333 Amelia Street,
Cornwall, ON
K6H 3P4
April 07, 1997
The Honourable Robert Runciman
Solicitor General and Minister of Correctional Services
25 Grosvenor Street, 11th floor
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6
Re: Request for a criminal investigation of the Cornwall Police Service
My name is Constable Perry Dunlop of the Cornwall Police Service. I have served the Cornwall community for 14 years and was named police officer of the year in -1987 and 1991. I presently live in Cornwall with my wife and three children.
I am writing to inform you of what I believe to be corrupt practices within the Cornwall Police Service which render it incapable of pursuing any credible investigation into a group of pedophiles active in the community and surrounding area.
In December of 1992, a 35 year old male notified the Cornwall Police Service that he wanted to make a formal complaint alleging sexual assault that began when he was a 12 year old alter boy at St. Columban’s Catholic Church in Cornwall. The victim “D.S.” accused Father Charles Macdonald of St Andrews Parish outside of Cornwall, and Ken Seguin, then a Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services probation officer working in Cornwall.
In September of 1993, I became aware of these allegations and made inquiries with Detective Sergeant Luc Brunet and Senior Crown Attorney
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Murray Macdonald as to the disposition of the complaint. I was told that a money settlement had been reached between the complainant “D.S.” and the Roman Catholic Church and I was told to “back off.” As is required by section 72 of the Child and Family Services Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C. 11, I notified the Children’s Aid Society by forwarding a copy of the statement made by the victim “D.S.” to Mr. Richard Abell on September 29, 1993.
In January 1994, details of the story emerged in the Ottawa media. The Liberal justice critic, Robert Chiarelli, on two different occasions, asked then Attorney General Marion Boyd to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate allegations of a cover-up in Cornwall. For several months, I was investigated by my own police department and many of my colleagues ostracized me. I was under a great deal of pressure from both my employer and the media. As of January, 1994 I have been on disability leave.
In May of 1994, I was charged with these Police Service Act offenses.
1. Discreditable Conduct: “did act in a disorderly manner, or in a manner prejudicial to discipline or likely to bring discredit upon the reputation of the Police Force, in that … you did provide a copy of a statement to … a representative of the Children’s Aid Society.”
2. Breach of Confidence: “you did divulge a matter which it was your duty to keep secret”
3 Breach of Confidence: “without proper authority, show to Mr Richard Abell, a representative of the Children’s Aid Society, being a person who is not a member of the Cornwall Police Service, a statement obtained from (“D.S.”)”
The circumstances surrounding these charges and the alleged cover-up by the Cornwall Police became an issue in both the local and national media. The CBC “5th Estate” broadcast a 30 minute piece, nationally, in December 1995, again in the summer of 1996, and most recently in February of 1997. Mr. John Cleary MPP presented a petition, signed by more than 9400 citizens from Cornwall, to the Ontario Legislature on November 21, 1995 in support of my actions to protect children from sexual abuse.
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All Police Act charges against me were dismissed at a hearing in Ottawa in September of 1994 yet the case was carried further. The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal in December of 1995 and I was completely exonerated.
In February of 1995, the lawyer who represented the priest, Father Macdonald, was charged with Obstruct Justice by the OPP as a result of his participation in the $32,000 settlement received by the victim “D.S.” Malcolm Macdonald, Q.C. was found guilty in an Ottawa court and received an absolute discharge.
In August of 1995, a Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services probation officer, Nelson Barque, was sentenced to four months in jail after pleading guilty to sexual assault charges. At Barque’s sentencing, the victim in the case made reference to Ken Seguin. He said: “When the incident happened I didn’t know what to do, and I went to his supervisor, who was Ken Seguin, and Ken Seguin also molested me. I went through a period in my youth when I was very suicidal. I didn’t understand why these men had chosen me.”
In March of 1996, the priest Charles Macdonald was finally charged by the Ontario Provincial Police with seven counts of sexual assault on three alter boys including the first victim “D.S.”
In June of 1996, I commenced a civil action against the Cornwall Police Service and the Roman Catholic Church. This suit alleges malicious prosecution, negligence, abuse of process and defamation and is an attempt on my part to regain the quality of life my family and I enjoyed prior to September 1993.
In January of 1997, a Cornwall school teacher, Marcel Lalonde, was arrested
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by the OPP on charges of sexual assault, the victims being unidentified young males. In spite of the efforts of local parents, neither the Sacred Heart School, the Catholic Separate School board, nor the Cornwall newspapers reported this arrest to the community. I am reliably informed that the accused has committed similar offenses over a long period of time and that multiple victims have been identified by the OPP and the Cornwall Police. Yet this arrest continues to be hidden from the public. The documents which accompany this letter contain statements made by other sexual abuse victims who identify Father Macdonald, Ken Seguin, Nelson Barque, and Marcel Lalonde as being party to additional allegations of sexual assaults.
