial, had sought to admit videotapes of parts of testimony from four witnesses at the inquiry — a former resident who was abused, the commission investigator, an RCMP officer and a priest. All are deceased.
Lawyer for the church Mark Frederick had objected to the tapes being played on the basis of fairness, in part because of the fact those people can’t be cross-examined.
This morning Justice Alphonsus Faour ruled in a detailed explanation that the testimony of the priest could be admitted and that the others failed to meet the criteria for admissibility.
The 1989-90 Hughes Inquiry was appointed in the wake of the scandal that emerged in the late 1980s about abuse of boys at the orphanage in the 1970s and 1980s, with the mandate to examine justice system failings.
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