The axe has dropped!

Hearings resume at 0930 hours tomorrow morning, Thursday, 23 October 2008.  An ODE to someone or other first, then Tom O’Brien back for more cross-examination.

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The axe has dropped! 

I hear via the grapevine that Attorney General Chris Bentleyhas informed  Justice Normand Glaude that the inquiry MUST be finished by 30 January 2009!

Here is what I hear:

– ALL witnesses must have finished testifying by 30 January 2008.  ALL.

– Everything is to be cleared up by 27 February 2009 – that would mean the gathered throng’s submissions over and done with, unless perhaps they are to be ready with their submissions by 27 February?  I think the former but am uncertain..

– Glaude’s final report is to be submitted by July 2009.

– All Phase 2 counselling benefits will cease after the submission of the final report, that would mean counselling for victims, “alleged” victims and whomever else will stop next October.

This means, give or take a day, there is the grand total of 59 sitting days left.  59 days to hear witnesses from the Ontario Provincial Police, the school boards, and, yes, last but by no means least, the office of the Attorney General.

To put this into a little perspective, the Cornwall Police Service used in the order of 52 sitting days to put its witnesses through.

Approximately 62 days were spent by Glaude “framing” the inquiry with “expert” witnesses.

Do you see what this means?

We’re coming to the nuts and bolts and Premier McGuinty drops the ax!!

How very very very convenient for the Attorney General!  How very convenient. 

If we thought the institutional witnesses were conveniently going on and off the stand at break-neck speed we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.  Just wait!  we’ll be dizzy watching the comings and goings over the next few weeks.  Positively dizzy.

Isn;t this just something?  Once it comes down to the crunchies, with the OPP and Attorney General waiting in the wings, and the ax drops. 

All over.  Too bad.  No time.

No surprise really.  What better way to really put the fix in well and good?  What better way to stem the flow of crumbs which inevitably fall from the table with each witness? 

Bring it to a halt!

As for Glaude having his report together by July ’09, well,  I suppose that I can live with.   If it was in the can back in April 2005 when this charade with its flawed mandate was commissioned it will be still be in the can for July ’09.  It goes something like this:  there is and never was a ring; there is now and never was a cover-up;  people didn’t understand what child sexual is;  people didn’t know way back then that men sexually abuse children; everyone was overworked, understaffed and this institution, that institution and the other one was underfunded; there were a few little mistakes here and there but nothing of great merit and after all everyone is only human;  there was little negligence here and a little incompetence there, but everyone was trying to do his/her best; there were no polices, practices and procedures telling anyone what to do or how to do it but they’re evolving and getting better by the day;Perry Dunlop was a rogue cop who didn’t co-operate with anyone who is anyone;  Ron Leroux lied to and for Perry and then recanted everything when he took the stand; countless reputations of countless honourable citizens have been sullied by rumour and innuendo.

Yes, the fix is in.  It was in long ago.  Long long ago.

I must say I had an inkling something like this was in the offing last Thursday.  That’s  when the gathered throng were left twiddling their thumbs for an-hour-and-a-half waiting for the commissioner to return after lunch.  A high priced bit of twiddling.  How many lawyers and technical staff and translators on the ready at how much per hour twiddling for a full hour-and-a-half?

That’s more than enough to pay Steve Parisien’s legal bills, the ones he incurred when Glaude handed him off to the “proper authorities” to be charged with obstruction of justice. 

For that matter, it’s probably enough to pay for the good clothes which were lost, while, thanks to Justice Glaude and his inquiry,  Perry Dunlop was locked up in a cell 24/7,  and for Perry’s flight back to Duncan which the AG didn’t ante up on yet,  and for a few of Helen’s many flights back and forth to see her husband.   What’s left over from that could  could go towards starting to defray the income lost while Perry was dragged hither and yon across the country by the commission and the AG’s office before he was finally locked behind bars for longer than many a convicted paedophile.

I digress.

Back to Thursday…

Justice Glaude had an appointment of some sort over lunch.  Hearings were to resume as normal at 2 pm.   The commissioner got back at 3:30 pm. 

Who could possibly tie the commissioner up for so long when he’s supposed to be in the Weave Shed hearing evidence and the pressure is already on to make a dash for the finish line? 

I could be wrong, but I think things were in the mill on Thursday.  It had to be someone of great import to keep the gathered throng and the viewing public waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

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Three short comments, two questions, and an observation about former CAS Executive Director Tom O’Brien’s day on the stand. (Note day.  Not two hours.)

