Perry Dunlop is a political prisoner. He has now spent 193 days in jail – on a six month sentence! – for civil contempt of court!!!
This is the institutional response to allegations of childhood sexual abuse.
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Hearings resume at 0900 hours (9 am) this morning, Thursday, 28 August 2008. Note 9 am – another early start. Bishop Eugene Larocque will resume his testimony
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Perry is at the notorious Don Valley jail. He was transferred yesterday.
Perry is in a 6’x7’ cell. No window. No bed. A mattress on the floor. A toilet which doesn’t flush.
This is how “the system” treats our heroes. This is the fate of officers who honour their duty to report children at risk.
The shame of a nation.
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Things become more surreal by the moment at the Weave Shed.
Seems the Cornwall Police Service called in the SIU to investigate allegations of police corruption!
Yesterday the SIU (Special Investigations Unit) arrived at the Weave Shed looking for Roger Robertson. The SIU somehow got wind that Roger alleges he was sexually abused by a prominent member of the force.
Roger was planning to file criminal charges against several prominent Cornwall men. Before he had a chance to get himself together along came the SIU looking for him! At the request of the Cornwall police!!!
To say Roger was upset is an understatement. He can’t understand where this came from. Adding to Roger’s concerns is the interaction he sees between the SIU officers and Bill Carroll, lawyer for the Ontario Provincial Police Association.
It’s all quite bizarre.
Certainly one of the problems in reporting Roger’s allegations is where to go? Is there a police force in the area which isn’t in a serious conflict of interest when it comes to dealing with sex abuse allegations against prominent men in the community?
Who to trust? Can anyone be trusted?
Anyway, Roger agreed to meet the officers tomorrow after the rally. Where things go from there remains to be seen. Please keep Roger and his wife Patti Newport in your prayers. They are concerned and afraid.
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Today is RALLY DAY. 8:30 am to 9:30 am in front of the Weave Shed. Grab your sign and head down. Helen will be there. She will welcome your show of support for Perry.
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I missed a good bit of the testimony today and no time to go through the transcripts. Rob Talach is doing a good job of cross examining Bishop Larocque. Larocque is not covering himself in glory with his answers. Justice Glaude sees no merit in delving into who knew who and stayed where in Fort Lauderdale. David Sheriff-Scott is jumping up and down protesting this that and the other thing. Glaude castigated those members of the public in attendance asking them to “refrain from either emotional expressions or kind of — that could be misinterpreted as either an indication of disapproval or approval, or an indication of how to respond to the questions.”
Which reminds me that Frank Montello, Larocque’s Windsor lawyer friend, was remarkably restrained today. I mentioned in another blog that he rather forgot himself on Monday as he tried in vain to get Larocque to call a time out or hush up.
He was at it again yesterday. Restriant was the order of the day today.
I must say that I found there was something about Larocque on the stand that I found to be shades a defensive and evasive Bill Clinton splitting hairs over what the definition of what the definition of “is” is.
A goodly number of victims were in the stands to see their former bishop on the hot seat first hand.
Adrian St. Louis, “alleged” victim of Larocque, sat right in the front row.
When his name was mentioned during cross- examination Fern Vivarais, victim of Father Carl Stone,stood to identify himself to Larocque.
Sitting next to Adrian was Fern’s brother Rejean. Rejean was molested by Father Luc Meunier, the Granby, Quebec priest who stopped long enough in Cornwall to do some damage as he merrily molested his way from diocese to diocese, coast to coast and down into the States.
Roger was in the stands for a good part of the day, as was Patti. Helen was there too.
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Yesterday’s media posted on New to the Site on the Home page.
On the road in a few hours. Must run 🙂
Enough for now,
Sylvia