Political Commentary and Opinion
Here are the Archive files posted back then from MP Peter Goldring
RCMP continues to investigate itself
... boys and thousands of assaults by numerous pedophiles, including at least one member of his own New Brunswick RCMP detachment, Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann. ... www.petergoldring.com/press%20releases%202004/ pr040108.htm - 11k - Cached - Similar pages
RCMP continues to investigate itself:
KINGSCLEAR FILES MUST BE SEIZED
BY MINISTER McLELLAN:
GOLDRING WRITES TO DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
EDMONTON, January 8, 2004 – Peter Goldring, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre-East, today wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, to appeal to her to immediately seize the RCMP files relating to their twelve-year investigation of events relating to the sexual abuse of children at the former Kingsclear Training School in New Brunswick. Mr. Goldring has appealed to the Deputy Prime Minister, in her capacity as acting Solicitor General, based on his concerns that the RCMP cannot possibly be objective when investigating one of its own members and the senior RCMP chain of command. Mr. Goldring commented as follows:
Canada’s most senior police officer, RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli, was the Officer in Charge of Criminal Operations in New Brunswick, responsible for the investigation of the Kingsclear New Brunswick Boys School sex scandal that involved hundreds of boys and thousands of assaults by numerous pedophiles, including at least one member of his own New Brunswick RCMP detachment, Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann. Fourteen pedophiles were identified by the abused boys, including RCMP Staff Sergeant McCann. There is also independent evidence of abuse, particularly involving RCMP Staff Sergeant McCann. With the recent decision of the RCMP to close its 12-year investigation without laying any charges, it appears that the Kingsclear investigation is now primarily associated with pedophile sex, lies and cover-up, involving senior members of the RCMP.
I today appeal to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, whose responsibilities include that of the Solicitor General, to forthwith seize the RCMP investigation files of Kingsclear abuse and post-Kingsclear RCMP investigations and to order a full Kingsclear and post-Kingsclear investigation by persons completely separate from the RCMP.
How can RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli continue to be responsible for the Kingsclear investigation files when his own conduct while in New Brunswick may be called into question? Are certain people afraid of what Staff Sergeant McCann knows? These investigation files must be seized by Minister McLellan in order to remove this blight on our national police force of perceptions of cover-up.
(Peter Goldring Letterhead)
EDMONTON
January 7, 2004
Hon. Anne McLellan, PC., MP.
Deputy Prime Minister
306-Justice Building
House of Commons, Ottawa
K1A 0A6
INTRA
Dear Minister McLellan :
Re : Independent Review of Kingsclear and Post-Kingsclear RCMP Investigation Files
I am writing to you in your capacity as acting Solicitor General, and seek your direct intervention to ensure that an independent review is conducted of the RCMP investigations relating to the sexual abuse of children at the former Kingsclear Training School in New Brunswick. The integrity of any police investigation is generally recognized as having been compromised, in circumstances of bias in fact or appearance. The RCMP investigation of allegations of abuse at Kingsclear have caused the RCMP to conclude, after an investigation spanning twelve years, that no further charges should be laid. Fourteen pedophiles were identified by the abused boys, including RCMP Staff Sergeant McCann. There is also independent evidence of abuse, particularly involving RCMP Staff Sergeant McCann. Despite a preponderance of evidence, only one person—notorious pedophile and former guard Karl Toft—has been convicted of any offence.
The most serious issue of bias in appearance, if not in fact, relates to the role of RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli. Prior to his appointment as Canada’s most senior police officer, he was the Officer in Charge of Criminal Investigations in New Brunswick. One of those he was charged with investigating was former RCMP Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann. In my opinion, there is a clear conflict of interest in the RCMP investigating one of its own with respect to multiple allegations of the most reprehensible of sexual abuses against children. These allegations are particularized in a lawsuit commenced in the fall of 2002 by certain victims, including my own constituents. It is to be noted that both Staff Sergeant McCann and the RCMP are both parties to this lawsuit. The federal government and the government of New Brunswick are also parties to this lawsuit. The fact that the RCMP, through then Officer in Charge Zaccardelli, did not excuse itself from investigative responsibilities is a matter that itself requires further inquiry. The fact that the RCMP did not excuse itself from further investigative responsibilities immediately after the commencement of the lawsuit against it by victims is, in my view, inexcusable.
