Perry considers testifying

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

22 September 2007

Posted By Terri Saunders

Perry Dunlop will be back on the stand at the Cornwall Public Inquiry next month to tell the commission whether or not he's prepared to testify.

The former city cop was told to return Oct. 9 after saying Friday he wants to speak to a lawyer before he decides to answer any of the commission's questions.

"I'm not prepared at this time to answer the questions," said Dunlop. "I would like to seek leave and get legal counsel and weigh out (my) options."

Dunlop has repeatedly refused to testify at the inquiry this week, saying he's testified multiple times at court hearings in the past, appearances which are documented in court transcripts, and has nothing further to say.

Often credited with blowing the whistle on historical child sexual abuse in Cornwall and the surrounding area, Dunlop has also been accused of conducting rogue, unsanctioned investigations and deliberately withholding key evidence from authorities.

Comm. Normand Glaude assured Dunlop the commission would do everything in its power to ensure he, and his family will be treated fairly should he choose to testify.

"I can tell you, for the record, that I am prepared to entertain whatever accommodations are necessary, which would include, of course, repaying the cost of Mrs. (Helen) Dunlop to return if she so wishes, and any other expenses with respect to the children and that kind of thing," said Glaude. "(Commission counsel) will be asked to travel to British Columbia so that you can be at home (during preparations to testify) and make (the) necessary arrangements to minimize the impact on the children and on you."

Should Dunlop choose to testify, it's expected he will spend at least seven or eight days on the stand.

'We didn't take our armour off for years': Helen

Over coffee and sandwiches, Helen and Perry recalled the day seven years ago when they packed up a van and a trailer with boxes, suitcases and their three young daughters and began driving away from the place they'd called home all their lives.

"I remember it was raining really hard," said Perry, remembering how the family decided to leave town late at night, under the cover of darkness.

"We stopped at St. Joseph's Villa, where Helen's parents were living, so she could say goodbye. And then, we were on the highway and we were gone."

Never looking in the rearview mirror, the couple instead focused on what lay ahead.

"As every mile went by, I could feel the weight of the previous seven years of stress lifting from my shoulders," said Helen. "We knew we were going to a place where absolutely nobody knew us. That was comforting."

Helen said if she'd had her way, she would have taken her family even farther away from Cornwall, but Perry wanted to at least stay in Canada.

"I thought, 'Let's go to New Zealand,'" said Helen. "'Maybe they can't get to us there.'"

For years, "they" had shown up on the doorstep of the family's Cornwall home on Amelia Street in a steady stream and had called the house at all hours of the night. "They" had first investigated, then charged Perry with discreditable conduct under the police services act, charges of which he was ultimately exonerated. "They" had stood outside the home, outside the police station and outside their daughters' school with notebooks and television cameras.

Each kilometre the family covered between Cornwall and Duncan, B.C. put them further away from victims and alleged victims of child sexual abuse, convicted and alleged perpetrators, police officers, investigators, lawyers and the media. Although it might have afforded the family some breathing room, the distance was not enough for Perry and Helen to let down their guard. "We didn't take off our armour for years," said Helen. "I don't think I'll ever take it off completely."

In the seven years since they first left eastern Ontario, the couple has sacrificed a lot to gain a little peace of mind. Helen was unable to travel back to Cornwall for the funerals of her parents, saying she just couldn't sit in a church and watch Catholic priests from this area pray over their coffins.

"To sit there and watch those 'bananas in pyjamas' on the altar," said Helen. "They would have had to drag me out of the church."

Prior to when Perry first blew the lid off child sexual abuse in 1993, the couple was living the life of an ordinary, everyday family. When her husband told her he'd found out something - a city priest had been accused of child sexual abuse and it appeared his own police force was not conducting an investigation because the alleged victim had received a settlement from the church - they both realized their lives were going to change forever.

As their daughters began to grow up in the middle of the storm, Helen said, it became apparent they had to move away from Cornwall.

Somewhat unfortunately for the family, Cornwall has followed them west.

"There have been incidents where people have tracked us down," said Helen.

"Years ago, I didn't really care all that much for caller ID. Now, I depend on caller ID."

Helen said her youngest daughter, Monica - known as Bird to family members and friends - was approached by an unknown man while at school in Duncan who scared the young girl enough to alert school staff.

"Monica said it was a tall, slim man in a suit and long raincoat and he walked right up to her and said, 'Are you Monica Dunlop?'" said Helen.

