Ottawa Sun

02 November 2007

By Terri Saunders, Sun Media

CORNWALL -- The province's top cop said yesterday allegations of child sexual abuse in Cornwall were "none of (his) business" and he was in no position to conduct an investigation of his own.

"I did what I thought was the right thing," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino told the media outside the Cornwall public inquiry. "You will have to live with that, as I do."

Fantino said a large amount of material delivered to him in late 1996 -- when he was London police chief -- contained statements and affidavits from alleged victims of child sexual abuse and he quickly turned it over to the OPP.

The material was sent to him by Charles Bourgeois, a Newmarket lawyer who at the time represented former Cornwall cop Perry Dunlop.

During court appearances over the past several years, Dunlop has said he wanted Fantino to have the material because he was "the only honest cop" in Ontario.

In 1993, Fantino headed up a lengthy investigation into an alleged pedophile ring in London called Project Guardian. Many people were found guilty of paying underage boys for sex; two were found guilty of possessing child porn. But when all was said and done, the courts couldn't find evidence the group of accused men worked together.

Yesterday, Fantino said he felt "used" by Bourgeois and Dunlop because he later found out the same material had been sent to other agencies, such as the attorney general and solicitor general.

"I was not in a position to infuse myself into an investigation already underway," Fantino told the inquiry, adding "it would have been totally inappropriate for me to involve myself in that case."