Accordingly, I appeal to you to seize the Kingsclear and post-Kingsclear investigation files currently in the possession of the RCMP and to constitute an independent review panel to assess the investigation into Kingsclear and post-Kingsclear issues. It is difficult for most of us to imagine how it must feel to know that one’s abusers continue to remain unpunished for their crimes. The effects are nonetheless transparent, in the faces and in the testimony of so many children from Kingsclear who were sexually victimized by adults in positions of authority. If further support for an independent review is required, I urge you to review the details of the allegations made in the lawsuit against the RCMP and against Clifford McCann.
I look forward to your early intervention to resolve a long-standing injustice to Kingsclear victims.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
Peter Goldring,
Member of Parliament, Edmonton Centre-East
- The Right Hon. Paul Martin, PC., MP, Prime Minister of Canada
RCMP
... Zaccardelli, who was at the time the head of the criminal operations unit in New Brunswick, transferred RCMP Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann, one of the most ... www.petergoldring.com/press%20releases%202004/ pr040514.htm - 6k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.petergoldring.com ]
RCMP “fake charge” strategy: prepared to lay charges against their own, with intent to stay charges later;
RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli “passed the trash”, while in New Brunswick
GOLDRING: ANNE McLELLAN
MUST ACT ON THE EVIDENCE OR RESIGN
PRIME MINISTER SHOULD REVIEW
BEHAVIOUR OF HIS “STAR” MINISTER
EDMONTON, May 14, 2004—Peter Goldring, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre-East, today called for Prime Minister Martin to review the behaviour of Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan relating to her involvement in RCMP obstruction tactics to mask activities relating to Kingsclear. Mr. Goldring’s comments follow news reports of documents demonstrating that the RCMP is very apprehensive of an independent inquiry or review of its own behaviour relating to Kingsclear—so much so that it had been suggested that charges might be laid solely for the purpose of deflecting public attention. Those charges would then be supposedly stayed by the RCMP themselves, once the issue was no longer of primary public concern. Further information has revealed that current RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli, who was at the time the head of the criminal operations unit in New Brunswick, transferred RCMP Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann, one of the most notorious RCMP pedophiles, rather than charge him, within weeks after being briefed as to the nature and extent of his abuse, a practice referred to as “passing the trash”. Mr. Goldring commented as follows:
One of the victims of Kingsclear who has repeatedly asked for further charges to be laid is Carl Schneider, who is one of Anne McLellan’s own constituents. While civilly accused RCMP pedophile Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann continues to lead a peaceful life in retirement, victims like Carl Schneider are left with a life of turmoil, haunted every day and night with the knowledge that those authority figure adults who hurt and abused them so badly have yet to be charged and punished for their crimes.
It is time for the Prime Minister to personally intervene in this file. The Prime Minister must seize the RCMP Kingsclear and post Kingsclear files and constitute an independent police inquiry to review the conduct of the RCMP at Kingsclear and their investigation into one of their own. The Prime Minister must renew the public confidence in its National Police Force and if charges can be laid, the charges should be laid for the right reasons not to continue the cover-up.
Kingsclear Trail Must be Followed
The Fredericton Daily Gleaner
Date: November 17, 2003
New Brunswick's Kingsclear boys training school affair has been an incredible saga of justice gone awry.
The numbers are staggering, involving no less than 1,400 known sexual assaults, over 35 years, attested to by 233 victims. The victims identified Karl Toft and 14 others. Unbelievably, only one person, Toft, alone atones, with a 13-year sentence greatly shorted by parole.
