Project Truth Inquiry

The Project Truth Inquiry into how the justice system handled sexual abuse allegations involving doctors, lawyers and priests began in Cornwall on Monday.

The shocking accusations of abuse and a subsequent police coverup spawned in 1992, after a 35-year-old former altar boy came forward saying he had been sexually abused by two Catholic priests in the late 1960s.

The Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese agreed to pay him $32,000 in exchange for a vow of silence. The man then refused to co-operate with police and the investigation was dropped.

But Cornwall police Const. Perry Dunlop later leaked the information to the Children Aid's Society, which made it public and led more victims to come forward.

Dunlop, who resigned from the force in June 2000, was charged with illegally leaking a police document but later exonerated.

From the Ottawa Sun

The Cornwall police, Ottawa police and the OPP took on the case successively, but each claimed there was nothing to find. Public outcry forced the OPP to take another look. It launched Project Truth in 1997, which led to 114 charges against 15 men, including doctors, lawyers and priests, in 2000. The effort resulted in one conviction.

Inquiry's first task from Ottawa Citizen

The first objective of an inquiry that opened today into alleged decades of sexual abuse of young people in Cornwall will be a "broader understanding of the historical, legal and social perspective" of child abuse

The Sun reports on possible new allegations

A public inquiry aimed at finally closing the book on an ugly, age-old chapter of Cornwall history could lead to brand new allegations of wrongdoing that will drag this saga well into the future.

Inquiry hears of lack of services for male victims.

There are 34 sexual assault centres for women in Ontario, none of which have a mandate from the Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General to deal with men, the inquiry heard