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	A Time to 'Clear the Air' Some Cornwall Residents Admit to Having 'Mixed Emotions' As an Abuse Inquiry Begins By Bob Rupert The Ottawa Citizen February 11, 2006 http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.html?id=1250951b-e1a7-4c23-9ab4-a58d3786e08f&k=59007 Cornwall Mayor Phil Poirier says he has "mixed emotions" about the judicial inquiry that opens Monday into allegations of decades of sexual abuse of young people by adults in positions of power and trust. The inquiry will also look into allegations that powerful institutions within the community, including the Roman Catholic Church, two police forces and other organizations and institutions, failed to respond adequately -- sometimes not at all -- to the victims' cries for help. Mr. Poirier acknowledges that the community had a problem, that the "air needs to be cleared" and the victims need "closure," but he worries the inquiry will reopen wounds that had begun to heal, and will again put Cornwall in national headlines portraying it as a community where young people are not safe. Describing the inquiry as "a double-edged sword," Mr. Poirier says, "On the one hand, it is important to bring closure to everybody involved -- the victims, the people who were accused, the police, the Children's Aid, the church -- everybody. "But there have been a lot of innuendos and a lot of people have suffered. This has been like an albatross around Cornwall's neck. We didn't invent sexual abuse in Cornwall. We hope people will realize that. "I hope this inquiry will bring justice. But I know it will also victimize the community all over again. Nobody likes to wash their dirty laundry in public. I guess that's the price of justice." But others are less equivocal about the inquiry. Paul Scott, 61, president of Citizens for Community Renewal, a 200-member group that played a lead role in convincing the attorney general to call it, says the inquiry is "a Godsend." He says getting it called was an uphill battle that got little support from a "very cosy Cornwall establishment," which still gives it only "muted approval." He says, for example, that the first attempt to get city council's support failed in 2000 and it was only when a "big crowd" showed up in 2002 that a supportive motion was passed. Citizens for Community Renewal, one of several public groups that want the allegations thoroughly aired, is expected to play a prominent role at the inquiry. In its written application for standing, the organization says it is made up of "citizens who lived through the events" that gave rise to the inquiry. It says many area residents now "lack confidence in local public institutions" because of their "failure to respond appropriately to allegations of historical abuse of young people." The submission says "this has had a profound effect on the community, left a cloud over Cornwall" and "generated a homophobic virus which has resulted in discrimination against some gay individuals." Another organization with standing is The Men's Project, an Ottawa-based group providing mental health services to men who suffered sexual abuse and are in childhood trauma recovery. On Monday, when commissioner Justice Normand Glaude brings the opening session of the judicial inquiry to order, he will initially be trying to find out if, as alleged in written documents filed with the inquiry, many people representing prestigious public institutions and organizations with a major responsibility for community safety and wellness, put their own image and the community's image ahead of the interests of dozens of youngsters who said they had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of priests, teachers, probation officers, a coroner, two lawyers and others. If the inquiry determines that these allegations are real and the abuse was rampant, the next question will be how the community can take measures to heal the existing wounds and avoid such systemic failure from happening again. The inquiry, established under the provincial Public Inquiries Act, is mandated "to inquire into and report on the events surrounding allegations of abuse of young people in Cornwall by examining the response of the justice system and other public institutions to the allegations." Some parties may ask the commissioner to determine whether they fall under the legal definition of "public institutions." If they don't, they could argue that they are exempt from the inquiry. Among the hundreds of lawyers, police and probation officials, youth workers, therapists and concerned citizens who will testify in 100 days of hearings scheduled until the end of November, will be 48 individuals, seven of them women, who say they lost their childhood to adult predators. Each member of the Victims Group, which has official standing at the inquiry, has sworn an affidavit naming their abusers -- sometimes multiple abusers -- describing the impact of the abuse on their lives, and asking for permission to tell their stories, first-hand, to the inquiry. The victims name 24 alleged abusers. Eleven are priests and four victims name one priest. One priest, named twice, held high office in the diocese. Probation officer Ken Seguin, who committed suicide after he was charged, is named in nine affidavits. One woman names her father. The Cornwall police and the Ontario Provincial Police come in for heavy criticism in the affidavits. The victims say that, in many cases, the police chose to believe the alleged adult perpetrators over the word of their young accusers. The victims say they were made to feel guilty and ashamed for their disrespect in making such serious accusations against their priests, teachers and others. The inquiry, established by the Ontario government last April, had long been sought by community workers and victims' advocates, among them Gary Guzzo, an ex-judge and the outspoken former Tory MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, who, before he was defeated by Jim Watson in 2003, introduced three private members' bills -- the first in 2000-- calling for an inquiry. Mr. Guzzo has consistently maintained that there was a coverup in Cornwall. His bills all died on the order paper. But Mr. Guzzo was front and centre on the day last April when a Cornwall delegation, including Citizens for Community Renewal, came to Queen's Park with Mr. Guzzo and supportive MPPs from the other two parties in tow. They met with Attorney General Michael Bryant, asked for an inquiry, and then followed