Cornwall Standard Freeholder

29 October 2008

Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD

The one-time director of the local Children's Aid Society branch told the Cornwall Public Inquiry Tuesday he could have done more to help a former ward allegedly abused at a city foster home in the 1970s.

Richard Abell said he could have placed a call on Jeannette Antoine's behalf to the Cornwall Police Service, rather than simply telling her to take her allegations there herself.

"I could have spoken to the Cornwall city police on this matter. I could have," said Abell. "I didn't consider it, therefore I didn't do it."

The inquiry is probing how a number of local agencies, including the CAS, responded to allegations of historical sexual abuse. Abell ran the local branch from 1990 until 2007.

When Antoine took the stand last year, she said she had been routinely physically and sexually abused while in the CAS's care. She testified that the staff at the agency's Second Street group home in the 1970s routinely beat and degraded the children staying there, abuse that included teenage girls being forced to scrub floors wearing only their underwear.

Antoine also testified that Abell "didn't seem to make a big deal" out of her abuse allegations when they met in 1991 to discuss what happened at the group home.

In a letter sent to Antoine shortly after that meeting, Abell expressed his sympathy for her experience, adding it was up to her to approach the police if she wanted to press charges.

Helen Daley, an attorney for the Citizens for Community Renewal, suggested to Abell that response could be seen as the agency preferring to "sweep things under the rug" rather than properly investigate.

Abell said the public would have reacted the same way had he not recommended Antoine go the CPS.

"It was the police that had to deal with it. It was a historical allegation of criminal conduct that she was making," said Abell.

"That was where it had to go."

The CPS twice investigated Antoine's allegations, but never laid any charges. In 1994, Antoine told her story to the media.

Abell was cross-examined all day Tuesday, his fourth and final day on the stand at the long-running provincial inquiry.

Dallas Lee, an attorney for The Victims Group, asked Abell about the Ontario Provincial Police's 1998 investigation into Jacques Leduc, a Cornwall lawyer.

Leduc was one of 15 men charged during the OPP's Project Truth probe into rumours a clan of pedophiles was operating in the area.

Documents entered into evidence showed the Project Truth team had spoken with three men who were accusing Leduc of sexually abusing them when they were teenagers.

Some of the abuse allegedly happened while they were employed by Leduc at his farm outside Cornwall.

Lee wanted to know why, after meeting with the OPP officers investigating Leduc, the CAS didn't launch their own investigation into whether children were at risk.

"We had an ongoing understanding . . . that if the police had any concerns with current abuse of children, we would hear about it," said Abell. "I can recall nothing that came up in that meeting along that line."

Inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude said the Leduc matter seemed similar to a 1993 case where the CAS did investigate abuse allegations against a local priest.

"The police look after criminal investigations. Your organization protects children. As we've seen in this inquiry, people come at things in different ways," he said.

"Do you not think it would be important for the Children's Aid Society to make that determination (if children are in danger)? Because you are the defenders of children."

"Most policeman have a pretty keen eye as to whether children are at risk," Abell replied. Leduc's charges were stayed in 2004. The allegations against him have never been proven in court.

The inquiry resumes today at 9:30 a. m.