The extensive media coverage has given sexual assault victims reason to trust me personally.- Beginning in June; 1996 and continuing to the present, I have been contacted by 14 such victims. All of these individuals have come to me on their -own-volition and none of these did I know personally prior to their approach to me. These victims name 12 different suspects, all current or prior residents of the Cornwall area. Because of his role as Officer in Charge of the provincial Task Force On Child Abuse known as ‘Project Guardian, on the 18th of December 1996, I forwarded to Julian Fantino, Chief of Police, London, Ontario all of the information presented to me by victims up to that date. It is my understanding that Chief Fantino has passed on this information to the OPP.
This letter is to advise you that I now believe that certain officers from the Cornwall Police Service and others responsible for the judicial system in Cornwall have committed the criminal offense of Obstruct Justice in connection with the original allegation of sexual assault involving the priest Father Macdonald. My lawyers received full disclosure at my Police Services Act trial and through the disclosure process I received documents that clearly indicate that:
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(a) prior to the agreed upon $32,000 out-of-court settlement given to the complainant “D.S.”, the Cornwall Police Service had identified and interviewed two additional victims of sexual assault wherein Father Macdonald was named as the suspect. Certainly reasonable and probable grounds had been established at this point to pursue an investigation yet Macdonald was not even interviewed by the Cornwall Police Service;
(b) in an internal memo dated the 8th of January 1993, the Deputy Chief of the Cornwall Police Service identified the investigation as “this could possibly turn into an Alfred type situation,” thereby clearly indicating that he knew of the gravity of the case;
(c) the Cornwall Police Service wrote to the Crown Attorney -advising and describing the out-of-court settlement received by the complainant “D.S.” Other documents indicate that the $32,000 would be “held in escrow” until “advised by the City Police that “D.S.” had attended at the police station and he advised them that he does not want to proceed with any of these charges;”
(d) in spite of an explicit request by the first victim “D.S.” that a male police officer investigate his complaint, the Cornwall Police Service assigned a young, inexperienced, and female officer which is contrary to all known professional procedures involving complaints of this nature;
(e) the officer assigned to investigate the “D.S.” complaint indicates in her notes that long periods of time went by, some as long as four months, when nothing was recorded on the “D.S.” file.
(f) the records indicate that the Cornwall Police never did interview the suspects Father Macdonald and probation officer Ken Seguin.
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(g) despite the majority of offenses occurring within the Cornwall Police Service jurisdiction, to the best of my knowledge, all related sexual offense charges, with the exception of the Barque case, have been laid by the OPP.
My family and I are financially and emotionally bankrupt. We can go no further. We can no longer listen to the agonies of the increasing numbers of victims that arrive at our doorstep or call on the phone. More victims come forward every week. I ask that you conduct a criminal investigation of possible offenses committed by the Cornwall Police Service and others who may have acted in concert to promote a cover-up. I further ask, that a mechanism be established in Cornwall to deal with the needs of sexual assault victims
My concern, as it has been all along, is for the safety of children. I fear for the safety of children in the Cornwall area because of my experiences over the past year. I have not been actively investigating anything. Victims and witnesses have come to my doorstep because of what they had seen and heard in the media. I was not on duty as a police officer and I do not have the resources available to me that a working police officer can call upon at any time. Yet I have stumbled into a horrifying case of multiple victims of sexual assaults. All the victims are young boys.
The individuals that have come forward to me have indicated that they do not trust the Cornwall Police Service to properly investigate their allegations of sexual abuse. What is required is an independent criminal investigation into the conduct of the Cornwall Police Service and it’s handling of the complaints of sexual assault victims.
In light of the Sheldon Kennedy and the Maple Leaf Gardens cases, I report
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to you that Cornwall victims and their families want both justice and closure in these matters. They want to heal themselves. On their behalf as well, I solicit your intervention.
I am sending you all relevant documents connected with this case. Please be assured that I will provide whatever information and assistance that I can, and to whomever you designate to investigate this matter.
Perry Douglas Dunlop
Constable #76
Cornwall Police Service
encl: CBC – 5th Estate “The Man Who Made Waves” video
Four volumes of documents including – press releases, correspondence from lawyers to Cornwall Police Service statements and
affidavits, amended statement of claim,
cort decisions, pictures and synopsis of individuals in Cornwall area several other documents that pertain to this case
cc: Attorney General
Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services