Toft, who admits to 200 sexual assaults alone, was only subject to 34 charges, relating to 14 boys. Inexplicably, additional charges were stayed. Now in receipt of a government pension for his 35 years of "hard work," Toft walks the streets unescorted, while Edmonton community residents quite justifiably fear for their children's safety, and wonder how this person could possibly be set free.
Canada's weak laws allow many serial, incorrigible pedophiles to return to the street, while in New Brunswick known pedophiles avoid justice altogether. It has been repeatedly made known by the Kingsclear victims that there were many more than just Toft involved in the organized sexual assaults on New Brunswick's disadvantaged youth, yet Canada's justice system strangely remains mute to accusing others.
Even New Brunswick Justice Richard L. Miller, head of the narrowly mandated 1992 Miller Inquiry into the abuse at Kingsclear, spoke out repeatedly in frustration over the inquiry's inability to get to the bottom of the real issue as to who in high government office outside of the Kingsclear institution - were the parasites preying on the boys. Unfortunately (though conveniently for the abusers), the inquiry was not charged with the specific task of carrying out an investigation to that extent.
In the fall of 2002, Edmonton lawyer Casey O'Byrne issued a civil statement of claim, on behalf of four victims, against the RCMP itself and specifically against a former senior member of the RCMP, Staff Sgt. Clifford McCann, who was on active duty during the Kingsclear days.
The accusations are very disturbing and so graphic that the wonderment is why the RCMP did not lay charges long ago. Most sexual assault charges are typically laid based on a single complainant. Accusations such as these should have been answered expeditiously, as confidence in our national police force is at risk.
How could the public now have confidence that the RCMP has fairly concluded its lengthy investigation into the Kingsclear affair and still was impartial, given a civil claim against itself and against one of its former senior members? Furthermore, as exemplified by the following letter extract from the federal solicitor general to me of Dec. 4, 2002, his comments reflect both confusion on his part and further detachment on the part of the RCMP:
"The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in J Division (New Brunswick) has informed me that the investigation was reopened in October, 2001. I have been assured that that RCMP has completed a very thorough investigation, and that the complainants were advised of the results . . . However, with respect to the allegations concerning the actions of a retired member of the RCMP, this investigation is ongoing and, as such, it would be inappropriate for me to comment further at this time."
If the investigation into Kingsclear was completed, the investigations of a retired RCMP member must have been completed too, since both are interrelated and inseparable.
Of greater concern is whether the solicitor general's view as to it being "inappropriate to comment' is simply stalling or just an excuse to not have to respond to calls for information. Stalling long enough can relive the courts of the messy business of trying the living. Dead men can't be tried.
The fact of the ongoing investigation and the consequent "inappropriateness" of ministerial comment were used as one of the reasons to reject a recent parliamentary committee motion to have a review of the Kingsclear affair and to conduct a committee investigation. The minister's letter continues to confound those trying to elicit parliamentary resolve to get to the truth of matters.
On Dec. 11, 2002, I introduced a Private Member's Motion, M328, in the House of Commons, by which I called on Parliament to mandate a review by a committee completely independent of the RCMP of the entire proceedings of the Kingsclear Training School Affair to date, including the investigations, which followed the release of the Miller Inquiry report. My motion has not yet been debated.
Irrespective of the reality, the optics speak of neglect, dereliction of duty, deal-making, concealment and cover-up, with many pedophiles involved and all but one, Karl Toft, getting off free. Was a deal made to make Toft the fall guy, and another for him to avoid dangerous offender status, to enable him to walk free some day? How many victims' rights to prosecute have been bought off with compensation settlements intended to protect high-placed, guilty pedophiles? With a poorly explained investigation, anything is possible.
There is a litany of reasons why justice must now be served in the Kingsclear affair. Many hundreds of boys were sexually assaulted. Former RCMP Staff Sgt. McCann is now facing civil accusations by four former inmates of actions amounting to serious criminal misconduct.