"Monica is so friendly and bubbly, she said she was. But then he asked, 'Are you Perry Dunlop's daughter?' and that's when she got scared."

Helen was called to the school by the principal who assured her Monica was safe but the man was never found. There was a similar situation sometime later when Helen and Perry each observed a van parked near the driveway to their home for several days. When the couple approached a man sitting in the vehicle, he refused to identify himself. When Helen called 9-1-1, she says she described the van, gave the licence plate number and described the driver.

"The person on the phone said, 'Oh yes, we know he's there,'" said Helen.

"They didn't tell us why he was there or who he was and he just drove off."

For the first couple of years they were in British Columbia, Perry tried to find work as a police officer, particularly within the RCMP.

Despite the fact he says he was born to be a cop, it seemed no force could see the value in bringing him on board.

"Perry was forced to resign from the Cornwall Police Service, a job he loved," said Helen, "and, using his own words, he turned in his gun belt for a tool belt."

Dunlop now works in construction and Helen is back in health care, working for the Vancouver Island Health Authority as an aboriginal liaison nurse within the Cowichan Tribes. The couple said if they could go back in time to before 1993, they still would have blown the whistle on child abuse in their community, although they would have done some things differently.

Helen said she and Perry would not have put as much faith in law enforcement and the justice system as they did to do the right thing.

"We wouldn't have gone to the police," she said. "We would have set up some sort of surveillance and gotten some real evidence on these guys (alleged perpetrators.) We wouldn't have left that part up to the authorities, because it wasn't done. The complaints were ignored."

Helen said her husband will always be a police officer in his mind and will always do whatever it takes to protect children, even though he knows there might be a personal cost.

"Perry has always had the courage of his convictions and, as a policeman, was always willing to do what was right, even if it meant taking risks and paying a personal price for doing so," said Helen. "In his quest to protect children ... he has lost his police career, suffered ill health, survived death threats and worries constantly for my well being and the health and safety of our children.

Having to leave their children behind in British Columbia time and time again to return to Cornwall on the orders of a court has also taken a toll on the couple. Perry said he had little faith he would be treated fairly at the Cornwall Public Inquiry, particularly in light of his previous stints on a witness stand.

In August 2004, Perry spent four days answering questions during a motion hearing to stay criminal charges laid against city lawyer Jacques Leduc. The lawyer was eventually successful in having the charges against him stayed after his attorneys argued "unreasonable delays" had prevented the charges from being heard in a timely fashion.

During his time on the stand, Perry was repeatedly pointed at as the sole cause of six years of delays and adjournments in the case.

On Friday, Perry said he was "thrown to the wolves" in that courtroom while Leduc, who was facing multiple charges of child sexual abuse involving multiple victims, was never asked a single question.

Perry said he was treated poorly by both the Crown and the court, presided over by Judge Terence Platana. On more than one occasion, Perry asked if he could get some legal advice before he answered questions, but Platana repeatedly refused the request.

"I was bushwhacked at the Leduc trial," said Perry, "and that kind of set the tone for me as to what I could expect inside a courtroom and what I might expect at the inquiry."

Perry said he got little assistance from the very same prosecutors who would eventually concede their office played a significant role in the delay.

"It was the Crown (Lidia Narozniak) who never once stood up and intervened when I was being attacked over and over again," said Perry, who was painted by Leduc's defense team as a rogue cop who conducted illegal investigations of their client and knowingly withheld documents from authorities. "There was no pre-conference, nothing done to help clarify things or put things in order. I had nobody helping me. I was alone in there."

Despite assurances Perry has received from staff at the inquiry, including Comm. Normand Glaude, that he will be treated fairly and with respect, he knows what's headed down the pipe should he choose to testify.

"He (Glaude) could be doing things he believes are in my best interest," said Perry, "but there is a mob of lawyers in that room who want to clobber me. They want to devour me. Not the perpetrators, not the institutions, me."

By mid-afternoon Friday, Perry and Helen Dunlop were ready. Ready for hugs and kisses as they bid farewell, at least for now, to their families and friends. Ready to pack their suitcases and drive to Ottawa to catch an early evening flight to British Columbia. Ready to go home.

They won't tell their daughters just yet that their mom and dad have to leave them again next month and return to Cornwall once more. They will let them enjoy the next couple of weeks without having to worry.

"We'll tell them when the time is right, just as we have done with everything over the past 14 years," said Helen. "It's hard on them when we leave them behind like this, but they're strong girls. They'll get through this. We'll get through this."