I have it as ready as it’s going to be: COLUMBUS BOYS’ CAMP
I must say I found this suprisingly difficult to work on. Not difficult in the sense of the digging around to try to get information on the camp, but the thoughts which kept running through my mind. Little seven-, eight- and nine-year-old boys – needy little boys – shipped off the camp to presumably have the holiday of their little lives. The very possibility that Robert Whyte was on site with those little lads just torments me. That’s Robert Whyte, the seminarian. What of Father Robert Whyte the priest? Was he ‘ministering’ to little boys at the camp too? Was Father Robert Whyte the convicted child molester ministering to those vulnerable little boys?
What of the camp counsellors? Were those young lads – high school students – “safe”?
We know Father Leo Campbell “ministered” at the camp. Was that only after he was ordained? or was he busily ministering to needy little boys at Columbus Boys’ Camp while he was a seminarian?
And what of Father Hod Marshall?
True, while Father Marshall has been charged he has not yet been tried. And true enough Father Leo Campbell died shortly after sex abuse allegations against him were reported to his superiors.
No matter. The very possibility that Whyte alone was sashaying around those little boys as a seminarian did it for me. That was enough to make me shudder. How terribly vulnerable those children were and are.
Anyway, if anyone has any further information on the Columbans Boys’s Camp pro or con please send me an email or post a comment at the bottom of the article.
****
I just today found out that Father Eric Dejaeger omi, Canada’s Oblate fugitive molester, served the grand total of about 18 months of a five-year-sentence.
Look at this:
April 1990: sentenced to five years. (Guilty plea to nine charges of sexual assault and indecent assault, committed over a period of seven years in Baker Lake involving eight different victims both male and female. Charges included repeated acts of sodomy of two young boys. The sexual abuse of the boys began when they were between the ages of 8 and 12.)
December 1990: convicted on another series of charges related to sex abuse of a boy and a girl. Sentenced to another year – to run concurrently!!
August 1991: requested probation
September 1991: out on probation!!!!
The man served about 18 months of a five year sentence!
Unbelievable!!
And then more charges …..and Dejaeger bolted for his native land. He’s been nestled away in Belgium ever since. A fugitive from justice. Protected by his fellow Oblates, both here and abroad.
Correction. No. He hasn’t been nestled away in Belgium ever since. This fugitive from justice and convicted child molester had the audacity to minister to pilgrims at Lourdes. And his fellow Oblates had the audacity to let him!
I am told that Dejaeger and at least some of his fellow Oblates believe that he served his time! How any of them can draw that conlusion is beyond me. Dejaeger didn’t even serve his time when he ‘did his time.’
This man needs to be escorted back to Canada to face his accusers. I fervenlty pray that the almighty dollar does not stand in the way of having him extradited. Granted it it will cost money to have him transported, but I doubt that it will cost a penney more than it cost the Ontario Attorney General to have former Constable Perry Dunlop hauled back for the Cornwall Public Inquiry. If there was money in public coffers to go after Perry there surely must be dollars somewhere to go after the likes of an Eric Dejaeger.
There should be other charges too, should there not? Contempt of court for starters?
And what of the Canadain Oblates who feigned knowledge of Dejaeger’s whereabouts? Is that obstruction of justice?
****
Father Hod Marshall csb can sit back and relax. Everything is on hold now until 08 September 2010. By the sound of things, disclosure issues.
Another six weeks.
Delay. Delay. Delay.
That’s the name of the “alleged” clerical molesters defence game. Delay. Delay. Delay.
If this carries on former student’s comment that “the plan is to have these things drag out until hod dies or becomes sick enough that he is not fit to stand trial” may prove prophetic.
Meanwhile Marshall, an “alleged” molester, enjoys his freedom.
Why am I convinced that if Hod were behind bars pending trial he wouldn’t be too keen on a delay tactic like this?
Enough for now,
Sylvia
(contact me at cornwall@theinquiry.ca)