SQLFusion - Earl Landry Jr., convicted paedophile

On December 23rd, 1999, at the age of 43, Earl Landry Jr. was sentenced to five years in jail for sexually abusing five young boys while he was a City employee working in its Recreation Department. He is also the son of a long-time former police chief who had just retired when Earl came on City staff in 1975. The sexual abuse included masturbation, fellatio and the sodomy of these young boys.

The Standard-Freeholder in its article on the following day of the trial, quoted one of the victims who had made an impact statement in court as stating after the sentencing: "Too little, too late. I don't really care. I'm sort of indifferent about it". He said that he first met Landry when he went to the King George Park after being encouraged by his mother to go there. Landry quickly worked to gain his trust. "He was buying his way into my life". After the abuse, he said he turned to drugs when he became a teenager, eventually to the point that he was freebasing cocaine. At the urging of his then girlfriend who he later married and had a child with, he decided to go into treatment to overcome his substance abuse problems. While he was dealing with that, memories of the abuse he suffered began to surface and he went to the Police in 1995".

All tied neatly into a nice package. End of story. Justice was served. But what are the real events after 1995? Earl goes to jail and files an appeal. The most time he'll do is three years and welcomed back into the community. But what about those five victims, now men in their thirties, who went to court? What are their lives like and does the story end with "he went to the Police in 1995"?

The individual mentioned in that story was abused by Earl at the age of eight and it continued unabated until he was fourteen when Earl was transferred to the Bob Turner Recreation Centre. At the age of eight and coming from a single parent family, he was particularly vulnerable. All of the abuse took place in the clubhouse at King George Park, in one of the rooms.

Earl had decided this 8 year old by taunting him, saying that he was not a man but if he was, he had to prove it. Earl tried to masturbate him early on after he showed him some pornography, but "it became too sore" and according to Earl "he was not a man". The abuse continued for 6 years. He never told anyone. To this day he wonders why he never said no especially as he grew older. His questions to himself on the subject reminded me of the "battered wife syndrome", where the wife never leaves the abusive husband despite the life-threatening beatings.

Here are the sequence of events as he surfaced in drug rehab in 1995. He is 26 years old. While in drug abuse counselling at the Friendship House, he begins to tell of his sexual abuse for the first time. The Friendship House reports his abuse to the Eastern Ontario Health Unit who, in turn, advises the Children's Aid Society. The CAS asks for a statement from him which he gives and the CAS then advises the Cornwall Police. In January of 1996, he then gives another statement to the Cornwall Police while at Mount Carmel House. He expects something will be done and that Earl will be arrested within days. He waits and waits but no one is being straight with him and he knows it. His calls to the police station for information are filled with excuses and he begins to be rebuffed.

Almost two years go by when he meets in a BurgerKing, the police officer who took his statement at Mt. Carmel House. He questions the officer as to developments in the case and finds out that nothing was ever done. The police had just sat on it. In a fit of anger, he goes to the police station and raises a ruckus. Sgt. Brian Snyder manages to calm him down and says he"ll look into it. Two days later, John either gives another statement to Sgt. Snyder or is read his own previous statement. Earl is finally arrested in June of 1998. Several more men, upon hearing of his arrest, then come forward to make up the five victims in court.

Did the City upon Earl's conviction, send a letter of apology to the men? No. Did the City offer treatment for the men? No. Why the cover-up in the police department? Has anyone ever investigated this cover-up? Sgt. Snyder must have known that once he touched the file and saw the inaction, that there had been a cover-up. Who did he tell? Was there an investigation? After all, we are talking about obstruction of justice. What happened to the Children's Aid Society? Did they drop the ball or participate in the cover-up? The Agency had to know how sensitive this arrest could be, Earl being the son of a former police Chief and a City employee to boot. So what happened? No follow-up? This is a recent case and it should be easy for both the police and Children's Aid to answer those questions.

The City and its police force have recently embarked on a public relations campaign that features the sexual assault team and the changing of its name to include the word "community" as in the Cornwall Community Police Force. The force is also taking sensitization courses on sexual abuse. Who defines the term "community"? The Police Board? Did the Police Board check with anyone before it renamed itself ? Did it hold community meetings or are we to live with the Board's own definition of community. Like changing the name is going to solve the police force's problems with its image?

Now what will you do for the victims???

Do you know how painful it is to wait after you've given a statement, pouring your heart out to a stranger, and then to be discarded, thus reinforcing your already lack of self-worth and bringing on more guilt and anxiety as you question why you ever told? You wait for affirmation, for validation That's how he felt. It is just not him that is affected by the sexual abuse but his wife, his child, his and her families, their friends and everything that he does. At times, days are harder than other days to get through. You become distant to your children and then to your wife. Families don't understand why you said those things. You can't be right because the police haven't arrested anybody. And the nightmare continues for the victim.

This was a particularly emotional meeting with this young man who so desperately wants to live a "normal" life. He is now clean and working. He is hurt by the lack of acknowledgement by the City and by the police who hid the truth for almost two years. He is hurt by the fact that so many people knew about Earl at that point, but still saw him working at his job for the next two years. No one complained or if they did, it fell on deaf ears. And he has been deeply hurt by the sexual abuse and its psychological aftermath. " Compare Earl's sentence to the life sentence he has given his victims. Earl will be out in a few years. Less than one year of jail for each victim".

Cornwall has created a culture in which pedophiles have flourished then and now. How do you change that culture? It certainly has within itself, a well cultivated culture of cover-ups. I guess, it peels like an onion and we'll eventually get there.