Is there a Cover-up in Cornwall? 

The question we now know the Cornwall Public Inquiry will not ask 

 [Scroll down for cover-up-media-related articles] Is there a cover-up in Cornwall?  Was there a cover-up in Cornwall?   

'Officially' the answer to both questions is a resounding “no.”  But the truth of the matter is that there definitely was a cover-up.  What else do you call it when officials of the Alexandria-Cornwall diocese and other prominent Roman Catholics hush an “alleged” victim of clerical sexual abuse with $32,000 - and then top off the hushing (allegedly quite legal) with a definitively illegal gag order; a gag order which specifically prohibits the pursuit of criminal charges?  

I don't believe anyone would see that as the essence of transparency.  It certainly is not an exercise undertaken with the idea of protecting children from an alleged paedophile priest.  Neither is it designed to ensure that - at  the very least - Roman Catholic parents know they shouldn’t leave their children alone in the company of this man – even if he is a priest.   

To the contrary. The object of the exercise is to keep the sex abuse allegations against the priest under wraps - forever.

It’s a cover-up.  By any standards, no matter how low, it’s a cover-up of allegations of sexual abuse. It's that simple. 

We don't need to delve into what the police did or did not do with the victim’s statement, and whether they did or did not investigate and question the priest, and whether all the lawyers and diocesan officials involved did or did not see the illegal document which was somehow mysteriously filed sight unseen in a sealed envelope in a diocesan filing cabinet, and on and on and on.

We don't need to go there to say there really was a cover-up.   “They” can deny it all they want, but, at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding -  and, yes, in that instance, there was a cover-up.  

Ditto the case of child molester Father Gilles Deslaurier whom Bishop Eugene Larocque quietly shuttled over to the diocese of Gatineau-Hull in Quebec where Deslaurier's close friend, Adolphe Proulx, the previous Bishop of Alexandria-Cornwall, was in charge.  

And then there's the scenario of the 27 files - Bishop Eugene Larocque's included - which have been sitting in the office of the Atttorney General for years waiting for someone to concur with Project Truth officers that there is sufficient evidence of sexual abuse to lay charges.  Since then Larocque has been sued by men who allege they were sexually abused by Larocque, but to date no criminal charges have been laid against Larocque or any of the other suspects.

So the question is not: was there a cover-up?  In light of all that has transpired in the name of truth and justice in Cornwall for the past twenty years years plus, the questions – plural – are:  (1) how pervasive was/is the cover-up of sexual abuse? ( 2) who orchestrated it?  (3) how many members of the alleged paedophile ring were/are involved in the cover-up? (4) what legal recourse is there for victims and society - particularly children - if it is proven that a pack of paedophiles eluded justice because of a cover-up? (5)  what are the sanctions for lawyers, judges, politicians, clergy and/or law enforcement officials who were/are party to a cover-up? and, of course (6) why did Bishops Eugene Larocque and Adolphe Proulx subject the unwitting and trusting Catholic faithful and their children in the diocese of Gatineau-Hull Quebec to a known paedophile, Father Gilles Deslaurier?

And in light of the McGuinty government's choice of commissioner and wording of the mandate for the Cornwall inquiry, we should add three more questions to the list:  (7) who drafted the mandate and selected the judge? (8) who was complicit in ensuring the mandate would exclude the diocese and avoid inquiry into allegations of a paedophile ring, an "oversight" which subsequently prompted Justice Glaude to set a dangerous legal precedent for all religious bodies with his ruling that the Roman Catholic diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall is a "public institution"?   

Will the Cornwall Public Inquiry ask the questions which must be asked?  Unfortunately with its flawed mandate and what we have seen if the Cornwall Public Inquiry to date the answer is a resounding No!!  

