Hearings resume at 0900 hours (9:00 am) this morning, Wednesday, 03 December 2008. Retired Detective Inspector Pat Hall will return to continue his examination in chief.
Yesterday’s transcript is posted. Take the time to read it. It is virtually impossible to recap on the fly. I have actually been working on timelines and going back to the testimony of together witnesses to try to sort out what exactly was happening in the birthing of what we now know as Project Truth. I am surprised that Hall and Smith seemed to have a sort of carte blanche as to the way ahead. They hobbled together the mandate and they came up with the name.
I don’t know what exactly I expect but this just seems strange to me. I would have thought someone up the ladder would have come up with the mandate? Instead it is placed squarely in the hands of an officer, Tim Smith, who had in 1994 decided there were no grounds to charge Father Charlie and there was no conspiracy. And Smith in turn pulled in his friend Pat Hall. And they in turn turn to Crown attorney Robert Pelletier, a former working mate of Smith from the Alfred -Uxbridge training school scandal who also happened to be a good friend of Cornwall Crown attorney Murray MacDonald.
It just seems pretty strange. The pair had free rein. They presumably had to fight tooth and nail to get funding and supplies. Smith wanted a small team but it was obviously so small they weren’t getting the job done in a timely and efficient manner. So, I will fiddle on with a chronology and testimony to see if I can make sense out of it all.
I did by the way see that Hall did indeed know that the Dunlops were dealing with other death threats against the family in 1996. In that instance the woman behind the threats was charged, and, in July 1996, entered a guilty plea. I am inclined to think that common sense says the talk of death threats around July was reference to that.
I will finish the media post’s.
Hearings have started. Should be an interesting day. Almost guaranteed to wrap up at 4:30 pm 🙂
Tick. Tock.
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A final thought. Will former Project Truth secretary Marion Burns be called to testify? Is there time?
Enough for now,
Sylvia