I just realized that all the work I did on bringing Father Tex Keindel’s page up to date is gone. Thank goodness I have some of it from the blog I had ready to post before the site crashed, but the rest is gone. I will have to pull out the directories and go to work all over again. I am sick 🙁 Anything I posted yesterday, be it media articles, or changes to information on the site, has disappeared. What a pain! I am not sure exactly which articles I had posted yesterday so may not be able to rectify that.
Things are still not functioning properly. I am unable at the present time to access the “New” page where I list all posts which are New to the Site. And I still can’t access other areas of my control panel. I suppose I should be thankful that I am only shy a day’s work, but to be very honest at this moment in time being thankful is hard to come by!
Anyway, a new article posted:
17 June 2010: Cornwall inquiry billed $30 M in legal costs
$50+M!!! No surprise. I think we had all settled in on a figure in that range or above. Still, $50M. And,a s you will see further down the page, I think it adds up to more.
Still, $50+ M.
For what?
Tossing Perry Dunlop in jail?
Turning an honest cop into a convicted criminal?
That’s the one and only for sure thing to come out of this multi-million-dollar-boon-doggle.
No, I apologize. I err. That is the most outrageous ‘for sure.’ There are three other for sures:
(1) the “alleged” molesters/paedophiles/sexual predators/ephebophiles can keep right on sleeping tight (ditto those who covered-up on their behalf);
(2) Victim Steve Parisien continues to suffer financially and emotionally for the re-victimization he endured after commissioner Normand Glaude threw him to the wolves (read in this instance police);
(3) all the “alleged” victims remain “alleged” victims;
(4) a lot of nests were extremely well-feathered
There’s other things worthy of note here.
(1) Note the whopping $12M in miscellaneous costs. $12M!!!! $12 M not accounted for in a rational line by line breakdown.
(2) I see on the multi-coloured pie that breakdown presumably includes “transport of prisoners.”
What prisoners?
There was one and only one “prisoners.” Note the plural.
This MUST be Perry. Who else but Perry was a “prisoner”?
That begs the question: What inquiry costs did the inquiry incur to “transport” Perry? And why did the inquiry pick up the tab?
(3) Another thing. Take time to look at that multi-coloured pie, and then look at the figures in the article.
(i) I get a total of $58+M when I add the pie (Direct costs of CPI) to the $30M stated legal fees. That brings the inquiry total to just shy of $60M. Do I have that right?
(ii) Note the Orange section. The text is cut off but it is “Legal costs and disbursements” 32.34% $9,280, 807. That I do believe would be the monies spent by the inquiry for the runs back and forth to Divisional Court to argue this motion, that motion or the other (usually related to Father Charles MacDonald or the Diocese) PLUS the legal fees incurred to have Perry charged and convicted .
$12M!!!!
To defend the indefensible and put Perry behind bars.
More well feathered nests there.
(iii) Note the $928,209.00 for facilities lease and rental. The Weave Shed did not come cheap. Another nest well feathered there.
(iv) And $745,000 to put out the final report!
(4) Finally, look at this:
The ministry said it was unable to release the detailed breakdown for the parties that were not Ontario government parties without giving them the opportunity to object, consent or make submissions to the information and privacy commissioner.
Why should those who spent the dollars not be accountable to those whose pockets they picked, namely those of the taxpayers of Ontario? Why should Father Charles MacDonald, or the Diocese, or any party with standing and funding for that matter, have final say in informing the public how its monies were spent? They were luck enough to get funding. That should be it. They used tax payers dollars, the tax payers have a right to know how their money was spent.
This is ridiculous!
Enough for now
Sylvia
The costs associated with the inquiry, in my opinion, began to spiral out of control almost from the get-go. The Weave Shed has got be among the most expensive locations in which to set up shop for a long-term engagement such as the inquiry. The number of staff members should have been cut by about 25 per cent. The amount of money spent on things like photocopying and printing should have been chopped in half. Parties should have been provided with electronic copies of all inquiry documents and forced to incur printing costs themselves. I know this was done in the case of many documents, but it should have and could have been in more. Of course the biggest costs were related to legal fees charged by the army of lawyers hired by the various parties. I think one thing that irked me was the fact many of the lawyers and the commissioner himself filed expense reports for large amounts of money. Many lawyers, as well as the commissioner, stayed in Ottawa and drove to and from Cornwall for the hearings … not to mention the cost associated with the dozens and dozens of dozens of flights between Cornwall and Sudbury to get the commissioner to and from his home.
We will likely never know the exact cost of the inquiry down to the dollar and we will certainly never know exactly how all that money was spent. At the end of the day, knowing what we know now, it’s a reasonable argument to suggest we all would have been better off if the provincial government had taken half of that cash and used it to provide more services to victims of abuse in Cornwall.