[More Delays – Cornwall Inquiry to run for another year]

CBC Radio

24 November 2006

Another former priest is asking for a publication ban at the Cornwall inquiry.

Until the matter is heard at the inquiry, his name can’t be reported.

Last week, commissioner Normand Glaude turned down a similar request by father Charlie MacDonald, another former member of the Alexandria-Cornwall diocese.

This latest motion is one of several that is slowing the proceedings of the inquiry.

And as Mark Blackburn reports, the inquiry will not finish on time.

Before the Cornwall inquiry held its first session, Peter Engelmann, the lawyer for the commission wanted to know what to expect. So he had a meeting with fellow lawyers from the Ipperwash and Walkerton inquiries.

“I WAS TOLD DON’T WORRY PETER YOU KNOW WE’VE ONLY HAD ONE MOTION IN ONE CASE AND I THINK IN THE OTHER CASE THEY HAD TWO OR THREE”

There have been more than a dozen motions at this inquiry.

Requests for publication bans or having evidence or testimony stricken from the public record are the most common requests.

“I THINK IT SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER OF OUR INQUIRY AND THE LITIGIOUS NATURE OF SOME OF OUR PARTIES”

Anytime a lawyer brings a motion to the commission — it eats up valuable time — interupting a witness or delaying the proceedings.

Gary Guzzo says he still gets a handful of calls from victims every month complaining about how frustrating the process has become.

Guzzo is a former M-P-P who lobbied for this inquiry.

He says these tactics have been used for years.

” WE’VE BEEN FIGHTING DELAYS IN THIS FOR YEARS AND YEARS. VICTIMS HAVE DIED. PERVERTS HAVE DIED. AND YOU KNOW THERE’S A DESIGN HERE TO HAVE THIS WHOLE THING OUT OF THE WAY AND TO SOME EXTENT ITS WORKING”

There’s nothing commission counsel can do about these delays.

To helpd eal with the stress, the inquiry is scaling back its hours starting in January.

And that June 30th deadline is now being pushed back to the fall.

mark blackburn cbc news cornwall