SQLFusion - Shaver testifies at Inquiry

Shaver testifies at inquiry

Cornwall Standard Freeholder

09 June 2008

Posted By TREVOR PRITCHARD, STANDARD-FREEHOLDER

[theinquiry.ca: I believe it is erroneous and misleading to say, as is done below, that David Silmser accepted a $32,000 "settlement" from the diocese and "refused to pursue charges." Silmser was paid off, and illegally ordered to tell police he no longer wished to pursue his charges against Father MacDonald. He did not refuse to pursue charges. The "settlement"ensured he could not. Furthermore he has consistenly said he agreed to the pay-off only after he was told by Cornwall police that Father MacDonald would not be charged. That was ten months after he first went to CPS with his allegations.]

The man who ran the city's police force just before allegations of mishandled sexual abuse investigations hit the media will begin answering questions about his tenure at the Cornwall Public Inquiry today.

If all goes according to schedule, Claude Shaver will take the same witness stand this morning where, over the past three-and-a-half months, some of his former subordinates have been highly critical of his leadership of the Cornwall Police Service.

"He is an important witness," said lead commission counsel Peter Engelmann, who will be conducting Shaver's initial examination.

"He was the chief of police here in Cornwall for about 10 years, and those were an important 10 years," he said.

A former RCMP officer, Shaver joined the local force in 1983 and took over as chief a year later.

He was only 51 when he announced his retirement in November 1993, citing stress as a major factor in his decision.

At the time, Cornwall had been rocked by a number of high-profile crimes, including a bombing at a local pool hall and a handful of smuggling-related incidents.

TURMOIL IN POLICE SERVICE

But behind the scenes -- as some CPS witnesses have testified at the inquiry, which is probing how institutions dealt with historical sexual abuse allegations -- other things also seemed to be in turmoil.

The inquiry has already learned that in 1990, six of the CPS' highest-ranking officers signed a letter calling for Shaver's ouster.

Last week, Shaver's deputy chief, Joseph St. Denis, testified his relationship with his boss had deteriorated to the point he felt Shaver might try to have him charged under the Police Services Act.

A personal letter bearing Shaver's name suggested he felt other officers were carrying out "coups" against him.

Shaver was "ultimately responsible" for the actions of officers under his command, said Dallas Lee, an attorney for the Victims Group.

He will have to explain why he was directly involved in some sexual abuse investigations, while appearing to have washed his hands of others, Lee said.

One case lawyers are expected to canvass in depth with Shaver is how the CPS handled allegations David Silmser made in December 1992 against a city priest and a former probation officer.

Police closed the case in 1993 after Silmser accepted a $32,000 settlement from the local Roman Catholic diocese and refused to pursue charges.

When Silmser's statement hit the media in early 1994, it helped spark a chain of events -- including Project Truth, a provincial police investigation into allegations a pedophile ring was operating in Cornwall -- that eventually led to calls for a public inquiry.

"If you would have asked in the first week of the inquiry who we would have most wanted to hear from, (Shaver) would have been in the top five," said Lee. Now living in Florida, Shaver has willingly returned to Cornwall to give his side of the story.

His desire to testify may be driven by the fact his name appeared on a now-defunct website, www.projecttruth.com, that linked him to the purported pedophile ring.

Shaver has always denied those rumours, and in 2007, he launched his own website to defend his reputation.

He told the Standard-Freeholder this January that he would be appearing at the inquiry "no matter what."

"I don't think he had to come, because he was living out of the country," said Paul Scott, the president of Citizens for Community Renewal, a local group with standing at the inquiry.

"I think he wants to give his side of the story, and that's really encouraging."

Shaver was originally slotted to be the final police officer to testify, but the inquiry's schedule had to be adjusted since he was arriving from outside the country, Engelmann said.

St. Denis will return to the stand later this month, and the inquiry will be calling another former chief, Anthony Repa, said Engelmann.

Shaver will have his own lawyer at the inquiry -- a first for a CPS witness, he added.

"There have been many things written and said about Claude Shaver," said Engelmann. "I think people should wait to hear his evidence before they pass judgment on his actions at the time."

