Has pedophile probe gone off the rails?

With a final bill expected to be nearly $50-million, inquiry under fire for plodding pace

KIRK MAKIN

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

November 6, 2007 at 4:32 AM EST

CORNWALL, ONT. — Two hours into his testimony at the Cornwall pedophile inquiry, witness Charlie Bourgeois had said the words, "I don't recall," so many times that it sounded like a ritual incantation.

"Do you have a problem with early Alzheimer's?" snapped John Callaghan, a lawyer for the Cornwall Police.

"You might want to get it checked."

Usually calm and unflappable, inquiry Commissioner Normand Glaude was on Mr. Callaghan like a cat. "That was completely inappropriate," he injected sharply.

The moment of tension last week symbolized a tough, new approach that Commissioner Glaude has adopted as his inquiry into allegations of a sophisticated pedophile ring nears its third year of operation. Barely past the halfway mark in its mandate, the Cornwall inquiry is headed for the record books. When all is said and done - likely in late 2009 - seasoned observers estimate the final bill will be between $40-million and $50-million.

Mounting criticism since the summer over the inquiry's plodding pace spurred the change in approach.

"We have been in high gear for the past three months," said inquiry counsel Peter Engelmann. "It has meant extra hearing dates, even hearing weeks. You do hear these questions through the bar: When will it be over? How much are they spending? Some people say we have interpreted our mandate too broadly ... but we are trying to do it right. We have had about 85 witnesses and 160 days of hearings since we started, which is pretty exceptional."

Yet, a particular phrase keeps recurring whenever lawyers with expertise in public inquiries discuss it: "Off the rails."

Even those who view the inquiry as a worthwhile exercise are sobered by its sprawling reach. "Frankly, I thought we would be out of here six months after we started hearing evidence," said Allan Manson, a Queen's University law professor who represents Citizens For Community Renewal, a local group with standing at the inquiry.

"The inquiry's mandate was extremely broad," he said. "They are now cracking the whip, which is having a controversial effect. But I think the commissioner has been working hard and has a pretty good sense of what is going on."

Then attorney-general Michael Bryant started the clock ticking in 2004, when he launched the inquiry with a vaguely worded mandate and no deadline. In essence, he asked Commissioner Glaude to scrutinize how various institutions dealt with a raft of sexual-abuse allegations, and to take measures to bring calm and serenity to the community.

It was a tall order. Sensational allegations of ritual abuse by a purported coven of Catholic church and community leaders had circulated for years, eventually forcing the Ontario Provincial Police to launch an investigation known as Project Truth.

More than a dozen men - including priests, a justice of the peace and a lawyer - were charged. Only one was convicted. Charges against some were stayed. Others were acquitted, or committed suicide.

"It made no sense to me that there needed to be an inquiry," a lawyer with broad experience in public inquiries said in an interview. "There were criminal charges, and in the end, they couldn't prove them. That's too bad, but I don't know what the endgame is now.

"If truth and reconciliation were needed, you could do town hall meetings and that sort of thing. Inquiries are meant to deal with particular problems, not to be just an extension of a government's public relations strategy."

Inexperienced in the complex world of public inquiries, Commissioner Glaude and his chief counsel, Peter Englemann, were advised early on to keep the list of parties with legal standing to a bare minimum. Yet, 13 parties - some represented by up to four lawyers - were granted full or partial standing.

Numerous unforeseen events then cropped up involving publication bans, reluctant witnesses and the wording of the inquiry's mandate. The inquiry had to battle each one in the courts. "Maybe I was naive, but we have had so many legal challenges," Mr. Engelmann said.

Then, the inquiry moved quickly - arguably, too quickly - into public hearings. The first few months were consumed by experts who provided context about pedophilia. More months passed as a stream of complainants gave lengthy, often emotional, testimony.

Critics believe it all should have been compressed or summarized. They also doubt that any conclusions Commissioner Glaude reaches will budge a seriously polarized community. Finally, they argue that police and social-work institutions have long since changed procedures to make it easier to root out the kind of sexual abuse of children that went unreported in decades past.

"The circus is in its second year, and nobody is sure when it is going to fold up the tent, round up the clowns and elephants, and head out of town -leaving behind a tab that will be in the millions, and a lot of innocent people who have once again had their reputations dragged through the muck," Claude McIntosh, a columnist for the Cornwall Standard Freeholder, wrote last August.

"For all that money, we are going to get a report that will talk about how the institutions should have handled cases ... 25 and 30 years ago."

(If nothing else, it must be said that the inquiry has produced one stunning moment. Last summer, Ron Leroux, the only complainant who claimed to have first-hand evidence of a clan of pedophiles in Cornwall, recanted his story.)

The next major phase - scrutinizing "institutional responses" to the allegations - begins in a few weeks, and will stretch until July. The inquiry is also continuing a steady stream of community meetings to promote reconciliation and healing.

Whether it can quell the suspicions and resentments that are still ablaze in the torn community remains to be seen.

"There is certainly evidence of sexual abuse by some people who were in positions of authority," Prof. Manson remarked, adding, "But that is probably true of every city in Canada."