A pedophile ring was acting under the nose of New Brunswick corrections' officers and the RCMP. The silence was bought by the New Brunswick government, through the pay out of millions of taxpayers' dollars to victims.
After that, a weak penalty was arranged for fall guy pedophile Karl Toft, who conveniently avoided a dangerous sexual offender hearing. Shamefully, accused community leaders and a senior RCMP officer are free of any charges.
The victims want closure, through bringing to justice all who are guilty. Karl Toft did not act alone.
Nobody believes that an investigation, supposedly under way, in one form or another, for 20 years, could come to no clear conclusions and result in no criminal charges.
No less than the reputation of Canada's national police force is at stake here. Some victims have been told by RCMP not to lay complaints because the RCMP would not investigate the complaints, or nothing would be done, even if an investigation took place.
The so-called investigation of Kingsclear has resulted in little more than a vile carpet, bulging with the mess of pedophile vice swept under it.
The New Brunswick Kingsclear pedophile ring went to high community officers.
The victims want and rightly expect that the trail will be followed and that justice will be done. It is a fundamental principle of our justice system that no one is above the law.
That principle must be applied to bring New Brunswick pedophiles to justice.
The solicitor general must seize the Kingsclear and post-Kingsclear investigation files and appoint an independent investigator to review the proceedings and then report the findings to Parliament.
The clouds of doubt must be removed from the Kingsclear investigation.
MORE VICTIMS OF TOFT AND R.C.M.P.
STAFF SGT. McCANN COME FORWARD
R.C.M.P. COVER-UP AND REFUSE TO INVESTIGATE WHILE THE SOLICITOR GENERAL OF CANADA DOES NOTHING
OTTAWA – July 10, 2003 – New Brunswick R.C.M.P. has ordered the ‘case closed’ protecting Karl Toft and others from charges even though new, previously unreported, victims have come forward.
Karl Toft is reported to have committed over 1,000 sexual assaults on young boys at New Brunswick’s Kingsclear Youth Training Centre. Former R.C.M.P. Staff Sgt. McCann also accused has never been charged.
Karl Toft is a serial pedophile who has destroyed hundreds of boys lives and is, along with others, being protected by the R.C.M.P. from charges that might lock them up if found guilty and Edmonton is the lucky city chosen by Toft to live his life out in.
The New Brunswick Justice system has failed the victims; the Canadian Solicitor General of Canada simply does nothing but pass the buck.
The Solicitor General must stop the cover-up and investigate the new charges even if one of their own R.C.M.P. faces charges.
While it is disgraceful that Canada’s Justice system dealt Toft such an easy sentence, new charges could correct the affair and if convicted have the dangerous offender status invoked to permanently jail Toft.
OTTAWA
June 27, 2003
Hon Wayne Easter, PC, MP,
Solicitor General of Canada
318-Justice Building
House of Commons
INTRA
Dear Minister Easter:
Re: Previous Correspondence – Kingsclear/Pornography
Further to my previous letters of this year, I wish to reiterate and summarize my questions, for the purpose of seeking a fully comprehensive response, in the interest of clarity. I hope that you will assist.
1/ Is there an ongoing criminal investigation of a former RCMP Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann, who was personally involved in the Kingsclear affair, and who has recently been sued civilly by four persons who assert that they were victimized by him, while at Kingsclear? The plaintiffs claim that on several occasions, as a child wards of the state, they were taken from Kingsclear by the defendant and then sexually abused.
2/ Is the lead member of the Kingsclear investigating task force, Staff Sergeant Dunphy, reported to be a close friend or associate of former Staff Sergeant McCann, not thereby in a conflict of interest and therefore subject to questions as to his apparent lack of enthusiasm to fully investigate the Kingsclear affair?
3/ Since two hundred victims coming forward in the most recent past prompted the Solicitor General to reopen the investigation, (a) How many more have come forward since the case was reopened? (b) Of the number who have come forward, how many individual investigations have been conducted, in which the details provided by the complainants have been addressed ?