Article ID# 1064903

Comments on this article

hahahahahaha, LOSER RETURNS TO CORNWALL WITH LAWYER IN TOW....NEWS AT 11.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #1 By JungleLord,

And the finger pointing begins and NOTHING gets done except the abused dig further into their holes, thanks CornHole.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #2 By armagedon,

Dave Witzel, I wonder if I contacted my lawyer if we, the citizens of Cornwall, could prosecute you for defamation of character. The blog will be proof to show you as libel.Let me explain how we could initiate this charge.Defamation is written or spoken injury to a person or organization's reputation. Libel is the written act of defamation, vs. slander, the oral act of defamation.I think the nighthawk post was pretty clear. You are no better then those you attack in the posts. You Sir are just as guilty as those you accuse.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #3 By itinerant,

Just out of curiousity, isn't this itinerant person and another person the same one who was calling armegedon a liar about some birth date being 60 or 61 and weren't you the same person who has been telling others on this useless blog about how stupid he was and that YOU were the one who was calling him names. Were you also the one person who said he was all talk and did nothing? Well funny thing is that I checked at "theinquiry.ca" and found documents that he has sent to the Privacy commission, the police, the inquiry itself and has been helping people who have asked for his help but yet I failed to find one single progressive thing that you've done other than harrass others on this blog, that and talk about nothing at all? Is that you? Yes I thought it was, so I'll line up with this armegedon person against you and so will many others. Now I'll go back over to a blog that at least makes sense as this one sure doesn't.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #4 By booga-booga,

Thumbs Up booga-booga about time someone told that loudmouth off!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #5 By dodger,

Thumbs Up booga-booga about time someone told that loudmouth off!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #6 By dodger,

Sorry seem to be repeating myself.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #7 By dodger,

Thank you "booga" for the support and you are right about this blog and I don't blame you for going to another blog. Dodger, I want to thank you too, sorta like "double the pleasure, double the fun!" when your comments repeated themselves and just as accurate the first time as the second! And as for you being sorry for repeating yourself, don't be sorry, YOU'RE RIGHT and you're obviously not alone in your feelings about that loud-mouthed, small minded and mostly empty(minded)by the way, little bully!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #8 By armagedon,

And just to save you some time ItineRANT this is for you sweetie but also antagonizing people like you do is quite a no no as YOU would be called the "Instigator" and I too have lots of people and a ton of posting to prove exactly that. Here's something for you to read and if you're too stupid, get somebody else to read it to you as a bed time story. As a matter of fact, in this posting of 10, the only person who agrees with you is YOU and the rest support me and as for you egging that knucklehead nighthawk on, he's a joke too!

Section 319

Advocating genocide

318. (1) Every one who advocates or promotes genocide is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

Definition of “genocide”

(2) In this section, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy in whole or in part any identifiable group, namely,

(a) killing members of the group; or

(b) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.

Consent

(3) No proceeding for an offence under this section shall be instituted without the consent of the Attorney General.Definition of “identifiable group”

(4) In this section, “identifiable group” means any section of the public distinguished by colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation.R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 318; 2004, c. 14, s.

1.Public incitement of hatred

319. (1) Every one who, by communicating statements in any public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of

a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.Wilful promotion of hatred

(2) Every one who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of

a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #9 By armagedon,

I AM IMPRESSED!!!SMART :) :) :)

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #10 By RealityChecker,

NOT IMPRESSED with the teatimony at rhe Weave Shed though!!!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #11 By RealityChecker,

opps :( typo
testimony at the Weave Shed

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #12 By RealityChecker,

Oh Dave

Please take a close look at the posts again and note the first person to toss the defamation of character into the topic. Who has consistently abused the name of the city. Sir I may have a few accounts of insults tossed your way in defense of the city and it's people, but You have 46,000 accounts over and over and over. You continually start your posts with the negativity and libel abuse. And thanx for the Section 319 posts should I ever consider genocide I will be sure and refer to it

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #13 By itinerant,

Mr Dave...So easy to throw stones from Toronto..James so easy also from west of Cornwall.. RealityChecker.Same thing out of towner..Maybe we need a Cornwall Blog..

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #14 By 2 sides 2 a story,

TROLL ALERT!! ALL POINTS BULLETIN!!! HOT OFF THE WIRE!!! TROLL ALERT!!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #15 By armagedon

Now that is IMPRESSIVE!!!:)

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #16 By RealityChecker,

Why thank you very kindly, RealityChecker and it's all thanks to you, but I didn't want to copy yours exactly, so I tossed in a few things. Have a good day, eh?

