SQLFusion - David Silmser starts his testimony

Recipient of $32,000 payout begins testifying at public inquiry
Cornwall Standard Freeholder
Terri Saunders

Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 10:00

Local News - When David Silmser was 15 years old, he was living on the streets and stealing to keep himself from starving.

One of the places he targeted for some fast cash were the "poor boxes" at a few local churches - money donated by the faithful to assist those in need within the community.

At the time, Silmser didn't think much of taking a few dollars here and there from inside these sanctuaries, although it took him years to figure out exactly why he chose churches as places from which to steal.

"Now I can figure it out," Silmser told the Cornwall Public Inquiry Monday. "I had no respect for the churches. I don't know if I thought that then though."

Silmser is now 49 and a lot of time has passed since the days he was breaking into churches in order to survive. As a witness at the inquiry, the middle-aged man took to the stand Monday to begin what is expected to be lengthy testimony.

Silmser said he was about 11 years old when he decided to become an altar boy at St. Columban's Church on
Fourth Street West
. He was good at it, Silmser was told by senior clergy. In fact, one of the monseigneurs in the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese told the young boy he would probably be the next priest of the church.

"I really enjoyed it," said Silmser. "I got really involved."

Looking at Silmser today, it's not difficult to imagine him as a child. With a small build and a quiet demeanour, he looks much younger than his years, though his greying hair and grey moustache give away his age.

Wearing small, wire-framed glasses and delivering his testimony in a largely unemotional, matter-of-fact fashion, Silmser remained articulate and eloquent as he began to delve into the events of his childhood which would send him to the streets, separate him from his family and ultimately result in a $32,000 payment from the diocese and the breaking open of a decades-long child sexual abuse scandal in the community.

Silmser told the inquiry he was sexually abused by Rev. Charles MacDonald on several occasions when he was an altar boy between the ages of 11 and 15, by a city school teacher, Marcel Lalonde, while he was a student at Bishop MacDonell School, and by Ken Seguin, a city probation officer who has since passed away.

MacDonald was charged by officers with the Ontario Provincial Police's Project Truth team in 1996 with more than a dozen sex-related charges stemming from alleged incidents between 1967 and 1983. In May 2002, a judge stayed the charges, saying MacDonald's right to a trial in a timely fashion had been infringed upon.

Lalonde was sentenced in 2001 to 15 months in jail and a combined one year of house arrest after being found guilty of sexually assaulting several young boys.

Seguin was never charged criminally in relation to sexual abuse allegations against him. He committed suicide in November 1993.

Silmser's testimony continues today.