OPP Officer Lashes Out At Inquiry

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OPP officer lashes out at inquiry, Engelmann
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A retired Ontario Provincial Police officer delivered a scathing critique Monday of the Cornwall Public Inquiry in general, and its lead commision counsel in particular.

Reading from a prepared statement, Det. Insp. Pat Hall compared the long-running sexual abuse inquiry to his own work with Project Truth, the OPP's four-year probe into allegations a clandestine ring of pedophiles operated in the Cornwall area.

“During the past week, I have been continuously asked why various investigations took so long,” Hall told inquiry commissioner Normand Glaude.

“Mr. Commissioner, why is this inquiry taking so long?”

Hall then suggested the commissioner should not have chosen “labour lawyer” Peter Engelmann as its main counsel, when “all the matters surrounding this inquiry are criminal in nature.”

Engelmann is a partner with Ontario labour law firm Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, and is described on the inquiry's website as a “leading labour, human rights, and employment lawyer” in Canada.

Hall also saved some vitriol for Queen's Park, which has announced that testimony at the inquiry – which has been hearing witnesses since February 2006 – must wrap up by the end of January.

“It's a sad day when politics calls for an inquiry, and politics shuts it down,” said Hall.

“There should be an inquiry into the conduct of this inquiry.”

For the full story, see Tuesday's Standard-Freeholder.