Didn't tell witness to lie

Cornwall Standard Freeholder 

Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 08:00 

Trevor Pritchard

Local News - One of the original crusaders for the Cornwall Public Inquiry stood in court Tuesday and vowed he did not tell an inquiry witness to lie under oath.

Steve Parisien pleaded not guilty to one charge of obstruction of justice - a charge stemming from allegations made by abuse victim Albert Roy at the inquiry late last year.

On Dec. 12, 2006, Roy testified that Parisien, a member of The Victims Group, had phoned him a week before and said he could have "memory lapses" about his involvement with former city cop Perry Dunlop.

Dunlop has often been credited with blowing the lid off decades of alleged child sexual abuse in the area and inspiring the four-year OPP Project Truth investigation.

On Tuesday, Parisien sat with his head resting in his right hand, facing away from the witness stand, as the 46-year-old Roy and his wife Vicky gave their interpretations about what was said during that late-night phone call. Roy told Crown prosecutor Jay Spare that he and Vicky had been watching television shortly before midnight when Parisien, whom Roy knew casually through local support group Survivors of Sexual Abuse, called them at home.

The phone call was one-sided, said Roy: Parisien talked about how the inquiry had turned into a "witch hunt" for Dunlop and that if lawyers asked Roy about Dunlop, he didn't have to answer.

"He (Parisien) said, 'If you don't want to answer the questions, you could have memory lapses. Nobody's going to know the difference,'" said Roy.

Roy testified that Parisien used the word "lie" once during the conversation. When asked to recount the words Parisien used to describe Dunlop, Roy said: "I'm not going to swear in the courtroom."

After hanging up, Roy said he was so angry with what he'd heard that he picked up the telephone and hurled it across the room.

"I was upset that, you know, after all this time, I don't want somebody trying to tell me how or what to testify," said Roy, who was sexually abused by two probation officers in the 1970s and had spoken with Dunlop about a potential civil lawsuit. "It just made me upset."

The next day, Roy said he informed his personal counsellor, his lawyer, and commission counsel Pierre Dumais about Parisien's phone call.

While he never wanted action to be taken against Parisien, Roy said he felt it was necessary to tell Dumais in case the phone call would be used later to discredit either his testimony or that of another witness.

"I don't want to be impolite, but I was worried Mr. Parisien would be outside the courtroom, blabbing . . . and then all of the sudden it would be in my face," said Roy.

In his cross-examination, defence lawyer Bill Wade questioned Roy's ability to remember accurately the contents of Parisien's Dec. 4 call. He suggested an alternate scenario: that the victims' rights advocate had phoned Roy to explain that if he truthfully couldn't remember his contact with Dunlop, it was okay to admit it.

Wade also brought up Roy's history of mental illness, and asked if his wife might have helped "fill in any of the blanks" if Roy couldn't remember what was said during the call.

"Perhaps you read into your conversation with Mr. Parisien something that actually wasn't factual or accurate," said Wade. "Is it possible that your memory of that phone call might have been flawed?"

"(If) he wouldn't have said anything out of place, I don't think I would have been upset with that phone call," Roy responded.

Roy later said Parisien didn't threaten him or force him to forget things on the witness stand, but only made suggestions about how to shape his testimony.

The court also heard an audio recording of an interview with Parisien that took place a few minutes after Roy finished his Dec. 12 inquiry testimony.

In that interview, conducted by Standard-Freeholder reporter Terri Saunders, Parisien said his remarks to Roy had been "blown out of proportion" and that he had only called to check on Roy's well-being.

He also reiterated his belief that the inquiry had become more about tarnishing Dunlop's reputation than examining the institutional response to historical sexual abuse claims in the area.

"I don't hold any malice towards Albert Roy in any shape or form," said Parisien in the interview. "And I truly believe in his heart that he knows that."

Parisien, an abuse victim himself, was one of the strongest advocates for launching the inquiry. He was at Queen's Park in November 2004 when Premier Dalton McGuinty announced there would be an inquiry.

This July, Parisien was recognized by the Men's Project, an Ottawa-based counselling service, for his ongoing work to support adult male survivors of sexual abuse. The obstruction charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.