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	Lawyer Challenges Sex Probe's Authority By Tara Brautigam Ottawa Citizen [Canada] March 29, 2006 http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=75a32fb1-3993-4ba9-80d4-7b0bc365ed84&k=53566 Cornwall - An inquiry probing how public institutions responded to historical allegations of child sexual abuse does not have the authority to issue recommendations to the Catholic Church, a lawyer for the diocese said yesterday. The Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese doesn't want to be considered a "public institution" as is spelled out in the terms of reference established for the inquiry last year by the Ontario government, said lawyer David Sherriff-Scott. Considering the diocese a public institution just because it provides services to the poor and downtrodden would be unfair and would distract the inquiry from its true mandate, Mr. Sherriff-Scott told commissioner Normand Glaude. The inquiry is investigating the handling of long-standing allegations of child sexual abuse in Cornwall. The diocese wants to be considered a community sector organization -- a classification that would exclude it from the inquiry's mandate, which the terms of reference define as "examining the response of the justice system and other public institutions to the allegations." Victims of the alleged abuse say they fear the inquiry would be derailed were Mr. Glaude to rule in favour of the diocese, and that such a decision would deny residents the healing they seek.
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