January promises inquiry fireworks

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

28 December 2007

Posted By Elisabeth Johns

January is going to be a "very interesting" month at the Cornwall Public Inquiry, the lead commission counsel promised.

When the inquiry resumes on Jan. 14, former city cop Perry Dunlop is expected to take the stand.

Former Ottawa-area MPP Garry Guzzo is also expected to finish his testimony during the month, confirmed Peter Engelmann.

But whether or not Dunlop will testify is another question.

"We haven't heard from him yet, but he's certainly been made aware of his responsibility to attend," Engelmann said.

His brother-in-law Carson Chisholm said he's convinced Dunlop and his wife, Helen, will not fly from their Duncan, B.C. home back to their hometown here in the city.

The Dunlops have now appeared twice before the commission - in September and again in October - and they said they were forced to attend and were lied to by inquiry officials. During his appearance in September, Dunlop said he had received a letter from the commission stating commission officials didn't believe they had the power to summon an individual from another province to testify at an Ontario public inquiry.

Engelmann admitted on that day he was wrong: the inquiry was able to obtain an extra-province summons which allowed it to subpoena Dunlop.

"I certainly didn't, in any way, intend to lie to you, sir," Engelmann said at the time. "But when I wrote to you some time ago, I didn't think we had the power to compel you to be here."

In both of his appearances before Comm. Normand Glaude, Dunlop refused to testify, citing his lack of belief in the inquiry's mandate.

Dunlop was then charged and convicted of contempt of court by the Ontario Divisional Court.

If he returns and decides to testify before the commission, he will still have to travel to Toronto to be sentenced for that finding of guilt. However, Engelmann has said the court will take the fact he did testify into consideration when determining a sentence. That is, of course, if Dunlop actually testifies.

But if he chooses not to testify again - or doesn't even show up - he could be charged with contempt of court yet again for disobeying a divisional court ruling.

And, if Dunlop does indeed testify, that will most certainly put the inquiry off its scheduled timeline to finish up hearing evidence by this July.

"We're hoping," Engelmann said, "Mr. Dunlop abides by the (divisional) court's direction."

And the other so-called "star" witness, Guzzo, a former MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean, had begun his cross-examination when he had a slight heart scare and contacted the commission with a doctor's note saying he couldn't testify at that time.

The inquiry is in its final stage as the commissioner is now hearing from institutions and how they responded to allegations of child abuse.

Currently, employees past and present and officials with the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services are taking the stand to testify as to what they did in the wake of abuse allegations.

So far, two current probation officers who have testified have talked about the policy the Cornwall Probation and Parole office implemented after a number of people came forward with allegations of abuse. This policy was a directive to ask probationers questions about whether they had been on probation before and who their probation officer was.

Two probation officers who once worked for the Cornwall office have been accused of sexually abusing young male probationers.

Nelson Barque resigned in 1982 after admitting to sexual improprieties with probationers. However, his boss at the time, Peter Sirrs, testified he conducted an internal investigation into the incident. He recommended Barque resign and that no further action be taken against him.

In 1995, Barque was convicted of sexually abusing a probationer and was sentenced to four months in jail. He committed suicide in 1998.

The other probation officer who has faced numerous accusations of abuse is also deceased.

Ken Seguin committed suicide in 1993 and no charges were ever laid against him.

One of his former co-workers, Carole Cardinal, testified in the past eight years the Cornwall probation office has received 20 allegations from former probationers that Seguin abused them and one allegation that both Barque and Seguin abused that individual.

The commission will also be hearing from Jos van Diepen, also a former coworker of Seguin and Barque's, as well as from the former area manager, Emile Robert, Engelmann said.

These two names have both come up frequently as of late and there have been suggestions that Robert favoured Seguin and let him get away with being what some have testified as "too social" with probationers.

They said this usually included driving probationers to their AA meetings, or buying them work boots so they could get work, but it also included having an ex-probationer live with him for 18 months and giving alcohol to probationers.

As for the July 2008 deadline looming just eight months away, Engelmann said inquiry officials are certainly hoping to meet it, but there are no guarantees.

Cornwall Community Police Service members will be testifying once the Ministry of Correctional Service witnesses are complete.

The Cornwall police alone - with an anticipated 20 witnesses - is expected to take at least four weeks, Engelmann confirmed.

When the inquiry originally began hearings in February 2006, there was a belief it would be concluded in one year.

The two-year anniversary is just about six weeks away.

However commission staff have added additional days and time to expedite the process without shortcutting too much of the evidence.

"I'm hopeful we will meet that deadline," Engelmann said.

So far, in order to do that staff have agreed to sit nine days out of every 10 in a two-week period and use more factual overviews (statements or evidence) from witnesses who may have less evidence to give.

But one of the problems, Engelmann pointed out, is the inquiry has a lot of parties with standing that must each be given the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses. What is sometimes thought a witness may take a day to finish with their evidence and cross-examination takes much longer.

Guzzo, for example, is scheduled for another 16 hours of cross-examination - that's at least two full days, if not more.

"Certainly . . . we are trying to move this in a very efficient way, but not in any way jeopardize (the evidence or the process)," Engelmann said.

So far, the inquiry alone - not counting legal fees - has cost the province close to $12 million.

The forecast is that by March 31, 2008, the inquiry will incur another $4 million, bringing the tally to $16.1 million. On top of that, the province has shelled out $2.75 million for eight parties that have been approved by the commissioner for funding at the inquiry.

Those parties include the Citizens for Community Renewal, The Victims Group, the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese, Father Charles MacDonald, city lawyer Jacques Leduc, The Men's Project, the estate of Ken Seguin and Doug Seguin (Ken's brother) and The Coalition for Action.

That money has also gone towards getting lawyers for witnesses who don't have standing at the inquiry.

The province has also paid much of the city's tab. The Cornwall police never went before the commissioner and applied for funding, however, the province has incurred a large majority of the police tab.

Here's the breakdown:

$3.2 million was paid by the province from the start of the inquiry to March 31, 2007.

Between April 1 and Sept. 30, the city paid $369,094 and the province paid $791,613.95.

The latest bill from Gowlings, which covers the month of October, totals $266,212.50, with the province picking up $175,392.25 and the city covering the remainder.