« Freedom through sobriety | Main | All is well »

December 06, 2005

J'accuse

From today's Globe and Mail, some rare "good" news from my alma mater:

The identity of the man who accused Mr. Sommerfeld of abusing him has been withheld because of a publication ban. The same protection did not extend to Mr. Sommerfeld, whose name has been linked to the allegations, and that does not sit well with Mr. Di Luca.

"It's devastating because it was published," the lawyer said.

In the case of charges such as child molestation, which carry a truly unshakeable stigma, I think you could make a very strong case that if the law protects the identity of the accuser, then the law should also protect the identity of the accused. If you're not sure about that, put yourself in the aforementioned Mr. Sommerfeld's shoes and read what the Toronto Star had to say at the end of its account of his unconditional acquittal:

Sommerfeld is not the first former UCC teacher to face criminal allegations of sex assault against pupils. Douglas Brown, 55, was convicted of nine counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency in January and sentenced to three years in jail.

Think about that. That is most likely the last mention this poor guy will ever get in the media — not "acquitted in the strongest possible terms," but "one of a set of accused and/or convicted child molesters who taught at Upper Canada College." He wasn't much of a music teacher, and he was a very odd duck, but he deserves better than that.

I certainly have no idea why the identity of this accuser should be protected now that his testimony has been dismissed as evasive, as inconsistent, as wholly incredible. The most salient point, as the judge noted, is that "the former student did not disclose the alleged abuse until he was in police custody in Toronto on charges laid by police in California." And what charges they are. Time was you couldn't even name this fellow if you were talking about that case — that time is now past, according to the Toronto daily not mentioned in this post, and a very rudimentary Google News search will tell you all the sordid details you need to know about Mr. Sommerfeld's accuser (except whether or not he's actually guilty, of course, and exactly what horrible deeds the videotapes in question document).

I respect publication bans, but in this case I think they have served chiefly to edify charges brought by a man so untrustworthy, so suspect, that I'm astonished they even made it to trial, at the indelible expense of another man's reputation. That can't be in the spirit of these bans.

Posted by Chris Selley at December 6, 2005 10:47 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.tartcider.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/176

Comments

UCC. I see. That explains a lot.

Counselling might help, but be sure to get someone who specializes in shrinking egos to mortal size. With your stubborn streak, I'm sure you can get past this overwhelming handicap.

(SAC '89)

Posted by: Damian [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 7, 2005 01:11 AM

UCC eh. That explains a lot.

Too bad you guys were never able to get a half-decent rugby squad together. That's almost as bad as going to Appleby. Or, god forbid, Country Day.

What's next, membership at the Albion Club?

TCS (Last all male class)

Posted by: wsam [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 7, 2005 11:14 AM