Ontario's high-level conspiracy. (News Link)

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2345126

CORNWALL, Ont. -- Police, government, the Catholic Church and other institutions failed miserably to respond to decades of alleged and real child sexual abuse by Cornwall probation officers, clergy, teachers and others, a public inquiry has found.

In a devastating 2,400-page report, Cornwall inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude found a combination of systemic failures, insensitivity to historic abuse complaints and an official reluctance to act. The situation was compounded by well-intentioned but misinformed politicians and shallow, inadequate media coverage that fuelled public mistrust, speculation and innuendo.

"Institutions were reluctant to be forthright and own up to mistakes, fearing scandal or criticism more than they feared the breach of their duty to the vulnerable and the public," Mr. Glaude said in a 75-minute address on Tuesday unveiling his four-volume report.

"For some, this resulted in revictimization by the institutions from whom they sought help. The response of institutions became a further source of harm."

Mr. Glaude called on the province to enact 235 recommendations. He wants the four institutions that employed suspected and confirmed perpetrators -- the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, the diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario and the Upper Canada District School Board -- to publicly appeal for other potential victims to come forward and offer counselling.

The other recommendations range from improved sexual-assault training for police and others to a $5-million, five-year "reconciliation trust" to fund local support programs for victims and education and awareness initiatives.

Mr. Glaude's exhaustive recounting of the scandal, which surfaced in 1994, based on abuse dating back decades, is made all the more awful by the report's details of the suicides of two alleged abusers and the drunken homicide of a young man just hours after he and several other young men consumed beer at the home of a corrupt Cornwall probation officer and sexual predator.

In January 1994, word of a $32,000 non-disclosure agreement became public between Alexandria-Cornwall Catholic diocese and former altar boy David Silmser, including an illegal deal preventing Mr. Silmser from pursuing criminal charges against his alleged abuser, Rev. Charles MacDonald.

Though a subsequent investigation of the Silmser complaint by Cornwall police was "deeply flawed," the aging priest was eventually charged with 13 sex crimes against seven males from 1967-83. But the case was stayed by a judge in 2002 because of "unreasonable delays" in prosecuting Rev. MacDonald.

The Silmser revelation also helped trigger the Ontario Provincial Police-led Project Truth investigation. Fifteen people including doctors, lawyers and Catholic priests were arrested on 114 charges. Only one was convicted.

The questions left unanswered led the Ontario government to create the Cornwall inquiry in an attempt to put the matter to rest.

Yet after nearly four years of hearings, 167 witnesses, 3,640 written exhibits and an estimated $50-million cost, the prime question remains: was a pedophile ring comprised of prominent Cornwall citizens engaged in ritualistic sexual abuse of vulnerable youths and men?

Citing the inquiry's narrow mandate prohibiting criminal or civil blame, Mr. Glaude deflected the issue on Tuesday.

"Throughout this inquiry I have heard evidence that suggested there were cases of joint abuse, passing of alleged victims, and possibly passive knowledge of abuse," he wrote. "I want to be very clear that I am not going to make a pronouncement on whether a ring existed or not."

But Mr. Glaude made it clear he found no evidence of any cover-ups or conspiracies within or between institutions.

Instead, the report said local institutions were ill-equipped to deal with allegations about their own employees, whether a probation office, teacher, priest or childcare worker, and acted defensively and often in self-interest.

They "tried to find a way out" and allowed potential abusers to stay on the job, "under ineffective conditions that failed to protect the vulnerable or allowing employees to leave with conduct undocumented," Mr. Glaude said. "This passed the risk to other work places or other communities."

Mr. Glaude singled out the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services for particular censure. The report described how the ministry took no action against a Cornwall probation supervisor and another employee who failed to properly report two former probation officers had engaged in sexual and other improprieties with young probationers.

Senior ministry officials, Mr. Glaude concluded, ruled out disciplining the employees because, in large part, the officials feared resulting workplace grievances, the scandalous details of which could become public and embarrassment the government.

He found faults, too, with Cornwall police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall for responding ineptly to sex abuse allegations dating back to the early 1980s.

"When police investigations did occur, co-operation from the diocese was grudging and guarded. All this understandably exacerbated perceptions that ‘there was something to hide,'" Mr. Glaude reported.

He directed a long list of "errors of the past" at the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Children's Aid Society of Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario and the Upper Canada District School Board.

"When faced with allegations of historical abuse, institutions were ill-equipped," he said in his remarks to about 200 officials, residents, victims and their families. "They did not understand the serious impact of abuse, or about responses typical of boys and young men. They did not give priority to historic complaints, because they were historic. They said: ‘What's the hurry?' They did not understand the conduct of survivors, who were often rendered inarticulate or silent by shame and guilt and were sometimes aggressive, anxious, fearful and inconsistent.

"Many institutions were suspicious of the motivations of historical reporters. They asked: ‘Were they just in it for the money, were they mentally ill?' Lack of training, particularly in the area of historical abuse and abuse of boys and young men, hampered even well-intentioned individuals.