(1)  The medical experts who came out with their various recommendations as to O’Brien’s capabilities were way way off the mark.  Someone should be examining each and every one of them and filing a report;

(2)  O’Brien is pretty feisty.  Like many institutional witnesses there is much he doesn’t recall, but he was more than game to carry on.  He took the stand around 11 am, wrapped up for the day around 4:30 pm.  Even at that he had simply asked for a break and was keen to carry right along.  After the break however, Peter Chisholm, lawyer for the CAS, announced O’Brien would like to call it a day and start at 10:30 in the morning;

(3)  O’Brien is a St. Patrick’s College boy. St. Patrick’s in  Ottawa closed its doors in 1979, but for many years was affiliated with Ottawa U. and degree granting. 

Colin McKinnon is a St. Patrick’s boy too.  He would have been there I believe a little but not much after O’Brien, but both are St. Pat’s Alma Mater.

(4)  O’Brien worked as a probation officer before he joined CAS.  That was some time before Ken Seguin’s day.  He doesn’t think he knew Ken Seguin.

Some questions: 

(1) Is it remotely possible that Peter Chisholm didn’t want O’Brien on the stand? 

(2) Is it remotely possible that the array of limits presented by an array of health personnel to get O’Brien on and off the stand in the twinkle of an eye was Peter Chisholm’s doing?

(3)  Did O’Brien hire Derry Tenger?  I think perhaps he did.  If yes, why?  What qualities did O’Brien see in him, and what qualifications did Tenger have? As far as I know Tenger was a cook.

(4)  We heard more on this old chestnut once upon a time  way back absolutely no one knew anything about child sexual abuse.  According to this institutional witness, that insitutional witness and the other one it simply wasn’t on the radar screen back then.

It certainly was on the radar in some places.  For example, back in  1969 when buggery was decriminalized by the Trudeau government there was knowledge that children are sexually abused.  I know that for fact because several years ago I spent hours upon hours reading through the Hansard’s of the day.  Believe me, there was awareness on Parliament Hill that children are sexually abused.  There are a few incidental references here but that’s by no means all.

Furthermore, if indeed there was no recognition of child sexual abuse why did the Criminal Code of Canada bother with legal protection for those under 14-years-of-age? 

Most of my research was related to buggery because what I was hearing at the Project Truth sex abuse trials prompted me to find out what the law of the land was in that regard in the 60s, 70s and 80s, but I also read about other forms of sexual abuse against minors.  There definitely was recognition that children are sexually abused or it wouldn’t be in the criminal code.  Perhaps it wasn’t called sexual abuse, but the acts were recognized as criminal by whoever put the Code together and approved it.  Ditto by those who studied and applied the law.

As I said before, I can understand the average person on the street not knwoing, but why CAS of all people would be in the dark on that is beyond me.  

Observations

O’Brien has come out with a few interesting tid bits, much, I am sure, to Peter Chisholm’s dismay. 

O’Brien has been quite proud to share the depth of his friendships and faith in certain Crown attorneys and police chiefs. 

And he even let us know that he was on a first name basis with bishops!  

And he offered up that that he and the chief of police routinely chitter-chattered and talked out problems which were supposedly “hypotheticals” but which both knew weren’t hypotheticals at all.

One interesting piece of testimony is O’Brien’s denial that he ever went to Malcolm MacDonald for advice on CAS-related allegations/problems to find out what to do.  It’s strange because he told us he routinely went to the Crown, and sometimes to the Assistant Crown.  But, he never ever consulted Malcolm?

Asked why he never consulted Malcolm O’ Brien replied that there must have been nothing happening that he needed to go about then.

Malcolm was Assistant Crown the late 50s to 1967 or ‘68 and Crown from 1968 to ‘71. That means that, according to O’Brien’s evidence,  at least in the years 1968 to 1971 there was nothing untoward happening at CAS?  No allegations of physical or sexual abuse by any foster child against a foster parent or CAS worker?

Perhaps not.    Keep an eye and ear open for CAS problems 1968 to 1971.   I’ve lost track.

If you were watching, you probably caught O’Brien’s testimony that the Crowns he talked to never suggested or recommended he go to police.  Never. 

Amazing.  Never a Crown-inkling of reasonable and probable grounds.  Never.

But, it’s Cornwall.  Reasonable and probable grounds seem awfully hard to come by in Cornwall 🙂

So, tomorrow we’ll move on.  Dashing, dashing, dashing for the finish line. 

And, yes indeed, along with all of the “alleged”paedophiles of Cornwall, the OPP and AG’s office witnesses can sleep tight.  Not much time.   Not enough time.   Got to chop, chop, chop.   Chop witnesses.  Chop exams in chief.  Chop xcross- exams.  Chop documents entered into evidence.

Chop. Chop. Chop.

Just when the OPP and, yes, oh yes, the AG’s office are on the wings

Fancy that 🙂  Sheer happenstance.

Enough for now,

Sylvia

(cornwall@theinquiry.ca)