Sylvia’s Site

Files of Interest

Click for free download Adobe Reader ( to open and read PDF files)

• Her Majesty the Queen against Angus Malcolm MacDonald - lawyer for Father Charles MacDonald and former Crown attorney Malcolm MacDonald pleads guilty in Ottawa courtroom to charges of obstruction of justice. Judge B.W. Lennox gives him an absolute discharge.

• Court document showing the charges against Malcolm MacDonald, Father Charles MacDonald's lawyer, and absolute discharge for obstructing justice

• October 2005: Robert Pelletier named judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. Pelletier pulled from a Project Truth case due to conflict of interest. Despite this Pelletier later took on the task of investigating death threats against Perry Dunlop.

• Search warrant by which OPP confiscated a stash of porn allegedly owned by probation officer Ken Seguin and temporarily stored at Ron Leroux's home.  The warrant was issued about two weeks after D.S. gave Cornwall police an account of his sexual abuse allegations against Father MacDonald and Ken Seguin.  The porn seizure is said to be illegal.  The tapes have disappeared.  (PDF file)

• August 2000: Cornwall Standard Freeholder gives lawyer David W. Scott venue to defend diocese and priests whose names appeared on Project Truth website; and attempt by former Project Truth website host James Bateman to respond to Scott's comments via the same venue. (pdf file - requires Adobe Reader) (David W Scott is representing the diocese at the Cornwall Public Inquiry)

• Former Cornwall Police Service Chief Claude Shaver took an early retirement: now in Tampa, Florida as President/CEO of MobileTec

• Denis J. Power QC appointed Justice of the Superior Court of Ontario.  Power represented Jacques Leduc and/or the diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall in a Cornwall scandal related civil action.   On 30 November 2006, as a judge of the Ontario Divisional Court, Power was apparently prepared to hear and rule on a diocesan application to stay and an application for a judicial review of a ruling by Justice Glaude.  (Glaude's ruling had dismissed the dioces's motion for a publication ban on the name of a priest who allegedly molested Claude Marleau.) 

Power was apparently asked to recuse himself.  He did. The application for stay was rescheduled. 

Power has been actively involved in the Thomas More Lawyers' Guild an organization whose founding members included Justice Colin McKinnon and canon lawer Father Frank Morrissey.

 

Justice Colin McKinnon's Cornwall Connections 

One Big Happy Family?

The 2004 Spring Education Conference of the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association is just one more of many reasons that the notion of judicial impartiality and independence with this inquiry in Cornwall is absurd and allegations of cover-up continue.

Addressing or teaching the gathering during the three-day two-night conference was, among others:

Michael Bryant:  Ontario Liberal Attorney General who was responsible for the mandate and selection of Justice G. Normand Glaude.

Curt Flanagan:  the Crown Attorney who ensured that former Crown Attorney and alleged paedophile Malcolm MacDonald received an absolute discharge after entering a guilty plea to obstructing justice for his role in the $32,000 pay-off and gagging of D.S., the alleged sex abuse victim of Father Charles MacDonald.  Flanagan exonerated the other two lawyers who were party to orchestrating the pay-off:  (1) Jacques Leduc (alleged paedophile, lawyer and canon lawyer for the diocese)  and (2) Sean Adams (local lawyer allegedly retained by Malcolm MacDonald to represent D.S.’ interests in signing the agreement). 

Flanagan participated in the January 1990 roasting of his father, former Ottawa Chief of Police Tom Flanagan.  Assisting with the roasting were, among others, Liberal leader John Turner, Colin McKinnon (judge who took the bench at Leduc sex abuse trial despite his heavy prior involvement with Cornwall Police Service and Cornwall Chief of Police Claude Shaver), and then Liberal MPP Dalton McGuinty (now Ontario premier whose Liberal government is responsible for the inquiry, it’s mandate and the selection of Justice Normand Glaude).