"Just as there was limited understanding of potential victims, there was limited understanding of potential abusers. This meant institutions failed to recognize the ‘grooming' behaviour of ‘nice guys' with high-status jobs or established positions in the community."

Some institutions, such as the Children's Aid Society, has better understanding of such matters than others, he said. "But in situations where inter-agency consultation would have helped, local institutions were rarely on the same page, much less on the same team."

Mr. Glaude recalled how many people believed that the 1997 Project Truth was to investigate the larger issue of whether there was an endemic problem of sexual abuse in the Cornwall area and whether prominent citizens were conspiring to cover up such abuse.

But, "this was not what Project Truth did." Rather, it investigated some individual cases but, "not as part of an interconnected whole."

The OPP, "failed to define their own active investigation but reacted to issues defined by those outside the investigation," including a renegade Cornwall police officer, Const. Perry Dunlop. "They did not purse all available evidence by contacting individuals with relevant information and obtaining available documents."

Police concluded Project Truth by saying there was no pedophile ring in Cornwall.

But Mr. Glaude concluded since, "they did not investigate this, they could not have reasonably come to this conclusion. This does not mean that I find there was a ring of pedophiles. It is not my role to make such a finding. But I do find that no investigation provided conclusive evidence on this point."

He noted, too, that the project's single conviction doesn't tell the whole story. Of the 14 other suspects, one was convicted on a number of unrelated abuse-related charges, though not related to Project Truth. Another priest was acquitted on Project Truth charges but convicted on other charges in Quebec as a result of the work done by Project Truth officers.

Three others also were found not guilty after trials. Four suspects died before their trials. In four other cases, the Crown withdrew charges prior to trial. Charges against a third priest and another suspect were withdrawn because their alleged victims were too ill or unwilling to proceed.

Mr. Glaude appeared to take special care when considering the actions of Dunlop who disclosed the illegal $32,000 settlement between Silmser and the church to the local Children's Aid Society. Later, in June 1996, he launched a lawsuit against his own police department, the local diocese and others, claiming $40 million in damages. For that, he was charged under the Police Services Act and was subsequently off work or on sick leave. Around the same time, however, Dunlop began speaking to witnesses and alleged victims about the alleged abuse. Mr. Glaude found that Dunlop later attempted to circulate information to the media and others supporting his contention of police and other were conspiring to keep a lid sexual abuse by prominent individuals.

Dunlop refused to testify at the inquiry and was served a seven-month jail term for contempt of court.

"I have been asked to find that Perry Dunlop is a hero. And that he is a villain," Mr. Glaude said Tuesday. "I do neither."

"In reporting suspicions of sexual abuse by Father Charles MacDonald to the Children's Aid Society, Const. Perry Dunlop then acted in a manner consistent with his duty. His perception that his employers was unfairly sanctioning him because of this, led to a complete breakdown in trust between Const. Dunlop and justice institutions."

But Mr. Dunlop's, "actions in conducting unauthorized investigations and the strained relationship with police and the ministry of the attorney general resulted in cases being stayed.

"Wrongly, Mr. Dunlop had begun to act on the premise that the ‘ends justify the means.' Mr. Dunlop's failure to . . . testify at this inquiry were the ultimate manifestation of this ingrained pattern of mistrust for justice institutions."

However, neither Bartolucci nor Attorney General Chris Bentley, who shared the podium at a Queen's Park news conference Tuesday afternoon, would commit to implementing any of the 234 recommendations in the report.

Mr. Bentley said he had only received the report 24 hours before it was publicly released. "We will be moving in whatever ways we need to," he said.

Mr. Bartolucci noted Mr. Glaude's decision to make no conclusion concerning a possible Cornwall pedophile ring.

"It would have been our hope that everyone's questions would have been answered," he said. "But at the end of the day, having had to live the experiences that those individuals had to live, I'm sure that no matter how thorough this report could have been -- in some people's eyes, there would have still been questions."

With files from Lee Greenberg and Megan Hurley.


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Some of the report's recommendations include:

• Record keeping of incidents should be improved;

• An internal investigation is needed if a probation or parole officer is suspected or has been charged with sexual assault or abuse;

• The ministry should consult with justice partners, police and Crown attorneys to develop a protocol for sharing information regarding allegations of sexual abuse or assault;

• The ministry should make a public appeal, urging victims to come forward;

• Police should ensure that historical sexual assault cases are a high priority and treated with the same urgency as recent cases;

• Training on sexual assault or abuse should be part of regular police training;

• Police should offer support to victims and their families;

• A directive should be developed that requires police to inform public and religious institutions and justice partners that an allegation of sexual assault or abuse has been made against one of their employees;

• Bishops, priests, employees and volunteers should encourage people who disclose sexual abuse or assault to report the allegation to police;

• The Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall should have rigorous procedures for evaluating candidates it plans to present for study at the seminary.

The inquiry was called in 2005 and testimony started in February 2006. In October 2008, Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley ordered the inquiry to finish testimony by the end of January.


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Timeline:

1992: A former altar boy complains of being assaulted more than two decades earlier by a Cornwall priest, Rev. Charles MacDonald, and a probation officer. He drops the charges after receiving a $32,000 cash settlement from the diocese.