with a press conference. Mr. Scott says the delegation was "surprised" but also pleased when the inquiry was announced right away. He says the announcement ended a long battle for an inquiry "to clear the air in Cornwall." He says his group wrote letters to seven Cornwall service clubs and the Chamber of Commerce, seeking support for the inquiry. Only the Chamber replied. The answer was no. In its written submission to the inquiry, the group says the community "lacked the necessary information it was entitled to" and that "information was suppressed" by organizations more concerned about their own reputation and public image than the plight of the victims. Citizens for Community Renewal is the successor to a group that got about 12,000 signatures on a petition supporting the call for an inquiry, then disbanded because its work was done. But some of its members, including Mr. Scott, then formed Citizens For Community Renewal. Incorporated as a non-profit organization in April of 2005, its directors include a retired police officer, public health nurse, psychiatric nurse, business operators and consultants, two teachers and a former NDP candidate. The organization, to be represented by Toronto lawyer Peter Wardle and Queen's University law professor Allan Manson, says the inquiry should determine: - Did Cornwall city police and the OPP "conduct appropriate investigations of the complaints of sexual abuse: and "Why did the OPP initially issue a press release advising the community that the allegations were baseless and then establish Project Truth? - Did local institutions co-operate with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cornwall in suppressing or covering up allegations involving local clergy? - Do local institutions "bear any responsibility for a rumour and innuendo campaign -- tarnishing the reputations of specific members of the community?" - Are community organizations using confidentiality agreements to avoid criminal prosecution? - How can the community ensure that community institutions will report and effectively handle future allegations of abuse of children? Mr. Scott says his organization had a lot of help but "we think we played a key role in getting the inquiry. There is big, big public support for this." Mr. Scott says he got involved in the push for the inquiry in 2000 when "the word around town was that Perry Dunlop had been run out of town for standing up to the establishment, and nobody seemed to care." Perry Dunlop was a Cornwall police officer who fought his bosses and the establishment, doggedly pressing for continued investigation of the allegations even after his superiors had ordered him to back off. Mr. Dunlop is viewed by many as a whistleblower who sacrificed his career and exposed himself and his family to threats from people who said he was giving the community a black eye. A staunch supporter of the inquiry who has since relocated to a new life in British Columbia, he declined to comment last week. Mr. Scott says Mr. Dunlop learned, the hard way, that bucking the establishment in Cornwall "is not a good idea." Mr. Scott says there is overwhelming evidence that the "allegations of sexual abuse are real." If not, he wonders why the OPP established a major investigation, called Project Truth, in 1994 after initially saying initial investigations had shown the allegations to be false. He points out that although only one conviction resulted from the 115 criminal charges laid by Project Truth against 15 individuals, the lead officer supported the call for an inquiry after the last charges were stayed. Other charges against several priests, a lawyer, and others, were dismissed when judges found the accused, many elderly, were not competent to stand trial and that, in other cases, the Crown had moved too slowly in prosecuting the charges or failed to disclose vital information to the defence. There were other convictions prior to Project Truth. In addition to his concern about the community's image, Mr. Poirier is also worried about the cost. "What will it all add up to -- $10 million, $20 million, $30 million -- more? This will cost our police service $1 million in legal fees alone. And it may lead to huge litigation in the future." Still, Mr. Poirier sees the inquiry as necessary, particularly for the victims. "I know one of the victims and I believe him when he says he is a victim. "He's 61 now, but he was young when it happened and he was too ashamed to tell anybody. He says he now wishes he had told his father and his mother. But they're both dead now. He started to cry when he told me this. He said he doesn't want to hurt anybody, or sue anybody. He just doesn't want this to happen to somebody else." The attorney general did not respond to a Citizen request for an estimate of the cost to the taxpayers. But based on judicial inquiries into the Walkerton water scandal and the recent Gomery inquiry, it will run well into the millions. When inquiry commissioner Glaude, a Northern Ontario-based judge of the Ontario Court of Justice, opened hearings for standing last November, he made it clear that it "is not a trial. No one is charged with a criminal offence, nor is anyone being sued in this process." (Several civil suits have been filed in other jurisdictions.) He said his "won't be an easy job." Judge Glaude said: "The purpose of an inquiry is to find out what happened, what went wrong and to look at what can be done to avoid similar occurrences. As a result, inquiries look backwards and forwards at the same time." He said an inquiry "should go beneath the surface of the controversy and explore the factors and conditions that give rise to these incidents. He said "individual and organizational reputations can be at risk in the fact-finding process" and "principles of natural justice and procedural fairness ... must be rigorously observed." Lead counsel for the inquiry is Peter Engelmann, 48, a Toronto-based specialist in labour and human rights law. A former lawyer with the Canadian Human Rights Commission and frequent lecturer and author, he says the inquiry will be thorough in searching for the truth. He says no conclusions have been reached on what happened in Cornwall. But he says a lot of people believe children were victimized, and there is evidence that many people never reported incidents because they did not have confidence that anything would be done. "There's a lot of smoke there. We intend to find out if there's any fire."
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