Robert Pelletier:  the Crown Attorney who (1) was Crown Attorney in the early days of Father Charles MacDonald’s courtroom appearances but was obliged to step down because he was best man for Cornwall Crown attorney Murray MacDonald (Murray MacDonald’s name has frequently been raised in relation to the scandal.  He is a nephew of Malcolm MacDonald.  His father Milton MacDonald was a convicted paedophile ), (2) despite the conflict of interest was responsible for looking into the death threats made against former Constable Perry Dunlop.  Pelletier decided that it would not be in the public interest to lay charges, and (3) was recently appointed to the bench during the Paul Martin government.

Murray Segal: who was deputy Attorney General to Ontario Progressive Conservative Attorney General James Flaherty.  It was Segal who signed off this letter to James Bateman which shows Segal was well-versed in Cornwall and not at all happy with the projecttruth.com website.

Murray MacDonald:  Cornwall's current Crown attorney.  MacDonald was Crown when David Silmser reported that he had been sexually abused by Father Charles MacDonald and Ken Seguin. 

Vatican named in sex-abuse lawsuit
Globeandmail.com 

Monday, July 4, 2005 Page A9

Toronto -- The Vatican and the College of Cardinals are among those named in a sex-abuse lawsuit to be filed this week in Cornwall, Ont.

Law firm LeDroit Beckett of London, Ont., is filing the suit on behalf of Andrien St. Louis, who says he was abused by a Roman Catholic bishop and priest.

Retired bishop Eugene LaRocque, who lives in Windsor, Ont., and a deceased priest, Donald Scott, are named in the suit. None of the allegations has been proved in court.

The Holy See, the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic of Toronto, the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall and the Diocese of London are accused of negligence and vicarious liability of their employees.
CP

Naming names in the Cornwall sex abuse scandal 

 CBC Online: 

WebPosted Mon May 28 11:13:48 2001  

CORNWALL, ONT.

- The Roman Catholic Bishop of Cornwall is among four people who have been investigated by police as part of their probe into allegations of sexual abuse in the eastern Ontario city.  Court documents show that police collected volumes of information regarding Bishop Eugene LaRocque and three other priests.  The police submitted those files to Crown attorneys more than 18 months ago. But so far there has been no decision on whether charges are warranted.  Now a Tory backbencher in the Ontario legislature has publicly announced that he'll name names and he has told CBC Radio he'll name the bishop.  

The latest investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in Cornwall, known as Project Truth, began almost four years ago.  The head of that investigation has testified in court that his team of officers identified 68 suspects. More than a dozen were charged; 26 have died.  Documents submitted during a recent court proceeding show that one of those who were investigated was the Bishop of Cornwall, Eugene LaRocque. 

 Inspector Pat Hall testified that Project Truth compiled three volumes of documents on the bishop consisting of more than 1,000 pages of information.  The volumes were given to the Crown attorney's office in September 1999. It was supposed to decide whether charges are warranted against the church leader. So far no decision has been made public.  Decisions are also pending in investigations involving three other priests.  

Gary Guzzo is a Tory MPP from Ottawa. He's also a former provincial court judge. He told CBC Radio he will name the bishop as a suspect in the Ontario legislature. For two years he's been demanding an inquiry into the Cornwall scandal. He wants to know why the investigation appears stalled.  "It's fine that 20 people have been charged with 115 counts. I'm suggesting that the top people have not been charged and I want the inquiry to inquire into why this has taken place and that's why I will be asking the question," Guzzo said.  

Bishop LaRocque was part of a deal in 1993. It saw the Catholic church pay $32,000 to a former altar boy. The man had accused a Catholic priest in Cornwall of molesting him. As part of the deal, the man was to stay quiet and withdraw the complaint he had made to police.  But the deal became public and several police investigations then began into allegations that priests and other prominent people were part of a sex abuse ring in Cornwall.  

Reached at his home in Cornwall Sunday night, LaRocque said he was surprised. He said it's the first he's heard he would be among those named by Guzzo in the legislature.  LaRocque says he is innocent. He says the original allegations against him date back to 1961. But he says he had never set foot in Cornwall at that time.  LaRocque said he wants to speak with his lawyer before saying anything more.