1994: Const. Perry Dunlop, of the Cornwall police force's drug squad, learns of the settlement and leaks the information to the Children's Aid Society, going public with the allegations. The Ontario Provincial Police launches its own investigation and late that year announces it has no grounds to lay charges against MacDonald. More complaints are made and stories emerge about abuses by prominent members of the community, dating back to the 1950s and ‘60s. Dunlop, is charged with, and eventually cleared of, leaking the details of the settlement. He goes on stress leave for three years.

1996: MacDonald is charged with seven counts of indecent assault against three altar boys. The incidents were alleged to have occurred from 1968-72, while MacDonald was a priest at St. Columban's Church.

1997: On returning to work, Dunlop hands over 10 banker's boxes of evidence to the Ontario government and the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services.

July 1997: The OPP begins investigating allegations of a decades-old pedophile ring, whose members could include top area officials and Roman Catholic clergymen.

September 1997: Eighteen people from Cornwall, including clergy and "public officials," are under investigation for alleged sex crimes spanning 40 years, police announce, dubbing the investigation Project Truth. Police say they already have more than 350 people to interview, including alleged victims and witnesses

January 1998: MacDonald is arrested and charged with sex-related offences, relating to complaints from five males. The incidents are alleged to have occurred from 1967-83. He already faces trial on seven previous counts of indecent assault dating to 1968.

July 1998: Cornwall police charge seven men - including two priests and a third church official - with indecent assault and gross indecency. Police say 12 males between the ages of 12 and 18 were sexually assaulted by men connected to the Roman Catholic Church in the Cornwall area between the early 1950s and the early 1970s.

March 1999: Two more men, including a prominent businessman and a former Crown attorney, are charged in the Cornwall investigation. The pair is joined by three men who had been charged previously by OPP officers assigned to Project Truth.

July 2000: Dunlop leaves the Cornwall police force and moves to British Columbia.

October 2000: Garry Guzzo, the Conservative MPP representing Ottawa West-Nepean introduces a private member's bill calling for a commission to look into whether police exercised "a reasonable degree of diligence" in their investigation of child sex abuse in the Cornwall area. The bill dies in the legislature in December 2000.

May 2001: The Ontario solicitor general tells the legislature that more charges are possible in the alleged Cornwall pedophile case and that the provincial government has not "fully closed" the book on the investigations. Guzzo vows to "name names" of the "kingpins" of the alleged pedophile ring in the legislature.

June 2001: A sexual predator pleads guilty to 12 attacks on 10 young males - the first conviction from a police investigation into the alleged pedophile ring, although he had not been a target of Project Truth investigation.

August 2001: Guzzo says evidence that would have proven the existence of a pedophile ring in Cornwall was illegally destroyed by the OPP years ago.

August 2001: At the end of the four-year long Project Truth investigation, the OPP announces it can find no evidence to substantiate allegations from at least 69 complainants that prominent members of the Cornwall community conspired to sexually prey on young boys over four decades. Four accused died before they could be tried, three were found not guilty, six had their cases either stayed or dropped.

May 2002: The former Catholic priest at the heart of sex abuse allegations has his charges stayed when a judge ruled Crown delays breached his right to a timely trial. MacDonald had been charged with 13 sex crimes against seven males under the OPP's Project Truth.

July 2002: Cornwall City Council unanimously passes a resolution asking the provincial government to call a full public inquiry into the alleged pedophile ring in Cornwall.

November 2004: Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announces that a public inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse in Cornwall will be held.

June 2005: Justice Normand Glaude, the judge appointed to lead an inquiry into an alleged Cornwall sex abuse ring, says he will maintain his post, despite reports two of the supposed victims are his great-nephews.

February 2006: Testimony begins in the Cornwall inquiry.

September 2007: Dunlop is dismissed after his refusal to testify at the probe into the official response to allegations of sexual abuse of children. Dunlop says in a statement that he had "been lied to and forced to be here today." And "I have no faith in the Ontario justice system."

November 2007: Guzzo tells the inquiry that his 2001 threats to "name names" of alleged Cornwall sex abuse perpetrators in the Ontario legislature were never serious.

January 2008: The RCMP executes a Canada-wide warrant for Dunlop in Duncan, B.C., and arrest him in front of about 75 supporters.

March 2008: Dunlop, who insists he is the victim of a widespread and high-level conspiracy to protect pedophiles, is sentenced to jail for contempt of court.

July 2008: A former lawyer for the Alexandria-Cornwall Catholic diocese tells the public inquiry that he failed to read the final version of the 1993 $32,000 non-disclosure agreement between the former altar boy and MacDonald.

October 2008: Dunlop is sentenced to another 30 days in jail after being convicted of criminal contempt for repeatedly refusing court orders to testify at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

January 2009: After almost three years, $53 million and some 175 witnesses, the Cornwall inquiry into the institutional response to allegations of historic sexual abuse hears from its final witness.

Canwest News Service with files from Liisa Tuominen



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