Dawn Raymond, the teacher/friend of victims of Jean Luc Leblanc and to whom Jason turned to say Leblanc was molesting children has completed her testimony. There are two points which warrant mention right now
(1) Mrs. Raymond can not understand why everyone refers to Leblanc as a bus driver. In fact Leblanc while he was molesting Jason Tyo and Scott Burgess and other children Leblanc was working at Transport Canada – at Nav Canada which at the time was a Federal Government building. In fact Leblanc molested the children at the facility.
Leblanc’s job as a school bus driver was secured AFTER he had a criminal record and was a known paedophile!!!
Who was watching out for the children there?
(2) After his cross-examination by Peter Chisholm (lawyer for the Children’s Aid Society) Jason Scott Burgess apparently told Mrs. Raymond that he felt as though he had done something wrong and was very uncomfortable.
And to that I say small wonder!
While to date the cross-examinations at the Weave Shed don’t come remotely close to that which victims endured during the Project Truth sex abuse trials, and while it is clear that one and all at the Weave Shed are turning themselves inside out to be on their best behaviour and present as sympathetic friends who abhor sexual abuse and have no tolerance for sexual predators, old habits die hard. Mr. Chisholm did in a small way what defence lawyers traditionally do on a grand scale – go to whatever lengths are required to exonerate his client of any semblance of wrong-doing.
And, he did it well.
I say that not so much as a compliment as as a fact. If Sott Burgess or Jason Tyo thought for a moment the Children’s Aid Society had let them down in any way shape or form by the time Mr. Chisholm was finished with them they were close to singing its praises. Not quite, but close.
These days that may be good lawyering, but I find the game to protect the honour of the client at all costs through whatever means necessary reprehensible.
When Chisholm stepped up to conduct his cross-examination of Mrs. Raymond he offered his apologies – asked her to tell Jason Scott that he didn’t mean to make him feel uncomfortable and he was just doing his job. And a little banter ensued and in a flash the whole Weave Shed erupted in laughter.
I don’t think it’s a joke. I truly don’t. We’re talking about young lads who were sodomized, and a respected “expert” who recommended the molester could serve probation, and a molester who was turned loose after his guilty plea, and a child who was revictimized and sodomized all over again time again while his molester was on probation, and a victim who became a molester, and a victim/molester whose weaknesses were the Achilles heel seized upon in cross-examination to ensure that no institution is cast in a bad light.
And at the Weave Shed all engage in a little idle banter and erupt in a hearty collective legal laugh?!!
I didn’t see anything to laugh about.
***
Please note: An early lunch break today – testimony therefore resumes at 1.15 pm. Jody Burgess, Scott’s brother – also molested by Jean Luc Leblanc – , will take the stand. After that Justice Glaude will issue directives regarding bans and Confidentiality.
Enough for now,
Sylvia
(cornwall@theinquiry.ca)