Written by CBC News Online staff  

Cornwall pedophile case 'not fully closed': minister

Guzzo doesn't name 'kingpins' of alleged child-abuse 'clan'

April Lindgren
The Ottawa Citizen

TORONTO -- More charges are possible in the alleged "pedophile clan" scandal that has rocked Cornwall, provincial Solicitor General David Turnbull told the legislature yesterday.

The provincial government has not "fully closed" the book on the investigations, Mr. Turnbull said. "There is still the possibility of other charges being laid, and that is all I will say," Mr. Turnbull said in the legislature, repeating the statement later to reporters.

Mr. Turnbull was responding to questions from Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Garry Guzzo, who has vowed to "name names" of "kingpins" of the alleged pedophile ring this week in the legislature.

An unsual hush fell over the chamber yesterday as Mr. Guzzo rose from his seat on the Tory back benches. He did not name the "kingpins," but instead grilled his own government on repeated police failures to crack the pedophile ring in the early 1990s.

Mr. Guzzo asked Mr. Turnbull to explain how three separate police probes -- in 1992, 1993 and 1994 -- failed to expose the pedophile ring in the Eastern Ontario community. Subsequent efforts by the city's citizens, he pointed out, led to a 1997 Ontario Provincial Police investigation where "miraculously 115 charges were laid" against 15 individuals.

And in a surprising move, Mr. Guzzo also said he has evidence that provincial police may have shielded pedophiles elsewhere in the province from charges.

"Since the debate on the initial bill in October of last year, I've opened nine files with regard to allegations against different police forces, primarily the OPP," he said.

"Of the nine, two of them are very, very troubling. Very, very troubling."

Mr. Guzzo's unprecedented move has attracted national attention, and he is expected to continue his onslaught today by naming the alleged ring's "kingpins" and asking Attorney General David Young why, despite extensive police investigations, they have never been charged.

His decision to name the individuals in the legislature, where he is protected from libel suits by the tradition of parliamentary privilege, is controversial in that it may result in innocent people being maligned.

Premier Mike Harris said yesterday that Mr. Guzzo's decision to name names in the legislature "is not what I would do, and it is not something I condone.

"There are still ongoing matters before the police and before the Crown attorneys and I don't think anything that jeopardizes that is very helpful," Mr. Harris told reporters, noting that it is possible further charges will be laid.

But Mr. Harris said the Ontario government is committed to examining why previous investigations did not crack the pedophile ring.

"I don't know whether down the road a public inquiry will be required, whether that's appropriate or whether some other vehicle (will be necessary)," he said. "But I think we have not closed the door on anything."

Mr. Turnbull and Mr. Young have responded to Mr. Guzzo's threats cautiously, insisting they do not want to comment on any police investigation for fear it will jeopardize the results.

Mr. Young said he is not going "to do anything that will interfere with individuals' right to get a fair trial. By the same token," he added, "I don't want to see guilty people go free."

Mr. Guzzo, a former family court judge, is unapologetic about his tactics.

Noting that he would cease and desist if the government calls an inquiry into what he says is a police coverup, Mr. Guzzo said he is willing to risk naming names because he believes justice is not being done.

"All I want to do is put the evidence that is on the table before the attorney general ... compare that evidence to evidence in the court cases with people who have been charged, and get him to explain why, when it appears that there is a stronger case against certain people, that they have not been proceeded against."

Mr. Guzzo rejected suggestions he might be destroying the lives of innocent people by targeting them. "You talk about destroying lives," he said. "Why don't you go down to Cornwall and talk to some of the victims and you will see an example of lives having been destroyed.

"There wouldn't have been any court cases to start with if the citizens hadn't done the job that they did. They (the police) had wound it up, they said there was no one to charge three times. How many times do you want to have it swept under the rug before somebody gives the rug a good yank?"