4/ Victims of and witnesses to the Kingsclear affair claim that they have been officially discouraged by the R.C.M.P. from coming forward to purse these matters. Why?
5/ Was a senior RCMP Officer in Ottawa recently internally charged and disciplined and/or criminally charged for possession and/or distribution of pornography? What was the nature and extent of the offence? Were other national and international authorities involved in the investigation and the laying of charges? Was he associated with or a member of the New Brunswick detachment during the time of the Kingsclear affair?
6/ The late New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield has been identified by former Kingsclear residents as having been with Kingsclear children taken from the institution. Was Premier Hatfield officially questioned in the context of any Kingsclear investigation? If so, What was the result?
I thank you in advance for providing me with a timely and comprehensive response to the foregoing. I hope that we will be able to meet in any event in the near future to personally discuss our respective concerns.
Sincerely,
Peter Goldring
Member of Parliament
Edmonton Centre-East
GOLDRING CALLS FOR
McCANN INVESTIGATION FILE TO BE SEIZED
AND TO BE INDEPENDENTLY REVIEWED
EDMONTON, August 12, 2003—Peter Goldring, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre-East, today expressed serious concerns for the security of the investigation file relating to the conduct of former RCMP Staff Sgt. Clifford McCann during the course of his association with the now closed Kingsclear Training School for Boys in New Brunswick. McCann is currently subject to a $4 million lawsuit by four men who were incarcerated as juveniles at the now closed reform school. The four allege that they were separately taken from the reform school by McCann, and then subject to horrendous sexual abuse. Other parties to the lawsuit are the federal government, the government of New Brunswick, the RCMP and McCann’s wife, Marylou. McCann is currently subject to a separate criminal investigation by the RCMP. Mr. Goldring made the following comments:
There are serious allegations now being made that the criminal investigation file involving McCann is about to be closed. In view of being one of the parties sued by the victims, the RCMP is in a conflict of interest in this case from the outset. There are also serious concerns that McCann may have names to name, involving such explosive allegations that an “under the carpet” approach to his own criminal investigation is now being advocated by certain parties of interest.
In view of the gravity of these allegations, I call upon Solicitor General Easter to personally seize the McCann investigation file and to immediately turn it over to an investigating party who may be viewed as being clearly independent, in fact and appearance. In similar cases, representatives of an out-of-jurisdiction police force are generally considered to be independent.
In the interest of justice to children, the McCann criminal investigation file must NOT be closed, pending the results of a clearly independent review by objective criminal investigators.
Justice
Mr. Peter Goldring (Edmonton Centre-East, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, hundreds of boys were sexually abused and thousands of assaults inside and outside of Kingsclear Training School in New Brunswick.
Victims have named 14 assaulters yet only Karl Toft was charged criminally. Millions were paid in hush money, including to RCMP Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann's victims. Victims who have come forward have been told by the RCMP not to make complaints.
Will the Solicitor General seize the pre- and post-Kingsclear files, conduct an independent review and report back to Parliament?
Mrs. Marlene Jennings (Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I do not have information about this file. Therefore, I will bring it to the attention of the Solicitor General for him to review and to provide a clear answer to the member opposite.
Mr. Peter Goldring (Edmonton Centre-East, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, Kingsclear boys were taken with the knowledge of New Brunswick Corrections and the RCMP into the back seat of RCMP patrol cars, and to the house of senior RCMP officer Clifford McCann.
If the Solicitor General cannot act on this, will the Prime Minister of Canada have the Kingsclear and post-Kingsclear files seized and conduct an independent review of the entire investigation? Mrs. Marlene Jennings (Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I stated, I do not have any particular information on this issue. I will seize the Solicitor General of the concerns of the member opposite and have the Solicitor General respond to him in full when he is in the House.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050313163249/www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/153_2003-11-07/han153_1140-e.htm
Á (1140)
[English]
Mr. Peter Goldring (Edmonton Centre-East, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, hundreds of boys were sexually abused and thousands of assaults inside and outside of Kingsclear Training School in New Brunswick.
