Newspaper wants to identify man in sex abuse probe

CBC, Citizen fight publication ban on name of Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic worker
 
The Ottawa Citizen

Thursday 30 November 2006

Neco Cockburn

Lawyers for the Citizen and the CBC will argue today against the extension of a publication ban at the Cornwall sex abuse inquiry protecting the identity of an Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic diocese employee.

Lawyers for the two news organizations and other parties will argue that the employee, who was acquitted in court of sexual abuse, should be identified at the inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in the Cornwall area.

Earlier this week, Commissioner Normand Glaude dismissed a diocese motion to protect the employee's identity.

Judge Glaude ruled that it can't be presumed that the public, "equipped with the reminders of (the employee's) acquittal, will jump to any unfair or unfounded allegations."

A temporary publication ban placed on the employee's identity while Judge Glaude made his decision expires today at 5 p.m., but diocese lawyers are asking an Ontario Divisional Court judge to continue the ban until a judicial review of Judge Glaude's ruling is heard by the Divisional Court.

The Citizen is intervening in the case to oppose the extension of the publication ban. Lawyer Rick Dearden said yesterday that the newspaper "will be arguing that there is no necessity to extend the publication ban, and it will be our position that the employee does not enjoy a discretionary right of privacy before the Cornwall commission of inquiry."

Diocese lawyer Bruce Carr-Harris could not be reached for comment.

The ongoing inquiry expects to hear witness Claude Marleau say that the employee was among a number of people who abused him as a youth. The employee has been charged and acquitted in relation to Mr. Marleau's allegations.

A lawyer for the diocese, acting on behalf of the employee, had argued that the reason the man's identity should be kept confidential is that it is irrelevant to the inquiry's mandate, which is to explore the institutional response to, and police investigations of, the sexual abuse.

But Judge Glaude ruled that Mr. Marleau will likely indicate that he was abused by a number of people who knew each other. The employee's name "is relevant when examining the interconnectedness of persons, particularly given the allegations of conspiracy that surround the facts giving rise to this inquiry," he wrote in the reasons for his decision, which were released this week.

"This inquiry is not about (the employee) nor is it about his guilt or innocence, but is about institutional responses. The criminal allegations against (the employee) will not and cannot be re-tried," the judge wrote.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2006