November 04, 2004

Seaway News

Mr. Brownell, Where Are You?
I was surprised and disappointed that our member of the Ontario Parliament, Jim Brownell, who professes support for an inquiry, is not outraged at Premier Dalton McGuinty’s breaking his commitment to finishing the hard work that former police Constable Perry Dunlop, former Ottawa West-Nepean MPP and Tory maverick Gary Guzzo, and other respected members of our community started and calling for an immediate, full, and independent public inquiry into the sexual abuse of our children, whose alleged perpetrators were frequently able to escape conviction on technicalities. I was equally outraged that Mr. Brownell again refused to speak up when Premier McGuinty insisted that Cornwall residents show support via a referendum (whose timeframe and question have yet to be specified) prior to any sort of inquiry, in spite of the fact that a petition demanding an inquiry received over 12,000 signatures while a counter-petition barely received 100. This blatant flip-flopping is a far cry from the Premier’s condemnation of his government’s Progressive Conservative predecessor for insisting that the Leduc trial end before any sort of inquiry be considered.
It is thus apparent that Premier McGuinty’s strategy is to set area residents against one another in a pathetic attempt to cover up his outright unwillingness to keep his word. Meanwhile, Mr. Brownell has again said nothing about Queen’s Park’s plan to divide our community. While I and may others in this community hope that Mr. Brownell will finally crank up the heat on the Premier should he limit the scope of any inquiry or refuse to call one at all, I’m certainly not holding my breath, having gotten used to our lack of representation from Mr. Brownell.
Josh Frappier
Cornwall