Culture of Disinterested Impunity
"Errors of the past" appear decidedly now to have been enabled by 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. What a distinction to carry forward into posterity. Those events of the past have been identified as decades of sexual predation carried out on the children of Cornwall, Ontario, by respected members of society.
The 'errors' refer to the disinterest of the community, the agents of social services, including area police forces, to protect vulnerable children. The errors refer to the cover-ups, the refusal to listen and to believe children when they needed help, and the attitude that it was far better to avoid embarrassment by ignoring the situation, and thus perpetuating it. So that, year over year, greater numbers of children had their lives utterly disrupted, viciously altered; childhood taken hostage to predatory adult 'entitlements'.
"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. I want to be very clear that I am not going to make a pronouncement on whether a ring existed or not." He did, however, make abundantly clear some elements of his findings: "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.'"
Justice Normand Glaude, tasked with conducting an exhaustive investigation into the claims of sexual molestation of children, spent four years on hearing the testimony of 167 witnesses and viewing 3,640 written exhibits, at an estimated cost of $53-million to the taxpayer. The Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services was singled out for particular censure for failing to take action against employees who failed to report sexual improprieties with young probationers.
The Cornwall police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall were all complicit in one way or another of ignoring the legitimate concerns with respect to child molestation, and of their inept response to those allegations dating back almost 30 years. "When faced with allegations of historical abuse, institutions were ill-equipped." The malefactors were, in fact, sheltered, sent elsewhere to continue to prey upon other children.
And so the situation festered, and the children continued to be molested and preyed upon and traumatized.
The 'errors' refer to the disinterest of the community, the agents of social services, including area police forces, to protect vulnerable children. The errors refer to the cover-ups, the refusal to listen and to believe children when they needed help, and the attitude that it was far better to avoid embarrassment by ignoring the situation, and thus perpetuating it. So that, year over year, greater numbers of children had their lives utterly disrupted, viciously altered; childhood taken hostage to predatory adult 'entitlements'.
"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. I want to be very clear that I am not going to make a pronouncement on whether a ring existed or not." He did, however, make abundantly clear some elements of his findings: "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.'"
Justice Normand Glaude, tasked with conducting an exhaustive investigation into the claims of sexual molestation of children, spent four years on hearing the testimony of 167 witnesses and viewing 3,640 written exhibits, at an estimated cost of $53-million to the taxpayer. The Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services was singled out for particular censure for failing to take action against employees who failed to report sexual improprieties with young probationers.
The Cornwall police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall were all complicit in one way or another of ignoring the legitimate concerns with respect to child molestation, and of their inept response to those allegations dating back almost 30 years. "When faced with allegations of historical abuse, institutions were ill-equipped." The malefactors were, in fact, sheltered, sent elsewhere to continue to prey upon other children.
And so the situation festered, and the children continued to be molested and preyed upon and traumatized.
Labels: Human Fallibility, Human Relations, Justice, Ontario
posted by Pieface | 5:32 PM
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