Lawyers seeking ban on details

Terri Saunders

Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 10:00

Local News - Lawyers for a city priest are asking the judge at the helm of the Cornwall Public Inquiry to ban from publication any details and statements regarding criminal allegations against their client.

An attorney representing Rev. Charles MacDonald filed a motion Wednesday suggesting hearing unfounded allegations against the priest will make him factually guilty in the eyes of the public. John MacDonald, a man who claims the priest sexually assaulted him in the 1960s and 1970s, is expected to testify at the inquiry in the coming weeks.

"When the complainant takes the stand . . . he will, under oath, make public allegations alleging serious criminal allegations against the applicant," Giuseppe Cipriano writes in the motion application. "Such evidence will be on a live web cast and then available to the public through transcripts available on the commission website."

Cipriano is arguing Charles MacDonald will be denied "any corresponding ability" to respond to the allegations made by John MacDonald.

"It is beyond the commissioner's jurisdiction to engage in any analysis of guilt or innocence," Cipriano writes. "The inquiry is not about

identifying perpetrators or about the specific details of the allegations."

In delivering arguments on the motion, James Foord, another lawyer representing the priest, said his client is innocent and has never

been found guilty of any crime.

"How could specific allegations be relevant to this inquiry?" Foord asked.

"How could they tell us anything about institutional response?"

There was support for the motion from other parties, including the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese.

David Sherriff-Scott argued a ban on publication would not impair the inquiry's ability to fulfill its mandate which is to examine the response of public institutions to allegations of child abuse over the past several decades in the Cornwall area.

"The focus of this inquiry is to analyze institutional behaviour in order to determine its sufficiency or shortcomings and to make recommendations for the better management of these issues by such institutions in the future," said Sherriff-Scott. "The inquiry is not focused . . . on the identification of individuals who are alleged to have committed wrongdoing.

"The identity of alleged wrongdoers has little if anything to do with this inquiry's mandate."
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