Summer is rapidly drawing to a close – time to get back at my regular blogging 🙂 I will start with upcoming court dates. After a lull of a couple of weeks, there are five courtdates scheduled for next week:
(1) Father William Hodgson Marshall
Tuesday 04 September 2012: 09:30 am, courtroom #10, Windsor Ontario courthouse, “to take a plea” (?)/”to be spoken to.”
As far as I know Father Marshall is still in jail serving time for his previous convictions. The last I heard was that he waived his right for further parole board review and is scheduled for release 08 October 2012.
This pending 04 September court date is related to the sex abuse charges from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan which were transferred to Ontario. Some may recall that there was a ‘sweet deal’ of some sort involved in the last charges which assured Marshall that no further charges would be laid in Ontario in exchange for a guilty plea. The Saskatchewan allegations fell beyond the scope of the deal. Charges were laid in Saskatchewan February 2012 and shortly thereafter the entire file was transferred to and is now being dealt with in Ontario.
Marshall’s 20 July court-date was supposed “to take a plea.” His lawyer Andrew Bradie asked that the case be put over so that he has time to discuss new developments.
What the new developments are is an unknown, however the court docket indicates that two matters will be dealt with in court this coming Tuesday.
Is there still a possibilty that Father Marshall will enter a plea on Tuesday 04 September 2012? I suppose there is. It’s hard to know what is going on here.
The thought has been that either Marshall will enter a guilty plea and have a sentence which will run concurrent to the last few days he has in jail, or that Andrew Bradie will argue something to the effect that Marshall has served every day of his two-year sentence and therefore it would be cruel and unusual punishment to subject him to any further time in jail.
We shall see.
There is a good chance that Father Marshall will not be present in person but may, as was the case on 20 July 2012, be ‘present’ via video teleconference.
All you people in the Windsor area who are free to attend be sure to mark your calendars.
(2) Father John Sullivan
Tuesday 04 September 2012: 09:30 am, courtroom #101, North Bay, Ontario court house (360 Plouffe Street), “to be spoken to.”
Father Sullivan now lives in Montreal, Quebec and was not present for his last North Bay court date. I could be mistaken but highly doubt that he will be there this time. This will probably be another case of setting another date.
(3) Father Jean-Claude Lefebvre
Tuesday 04 September 2012: 10 am, for “an application” at the Sudbury, Ontario courthouse (155 Elm St.)
I don’t know what the application is about.
(4) Father Joe LeClair
Wednesday, 05 September 2012: 08:30 am, courtroom #5, “to be spoken to,” Ottawa, Ontario courthouse (161 Elgin St.)
This is porbably going conclude quickly with the setting of another date. It is doubtful but possible that Father leClair will be there.
(5) Father Kenneth O’Keefe csb
Thursday, 06 September 2012. This is a pre-trial conference – it is NOT open to the public. Defence lawyer Andrew Bradie, who also represents convicted molester Father William Hodgson Marshall csb, will probably fly in to Ottawa to meet with the Crown and discuss matters with/before a judge. We will probably never be privy to the nature or outcome of these discussions, but there will be a new court date set. I will find out and post the next court dates at the beginning of the following week.
*****
Yesterday I posted a page of further information on Christian Brother and convicted molester Brother Allan Ralph.
This is another of the Christian Brothers of Ireland who molested boys at Mount Cashel orphanage in St. John’s Newfoundland. He is one of the Christian Brothers who, despite knowledge by his superiors and others that he was molesting boys, was not charged for years and, in fact was allowed to continue teaching children in Ontario and the West Indies.
Bother Ralph was first reported to the Christian Brothers in 1970. He was given the boot from Mount Cashel, but was allowed to continue teaching at St. Patrick’s High School in St. John’s, Newfoundland. He also led a scout troop in the city.
Shortly after Brother Douglas Kenny became Superintended at Mount Cashel Brother Allan Ralph was back at the orphanage. Kenny, as it turned out, was also a child molester and was later charged and convicted.
Brother Ralph was one of the brothers identified by police in 1975 as a molester. The investigating officer was set to arrest both Brother Ralph and Brother Edward English, but was prevented from doing so by then police chief John Lawlor and his assistant, John Norman. According to testimony at the Hughes Inquiry and elsewhere the then Newfoundland Deputy Minister of Justice made a deal with a Christian Brother by name of Brother Gabriel McHugh not to lay charges if Brothers Edward English and Allan Ralph were ordered out of Newfoundland. The police were then advised not to lay charges.
By way of interest here, John Lawlor’s son, also named John Lawlor, was once a member of the Christian Brothers. Lawlor jr was charged in the mid 90s and and acquitted in 1999 in relation to allegations of sex abuse at Mount Cashel in the early 60s when the was a member of the Christian Brothers.
Anyway, the deal was made and Brother Ralph was dutifully packed off – and no doubt happily so – to elude charges and justice. He landed in Ontario where he spent time at a Christian Brother residence. That was 1975.
