Lorne McConnery’s testimony is finished.
Cosette Chafe, Victim Witness Assistance Program, with the Ministry of the Attorney General took the stand and started her testimony. The day wrapped up just before 4 pm.
I thought Chafe would be testifying as AG damage control , but so far it doesn’t quite look it. I could be wrong but get the sense of internal strife.
Chafe will be back at 6 pm on Monday, 19 January 2009 to resume her testimony.
Yes, 6 pm.
The clock is ticking. Things are running behind. Commissioner Glaude announced there will be long and late days for the next two weeks: the usual day, then supper break from 5pm to 6pm, and then more testimony 6 pm to 9pm!.
That’s a heavy schedule. At that rate the gathered throng will either be at each others throats or punch drunk and foolish. Already I see signs of the latter. A few eruptions of mirth. Ha! Ha! Ha! Those are hard to digest. Given the subject matter and the pain and anguish this whole mess has evoked, they should know better. A little self-restraint is in order, for the sake of the victims.
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The witness roster for next week is posted.
Shelley Hallett, Crown Law Office – Criminal – Ministry of the Attorney General
Cosette Chafe, Victim Witness Assistance Program, Ministry of the Attorney General
Lidia Narozniak, Crown Attorney – Ministry of the Attorney General
I don’t know if Chafe will be back both Monday evening and Tuesday? Perhaps back for an hour or so Tuesday morning and then Shelley Hallett will take the stand.
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There was more AG tap dancing over the top secret retainer of retired Justice W. David Griffiths with the Toronto law firm ADR Chambers.
What did Griffiths do or say? What opinion did he render regarding the Project Truth conspiracy “investigation” and the other five files?
We may never know. The AG has claimed privilege on everything Griffith’s related. We did find out that it was probably Murray Segal who retained Griffiths, and that Griffiths report was sent to Segal and copied to McConnery.
We also found out that apparently McConnery wrote his opinion before ever laying eyes on Griffiths,’ and that it was McConnery who gave commission the heads up that there may be things in his notes which should be subject to solicitor-client privilege.
All bizarre. Why bother with an “outsider” opinion? Why pilfer the pockets of tax payers to retain the services of a retired judge to render an opinion if an opinion was rendered apart from that of the judge?
Any why the big secret?
It makes not an ounce of sense.
Peter Manderville (Cornwall Police Service) pushed to have the Griffiths’ involvement disclosed. Dallas Lee argued that Manderville wants disclosure of Griffiths’ opinion only because it may corroborate McConnery’s and give Cornwall Police Service opportunity to say that a reputable retired judge corroborated the decision that there were no reasonable and probable grounds of conviction on the conspiracy brief.
I’m not sure. The best CPS could say in that instance is that a retired judge decided, as did McConnery, that Ron Leroux is not credible and hence, because Ron was the only witness to it, there was no VIP meeting on Stanley Island, and hence, because there was no VIP meeting on Stanley Island, there was no conspiracy.
If that’s what it’s all about I can’t see that it’s anything to be too proud of. In light of the allegations which have rocked the community for years I don’t believe that proclaiming that a retired judge says there was no conspiracy because there was no VIP meeting on Stanley Island would do the trick for CPS..
And that of course is what this all boils down to.
What is it? Double talk? Sophistry? I’m not sure. Whatever the label it certainly is a masterpiece of deception.
“There is no conspiracy.”
Well, thanks to Lorne McConnery’s testimony we now know it’s not that ‘there is no conspiracy’ in the broad sense because conspiracy was only looked at in the narrow sense.
And we know that looking at conspiracy in the narrow sense means the AG’s office excluded all other considerations save the VIP meeting on Stanley Island, that being the “alleged” late August 1993 meeting on Stanley Island at which a host of “VIP”s collectively conspired to cover-up the allegations against Father Charlie and Ken Seguin.
We also know that for the purposes of this “there is no conspiracy” it couldn’t or wouldn’t be considered conspiracy if perhaps only two, three or four or more conspired on a corner of Stanley Island. And we know that it was of no import to the AG/McConnery if the entire lot of the VIPs or even a few conspired somewhere other than Stanley Island, be it a church basement, a rectory, Harv’s diner, Ken Seguin’s front yard, Charlie’s backyard, Quam Bonum (Bishop Larocque’s cottage), Malcolm MacDonald’s office, the Cornwall Classical College or elsewhere. And we know that it had to be late August 1993.
The long and short of the narrow conspiracy definition is that proof of conspiracy, ie “There is a conspiracy,” had to rest on proof that in late August 1993 a gaggle of VIPS conspired collectively on Stanley Island to cover-up David Silmser’s sex abuse allegations. It was all or nothing on the Island – in late August 1993.
This means that we now know in turn and with certitude know what “there is no conspiracy” does NOT mean. It does NOT mean that, for example, Father Charlie and Jacques Leduc did NOT conspire to cover up, or that diocesan officials and former Chief Shaver did NOT conspire to cover up, or that Malcolm MacDonald and Bishop Eugene Larocque and whoever else did NOT conspire to cover-up. Nor does it mean that a bunch of VIPs did NOT conspire on Stanley Island in, perhaps, June 1993, – or May 1992, and so on and so on and so on.
And we now know that, to put it very simply, “there is no conspiracy” means that in the eyes of McConnery and the AG’s office, there was no VIP meeting on Stanley Island. And to put it equally simply we know that the AGs proof of the latter boils down to the theory that Ron Leroux and Ron Leroux alone said there was a VIP meeting on Stanley Island, and that Ron Leroux is not credible, and that since Ron Leroux was the only one who witnessed a VIP meeting on Stanley Island and Ron Leroux is not credible there was no late August 1993 meeting on Stanley Island, and since there was no late August ’93 meeting there is no conspiracy.
That’s it.
The masses have been duped with this fallacious promise for how many years.?
“There is no conspiracy.”
Right. Bear that in mind. The next time you hear the refrain that “there is no conspiracy” in relation to Cornwall remember that it doesn’t mean what the average trusting member of the unwashed masses thinks it means, ie. plain and simple “there is no conspiracy.”
And, yes, remember what “there is no Conspiracy” does mean. Remember that in the eyes of the AG “there is no conspiracy” means that there was no late August 1993 meeting on Stanley Island at which a number of Cornwall VIPs collectively conspired to cover-up David Silmser’s sex abuse allegations against Father Charles MacDonald and Ken Seguin.
That’s what it means.
Do you ever feel like you have been royally duped?
What an insult!
And what a hoax!!!
Perhaps small wonder the AG and/or Justice W. David Griffiths is keen to keep Justice W. David Griffiths’ name and opinion out of this? Not a great legacy.
Enough for now,
Sylvia