Victims have named 14 assaulters yet only Karl Toft was charged criminally. Millions were paid in hush money, including to RCMP Staff Sergeant Clifford McCann's victims. Victims who have come forward have been told by the RCMP not to make complaints.
Will the Solicitor General seize the pre- and post-Kingsclear files, conduct an independent review and report back to Parliament?
Mrs. Marlene Jennings (Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I do not have information about this file. Therefore, I will bring it to the attention of the Solicitor General for him to review and to provide a clear answer to the member opposite.
Mr. Peter Goldring (Edmonton Centre-East, Canadian Alliance): Mr. Speaker, Kingsclear boys were taken with the knowledge of New Brunswick Corrections and the RCMP into the back seat of RCMP patrol cars, and to the house of senior RCMP officer Clifford McCann.
If the Solicitor General cannot act on this, will the Prime Minister of Canada have the Kingsclear and post-Kingsclear files seized and conduct an independent review of the entire investigation?
Mrs. Marlene Jennings (Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, as I stated, I do not have any particular information on this issue. I will seize the Solicitor General of the concerns of the member opposite and have the Solicitor General respond to him in full when he is in the House.
* * *
Mr. John O'Reilly (Haliburton—Victoria—Brock, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, we know the Canadian economy has experienced some unique challenges during 2003.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development provide the House with an update on the latest job numbers published today by Statistics Canada?
[Translation]
Ms. Diane St-Jacques (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources Development, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his excellent question and especially for referring to the good news we announced this morning.
Despite the problems we have had this year, our market performance has been very good. In October, 65,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate dropped from 8% to 7.6%. A total of 164,000 jobs have been created in Canada since January and nearly 3 million since 1993.
* * *
[English]
Mr. Greg Thompson (New Brunswick Southwest, PC): Mr. Speaker, one of the busiest trade corridors in the country is the trade corridor between the State of Maine and the province of New Brunswick.
There is presently an application to address two of those border crossings: one, in Woodstock, New Brunswick, to upgrade the highway leading to the border; and the other is the construction of a third bridge in St. Stephen, New Brunswick.
Could the minister give us an indication of where those applications are and how the negotiations are proceeding with the Province of New Brunswick on those two projects?
Hon. Allan Rock (Minister of Industry, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, the Liberal members from New Brunswick have brought to my attention the need for border infrastructure improvements at both Woodstock and St. Stephen. I know it is a matter in which the member has an interest as well.
We have been in discussion with our partners in the Government of New Brunswick. We believe we are close to agreement with them, with respect to investments there. We want to upgrade both those crossing. We recognize their importance to the economy and to the local population.
I am working with my colleagues in the New Brunswick caucus, and we hope to announce real progress very soon.
* * *
Mr. Greg Thompson (New Brunswick Southwest, PC): Mr. Speaker, I guess we would call that all-party agreement. I appreciate the minister's response. I want to move on to the Minister of External Affairs.
Yesterday, as we all know, the minister denied any need for a public inquiry into the William Sampson case, indicating that he would be meeting with William Sampson.
Has that meeting taken place and has the minister reviewed the testimony that William Sampson gave yesterday before the committee, indicating complete displeasure at how the Government of Canada conducted itself during his incarceration? Has the minister changed his mind or has he in fact met with William Sampson today?
Hon. Bill Graham (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, like the hon. member, and other hon. members in the House, we take this case extremely seriously.
I have not had the opportunity, unfortunately, to meet Mr. Sampson. I have an appointment with him this afternoon and I will be meeting with him then
I want to assure the hon. member that I, and I have already asked my department to do this, will looking at everything we do in our department in light of not only this case, but other cases which have come to our attention.
Our object is to secure the security of Canadians abroad in often very difficult circumstances.
I come back to the fact that extraordinary efforts were made on behalf of Mr. Sampson, and I will be discussing that with him. We are certainly more than willing to learn from him how we could do better.