Sign went too far: PFLAG chair

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

03 December 2007

Posted By Trevor Pritchard

A prominent city activist says a group with standing at the Cornwall Public Inquiry was targeting the local gay community when one of its members protested Friday with a sign calling sexual abusers "pedo-sodomites."

"It's a hurtful message. It's meant to provoke and it's meant to hurt," said Lori Taylor, chair of the Cornwall chapter of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

Taylor said she "wasn't surprised" when she saw a photo of Coalition for Action spokesperson Carson Chisholm carrying the sign during a small rally outside MPP Jim Brownell's office.

The coalition, a group of citizens that have acted as advocates for abuse victims, has argued the inquiry has gone off the rails in the wake of recent events - in particular, criminal charges being laid against two of the inquiry's major players, Steve Parisien and Perry Dunlop.

Parisien, a sexual abuse survivor who helped spearhead the drive to bring a public inquiry to Cornwall, was tried and acquitted in September on obstruction of justice charges. Dunlop, the former city cop who launched his own investigations into historical sexual abuse in the Cornwall area, was found guilty of contempt in November after he refused to testify at the inquiry.

The coalition received standing and funding at the inquiry earlier this year. On Wednesday, they learned from Commissioner Normand Glaude they were being denied a second round of funding.

Those incidents were precursors to the protest in front of Brownell's office Friday morning, during which Chisholm held a sign that read, in part, "Prosecute the pedo-sodomites, not the whistleblower."

Most of the words on the sign, including a seemingly-sarcastic "Hello!," were scrawled in what appeared to be thick black marker - except for the word "pedo," which was smaller and looked as if it was added after the fact.