To date, there have been no convictions as a result of Project Truth, the investigation launched in 1997.

Some charges have been thrown out of court.

Seven people face charges in Cornwall, including clergy.

Of the eight others charged, four have died, charges were dropped against one, another was found unfit for trial, another was acquitted and a stay of proceedings was issued on the charges against the eighth.

Ontario knew about pedophile probation
officers, says victim

CBC.ca, October 10, 2000

by Staff Reporter

Two former probation officers were involved in an alleged pedophile ring in Cornwall, Ont. – and the provincial government knew it nearly 20 years ago.

CBC Radio News has uncovered information that complaints about the probation officers were made as far back as 1982.

But it was 1995 before Nelson Barque was charged with sexually abusing a boy under his supervision.

Barque pleaded guilty. The judge, calling it an isolated event, sentenced him to four months in jail and 18 months probation.

But it wasn't isolated.

There were other victims – and other perpetrators, including Barque's fellow probation officer, Ken Seguin.

In the 1970s, one victim was a teenager with a drinking problem and a habit of getting into fights. Eventually, those traits landed him in the probation offices of Barque and Seguin.

He says they sexually abused him and many others.

"I truly believed that this was the way it was – all teenagers acted and did things like this with grown-ups," the now 38-year-old man said. "I just thought it was all normal."

A friend of his filed a complaint against Barque in 1982. The province investigated and Barque quit – no charges were laid.

The victim says he was questioned but wouldn't say anything because he was afraid.

The area manager for the Cornwall probation services, Peter Sirrs, says he began an investigation when he received the first complaint.

He says a report from that time is on file at Queen's Park. Attempts by CBC Radio to obtain a copy of it and other related documents using the Access to Information and Privacy Act have been blocked by the provincial government.

Barque and Seguin are both dead – both killed themselves in the face of police investigations.

Those investigations indicate that more than 50 victims and at least two dozen perpetrators are involved. The alleged ring included powerful people such as Roman Catholic priests, church officials, a former coroner, lawyers and business leaders in the Cornwall area.

Charges have been laid against several suspects who are awaiting trial.

Copyright 2000 CBC.ca

January 16, 1994  15.12 EST

CORNWALL, Ont. (CP)

 The man who received a $32,000 payout from the Roman Catholic Church after complaining he was molested by a Cornwall priest says the church never offered to help him in any way.
 
The Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall said Friday it offered to help the former altar boy and pay for counselling, as part of the Catholic church's national protocol on handling such complaints.

But Saturday the 35-year-old man disputed that. "They never once helped me out on anything. They never said 'Do you need some help? Do you need some money for help?' All I wanted was an apology."

He disagrees with several key elements in the church's account of the controversial payoff. He has consulted his lawyer and is weighing the risks of public disclosure of the out-of-court settlement. He has refused repeated requests to release the documents.

The man said he never demanded money from the church and that church officials offered it after his first meeting with them.

By then, he said, he realized he would not get an apology and it seemed the Cornwall police probe was going nowhere. So he decided to take the money.

Cornwall Bishop Eugene LaRocque said Friday he reluctantly went along with the payment because the man had a considerable bill for psychological counselling. But Saturday, the man denied ever receiving any counselling.

And Jacques Leduc, the lawyer for the diocese, said there was no gag order preventing the man from pursuing a criminal investigation.

The man contradicted Leduc's comments about the gag order, saying: "It's in black and white. I can't go on the witness stand and talk about it."

The man said that, as part of the settlement, the diocese required him to tell Cornwall police in writing that he would abandon his criminal complaint. "I don't recall that," Leduc said Saturday.

Police said they had to call off their 10-month investigation when the complainant signed the $32,000 settlement with the diocese requiring him to halt any legal action against the priest.

The man took his complaint to Cornwall police in December 1992. At the same time, he says he told the local diocese his story and asked for a written apology. Church officials offered him a cash settlement months later. He withdrew his complaint last September.

End of document.