Inquiry reviews stories of deceased men

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

20 November 2007

Cornwall (Staff) - The Cornwall Public Inquiry sped quickly through the stories of two deceased city probation officers alleged to have molested a number of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Commission staff went through what's known as an overview of documentary evidence (ODE) for both Ken Seguin and Nelson Barque. Seguin committed suicide in September 1993 and Barque died just two months later. A number of witnesses at the inquiry have alleged they were sexually assaulted by Seguin, but no criminal charges were ever laid against him.

Barque pleaded guilty in 1995 to sex-related offences and was sentenced to four months in jail.

The documents outline Seguin's and Barque's education and employment history including their work as probation officers in the Cornwall area in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Later this week, the inquiry is expected to hear from Doug Seguin, Ken's brother, when he takes the stand.

During harrowing testimony in November of last year, Albert Roy spoke of the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of Seguin and Barque.

"They knew about my family situation, about my problems with my father," said Roy. "They knew I got nervous and agitated when yelled at, the problems I had with alcohol, problems at school (and) they used all of that to abuse me."

The inquiry will resume today at 9:30 a.m. when it's expected former Ottawa-area MPP Garry Guzzo will be back on the stand.

Guzzo spent the better part of two days testifying at the inquiry last week, but the bulk of that time was taken up with efforts to review his personal notes.

The pages contain a number of names of people he says he had contact with, although most of those names were blacked out.

Commission staff said last week they planned to have the documents examined by a forensic document expert in an effort to determine the names underneath the blacked out areas.