Witness bolts from sex abuse inquiry

February 2, 2007 

Ottawa Sun 

By TERRI SAUNDERS, CANADIAN PRESS 

CORNWALL -- A key witness at the public inquiry into the institutional response to allegations of systemic sex abuse in the Cornwall area stormed off the stand yesterday. 

David Silmser had only begun to answer questions put to him by Dominic Lamb, an attorney representing Rev. Charles MacDonald, when he suddenly stood up and announced he was leaving. 

"I'm taking a break now," Silmser said. 

Commissioner Normand Glaude attempted to stop him, but Silmser kept going. 

"They can put me in jail. I'm taking a break," he said. "How do you like that, Mr. Callaghan?" 

Silmser's last comment was directed toward John Callaghan, an attorney representing the Cornwall Community Police Service. 

NEEDS COUNSELLING 

After speaking with Silmser for close to an hour, his lawyer, Clint Culic, returned to the room and told Glaude he would try to get his client some anger-management counselling prior to the resumption of hearings Monday afternoon. 

"I don't think he can survive any more cross-examination without it," Culic said.

Silmser received a $32,000 payment from the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese in 1993 after he made allegations that he'd been repeatedly sexually assaulted by MacDonald in the late 1960s and 1970s. 

MacDonald, who has adamantly denied the allegations, had sex-related criminal charges against him stayed by a judge in May 2002 after it was determined it took too long to bring the matter before the courts.