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #17 By armagedon,

To Post # 13 itinerant, I have a question for you to answer if you would be kind enough, please? I noticed that in your answer to this Dave person who I gather would be armegedon, that you stated that he had according to your impecable mathematics an astounding 46,000 posts and I won't get into what they were all about but, how could that be? I checked into and the first mention of armegedon's name was sometime in February 2008 and I can't for the life of me figure out your figures and let me explain. Say there are 10 articles every single day for 7 days and he answered to every one of those 10 articles 10 times every day, you would end up with a grand total of 700 articles in one week. Now with that figure of 46,000 answers that you say he did and I've been doing some checking on my own and the way I see it, 46,000 answers as YOU say he has done sounds not only extreme but ludicrous as well and I'll explain why. You see, if you take those 46,000 answers that you say he made and if you divide that by the number I gave you above which is 700 a week, you come out with a figure that equals 65.71428571 weeks or to put it for the ordinary lay-man to understand, that in turn equals roughly 52 weeks which equals 1 YEAR and 13.46428571 weeks. Now I don't know about yourself but if someone only started 4 months ago according to , I for one cannot figure out your math at all or is this the "new" math I've been hearing all about? When you state that YOU have also tossed a few insults his way to defend your city, does that make you any more right than he is just because as you say, you have taken up the title of "Defender of Cornwall and all of whatever I want"? From what I can tell from others who live in and around your city, armegedon is not the only one who has a lot of comments about your city but that there are a lot more that do than don't. As for your city and insults being tossed your way or to be more precise, tossed to the blog or the city, need I remind you as to why your city has garnered so much bad publicity all across Ontario and it's the reason I ended up here? It's all about the INQUIRY which is supposedly investigating the sexual abuse of children by various "upstanding" members of YOUR community and others who rather than doing the right thing by both they and the townspeople bringing this abuse into the public domain and charging these alleged people instead of doing what they have been doing for years and years and that is to COVER IT UP and hope that it would go away. Well, here we are years later and the cover-up continues and everybody who lives in Cornwall refuses to accept their part in this and instead prefer to blame everyone else. From what I've read, all I can see in you is a very lonely, vindictive bully who tries to intimidate those that you can and harrass those that you can't. Nothing's really changed has it, you are still trying to blame everybody else for something that the town of Cornwall itself is at fault for, for not doing your "civic duty" by protecting the most vulnerable in our society and I'm not speaking about all of the people in Cornwall as I've read some very interesting and very concerned people who live there that DO want to get to the bottom of this scandal but, you certainly aren't one of them, are you? Now I suppose you are going to try the same approach with me but it won't work as I particularily could care less about this city or you for that matter and you won't get to me like you get to him. Your city will live on forever in "infamy" as an example of how not to protect the children!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #18 By booga-booga

In sentence # 3, it should read "I checked into but that somehow got omitted but I'll just take a "picture" of this particular post and send it into to show the kind of dishonest blog the paper is trying to run. Never in my life have I EVER seen anything as shoddy as this blog, paper and town, NEVER! Reply | Report | Page Top Post #19 By booga-booga

It still should read theinquiry.ca!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #20 By booga-booga

To Post # 15 2sides2astory, I was just reading about the Institutions and cops involved in the Inquiry and the way in which you answer to many of these posts seems rather authoritative. You wouldn't by chance be Rick Trew who is the Inspector for the Cornwall Community Police Services would you? That would explain a lot of things and your mannerisms on this blog, just wondering, that's all! You do make me rather suspicious not matter who you are or aren't but, I sure wouldn't trust you.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #21 By booga-booga,

Hi "2sides" maybe "strawman"?: You seem to be quite certain you know what "James" I am...

What do we have here, "S-F" exploiting bloggers registration information?

WHY are you and a couple of others so afraid "2sides"? so defensive?

Are you about to start intimidating people? As I'm certain you know, in and around Cornwall, intimidation and threats have been very successful in silencing people for decades? As you may also know, attempts to threaten and intimidate me into silence, has been unsuccessful.

Easy Does It!!

I blog a couple of times a week or less and you are all up in arms. Engage "2sides", engage.

I go to Cornwall quite often; perhaps you would like to meet for a coffee?

I have nothing to hide, I have nothing to fear!!

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #22 By JAMES "SPEAK OUT",

I haven't noticed itinerant bothering armegedon nor answering to the above EITHER!!! I noticed armegedon posted a lot of his so-called vulgar messages, well according to this paper they were anyway but I don't think so. I haven't noticed him in ANY posts at all today, did he get kicked out as it would appear that's how the censorship in this paper appears to work. If you can't keep the masses in their "places" then I guess your solution is to kick them out, but from what I read, didn't he fight in a war to protect us and allow us to have "free speach" or is that another thing Cornwall wants to bury its head in the sand about?

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #23 By booga-booga,

"Booga-Booga": I have no idea what may or may not have happened to Dave. In my opinion, Dave tends to "stir-the-pot", so to speak. He has been posting for a couple of months now. I have my "style" and Dave has his, as you do and so does everyone.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #24 By JAMES "SPEAK OUT",

Yes James, I could see that he "stirs-the-pot" but what I also found very disturbing was that he seemed to "stir-the-pot" about many things that needed answers instead of talking incircles or to put it politely, just plain gossiping with nothing being accomplished other than name calling. What I have read of his has more valid points and relates more to the cover-up that these people don't want to acknowledge with the exception of blaming everyone else for their problems. I was that instead of just talking on this blog that he has been very active in places ie: privacy commission and the provincial government etc. instead of just talking and talking in circles and that is obviously never-ending and never will be. I saw that there are a few people on this blog that have made remarks and as you can see in my Post # 19, one of those people who harrasses and intimidates on this blog won't even answer to what I wrote to him about as me being an outsider looking in. I thought that there are a very few group of people on this blog who want to help and he was and still is in my mind, one of the people that should be listened to as he was actually doing something about the child abuse even though he is an outsider. I looked and wrote Sylvia about that AND there are some valid issues that he has brought up and to be banned just because he disagrees with this blog or paper, well then what's the point of having a blog at all and why don't we all just let the Freeholder tell us what they want us to know and believe and forget about this phoney blog as it is. I have never seen anything like this in my life before and I have been involved in a lot of blogs regarding child abuse all over the world and THIS is definitely a first, banned for telling as it is.

