Witness tells Cornwall inquiry he was 'part of the problem’ 

 Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. Shredded documents at courthouse  

Ottawa Sun

September 12, 2007

By TERRI SAUNDERS, Sun Media

CORNWALL, Ont. — A witness has told an inquiry probing the institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in the Cornwall area that he was “part of the problem.”

“I sincerely apologize,” Marc Carriere said Tuesday. “I was unknowingly made part of the problem.”

Carriere issued the apology to the subjects of what he believes to be hundreds of youth criminal files he says he was ordered to shred as part of his work at the Cornwall courthouse in the mid-1980s.

“How many victims had their lives altered as a consequence of my actions,” asked Carriere, “potentially erasing facts which would have been important to prove their cases?”

Over the course of victim and alleged victim testimony at the inquiry, many witnesses have said they yearned for an apology from their abusers.

Carriere said it was also while he was working at the courthouse through a Manpower-sanctioned program aimed at helping young people find employment he first met Keith Jodoin.

At the time, Jodoin was serving as a justice of the peace and would go on to become executive director of the United Way of Cornwall and District.

It was while he was working as a justice of the peace Jodoin sexually assaulted him, Carriere claims.

Jodoin was charged by investigators with the provincial police Project Truth unit in August 2000, but those charges were dropped by the Crown in November 2000 after it was determined there was no reasonable prospect of prosecution.

Jodoin never officially spoke about the charges at the time, only to say he had received legal advice to offer no comment.

He took a leave of absence with pay in September 2000, and returned as executive director near the end of that year.

Jodoin continued in his role until September 2003 when he officially retired at the age of 73 and after more than four decades of service to the agency.

Carriere said he would often run personal errands for the justice of the peace.

One day in the fall of 1985, Carriere said he was asked by Jodoin to accompany him to a cottage the justice owned west of Cornwall.

As the two men were driving to the cottage, Carriere said Jodoin sexually assaulted him in the car.

“He reached over and put his hand on my trousers in my groin area,” said Carriere. “I took his hand and I pushed it away from me rather roughly.”

Carriere said Jodoin immediately explained he wanted to see how thick Carriere’s trousers were because it was cold at the cottage.

Carriere said he didn’t believe Jodoin’s explanation.

Carriere eventually met with Project Truth investigators whom he said took his allegations “very seriously.”

Carriere, who is now 43 years old, also told the inquiry he was dissatisfied with the way his information was documented.

Carriere said he remembers having to correct the written transcripts of interviews on at least three occasions.

The inquiry continues.