In early 1976 Ralph was somewhat belatedly packed off to Southdown in Aurora , Ontario. According to court documents, this was for treatment “in connection with his sexual activities with young boys.” He spent two months at Southdown.
By October 1978 Brother Ralph was back teaching and in constant contact with children. Ralph taught in schools in Ontario and the West Indies until 1989 when he was finally and mercifully arrested and brought to justice.
Ralph, like other Christian Brothers who would have had important testimony regarding the manner in which the Christian Brothers of Ireland and others handled and covered-up the sex abuse of the boys of Mount Cashel, was not obliged to testify at the Hughes Inquiry, the claim being that to do so would jeopardize his right to a fair trial.
It is I think of interest and worthy of note here that not one real or “alleged” molester was obliged to testify at the Cornwall Public Inquiry. And it wasn’t because they had trials pending and hence their right to a far trial would have been jeopardized.
Yes, it’s true that lawyer and Church Canon lawyer Jacques Leduc took the stand, but questions regarding the sex abuse allegations, charges against him and subsequent “trial” and stay were not permitted. But, yes, he did testify for five days regarding, amongst other things, the role he as a canon lawyer for the church played in the illegal pay-off of David Silmser. But, …nothing about the allegations against him. There were many other real or ‘alleged’ sexual predators who could and should have been called and obliged to testify to tell what they know. It was, however, their choice. None opted to take the stand.
(For those unfamiliar with the Hughes Inquiry was a royal commission launched in 1989 to investigate allegations of obstruction of justice regarding the sex abuse of boys by the Christian Brothers at Mount Cashel.)
As I was putting the information together on Brother Ralph I see that there were new charges laid against him in 1993. I can find nothing regarding the outcome of those charges. Were these further charges related to Mount Cashel? or were they perhaps related to sex abuse of children after he relocated to Ontario? Does anyone know anything about this?
*****
Speaking of Christian Brothers, Brother Douglas Kenny, who also fled Newfoundland in 1975 as part of the get out/no charges deal, later married a Presentation Sister (sister with the religious order known as the Presentation Sisters).
I am now working on the Brother Thomas Cuthbert Ford page. From what I can see the charges against him were those of physical abuse of Mount Cashel Residents. Once I have the information together I will post and make note of the posting. That will leave one of the fourteen Christian Brothers charged to profile and the three others who were charged in relation to the Mount Cashell scandal, including ex-Christian-Brother John Lawlor.
Enough for now,
Sylvia
It will never change, will it Sylvia. I can see Hodgson’s lawyer crying “cruel and unusual punishment” if the poor Father should have to stay in jail beyond his two paltry years.
What I find is “cruel and unusual punishment” is the way the Roman Catholic Church let “Happy Hands” continue with his deviant work for so many years, wrecking people like Patrick and Jerry (among many others). “Happy Hands” has left a trail of destruction behind him, worse than Katrina.
“Happy Hands” bosses are the ones who should be in jail. Mike.
I believe it will change Mike – someday. I’m not sure that I will be around to see it, but it will change. As it stands the law of the land does not reflect the will of the people. People do NOT want these predators out and about after a gentle little “Tut. Tut. Boy boy” on the back of the hand. We Catholics have been forced to put up with recycled predatory clergy in our sanctuaries – and those who decide the risk to children and insult to our God, faith and Church is inconsequential simultaneously and unilaterally decide that we the faithful do not have the right to know that “Father” is a convicted or known predator. Likewise we the unwashed masses are forced to put up with convicted child molesters running foot-loose-and-fancy-free in our communities, and those who decide such risk to children is inconsequential simultaneously decide that we do not have the right to know where these predators live and work.
It will change. One day it will change. How can it not? We can not on one hand profess undying love for the children of the nation while on the other consistently allow those very children to be wilfully placed at risk.
And yes, Mike, I agree with you 100% – the day must come when those who covered up for these predators and/or obstructed justice to protect them are charged. I honestly believe that day will come too. How can it not? How can a so-called civilized society not do what must be done to protect its youngest and most vulnerable members? What sort of society places greater value on the good feelings and well-being of child molesters than it does on the safety and well-being of its children?
*Sylvia, it will be difficult only because most Catholics do not wish to challenge the leadership of globe-trotting, monry-spending, high-rolling Bishops, especially here in Canada.
We are like mushrooms- as long as we are fed a serving of s–t, we are willing stay in the shade.
Yes Many Catholics have become embolded in the last few years, but most of the rest either do care or do not want to know just how rotten the Administration of the Catholic Church has become. I have to laugh when I here the Bishops operate in the tradition of the Apostles ! What rubbish! Many Bishops I have known were so full of their own self-importance , they have NO intention of carrying out their duties. So many of them are complete imposters!God knows this, and HE will deal with it- sometime soon I think.