Cornwall Standard Freeholder

28 February 2008

Cornwall (Staff) Hearings at the Cornwall Public Inquiry were cancelled Wednesday to give Comm. Normand Glaude more time to rule on a legal challenge that could see parts of nearly 20 witnesses' testimony tossed out.

"It's a very important decision," said lead commission counsel Peter Engelmann.

"There's at least a distinct possibility that one of the parties objecting to some of the evidence might be taking this matter to the divisional court."

In January, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Glaude overstepped the inquiry's mandate by trying to hear the testimony of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by two teens in 1993.

The court's decision overturned a September 2007 ruling by the Ontario Divisional Court.

The appeal court's findings led to challenges on the relevance of other witnesses' testimony by three parties with standing at the inquiry: the Children's Aid Society, the Cornwall police, and the lawyer representing Father Charles MacDonald and the estate of probation officer Ken Seguin.

The Cornwall police also claimed the appeal court's ruling placed the investigation of Earl Landry Jr. falls outside the inquiry's mandate.

Landry Jr. was the son of former Cornwall police chief Earl Landry Sr.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of sexually abusing young boys between 1979 and 1990.