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #25 By booga-booga,

Hello "booga-booga": I believe you are very observant and you appear quick to put the "ends together" or at least, provide astute observations. (of course, who am I to judge?)
I, as several others interacted with David "Armagedon", for the first time, at Divisional Court in Toronto in January, 2008, when Perry Dunlop appeared.

IT was obvious by the documentations David had with him at the time and that he referenced, that he has extensive and valuable experiences, resources and contacts.
Thereafter, I, as some others, had abrasive interactions with David since that January Divisional Court meeting.

As David provided his telephone number online and in his documentations, as well as providing other contacts/professionals he knew, I chose to contact him (David) and talk with him. We successfully resolved our differences, which were really only, misunderstandings. I also, contacted some of his contacts. I discovered, David is legitimate and very experienced. I also believe that based on his documents, he attempted to assist "characters" who have standing at the Cornwall Public Inquiry. FURTHERMORE, it is my opinion, he believes he was "again" exploited, by some of these "characters" or misled. I believe he really only confirmed his belief about being misled, in early 2008.(as he has previously posted).

The point is, as I believe you mentioned, David is a victim/survivor.

I also believe that he, as many other victims, was/were trying to "survive". In my opinion, David is displaying the typical signs-symptoms, of "SOME" but not all, human beings who have been repeatedly victimized, in various manners, over long periods of time.
I also believe David has participated in years of counselling and has chosen to "get involved" and pre-occupied, wherever he can; also common.

UNFORTUNATELY; and as I see it, David, like SOME other people with similar experiences, sometimes gets overwhelmed with RAGE and frustration and/or expressing themselves/himself in a manner that also facilitates a comfortable feeling for some readers.

In fact he has used obscenities, called bloggers names and used other language, where I believe some people have become offended. David disclosed more than once, that this was his first ever experience blogging.

Sometimes, "it all" boils over, however, I believe some bloggers (some with other agendas) have formally complained about David to "S-F", implying civil litigation. BUT I have seen much worse blog sites. Reply | Report | Page Top Post #26 By JAMES "SPEAK OUT",

Thank-you James however, this will be the last you or anyone will be hearing from me as I thought I might be able to help in this situation but, if that armegedon tried to help and he was bullied and threatened even though he tried to help in professional and medical ways and gets banned from this site well, that tells me all I need to know about both this town and this so-called paper. I feel sorry for those adults who have been left hanging for some help for their child-hood sexual abuse and I hope that the young people in Cornwall are paying attention as to how the abused people are either being treated or shall we say not getting treated and ask themselves why they should have any respect or for that matter any reason that the city will take care of them any better than they have these poor souls. I do hope that each and every one of them takes the chance to get out of town as soon as they can and I do mean all of them and leave it as they don't want the "legacy" that the adults have left for them. I further hope that this Inquiry goes on forever (as it seems they aren't interested in anything but covering their butts) and that the cost will be astronimical and that it puts the city of Cornwall behind the eight ball and in debt forever. You've all earned that right, haven't you and hopefully that city will become a ghost town as the "ghosts" of the poor souls who have been abused and ended their lives will be finally smiling from above. For those that did the abusing, I could only wish that someone or many someones do something to you all that is so horrific that you might get the idea of how those poor souls felt, not that I'm advocating that but just "wishful thinking". I hope that those of you who remain in Cornwall and were involved in this cover-up and closing your eyes to it will feel the non-respect and looks of derision from your own children forever. For those of you good people in Cornwall and I'm sure there must be quite a few of you, I pity you for having to go through what you've been put through by these people and I do feel sorry for you that YOUR good names have been lumped together because of those who only cared about their "precious reputation" (to borrow a quote). The factories are closing, there are few jobs there and because of that, I think that in order for your young people to survive economically they will have to move away and for that, it's going to be quite a site to see a city die bit by bit and all that will be left will be the older folks who will eventually die and then maybe the "ghosts of the past" will be finally set free. Good luck and I do hope the city gets bankrupted because of the cost of the Inquiry so adious and good-bye and good riddance to the whole lot of you both good and bad. Boogs

Reply | Report | Page Top Post #27 By booga-booga,