Columnists
The Trials and Tribulations of Goyo de la Rosa
Volume 28 Issue 7, 8 & 9 | Posted: September 19, 2014
As reported in the"Other News" tab — story by Louise Dickson of the Times Colonist, Victoria resident Gregory Hartnell was found guilty by Judge Smith on April 14 of breach of a publication ban during the preliminary hearing of the trial of Roman Catholic priest Philip Jacobs on child sex abuse charges in 2011. Jacobs was found guilty on one charge and was sentenced to do community service.
Gregory, who was closely associated with Island Catholic News for many years in the 1988-2008 period, appealed the conviction on the basis of his constitutional right to freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights. If he had been successful his conviction would have been thrown out. He was not and it proceeded to sentencing.
As reported in the"Other News" tab — story by Louise Dickson of the Times Colonist, Victoria resident Gregory Hartnell was found guilty by Judge Smith on April 14 of breach of a publication ban during the preliminary hearing of the trial of Roman Catholic priest Philip Jacobs on child sex abuse charges in 2011. Jacobs was found guilty on one charge and was sentenced to do community service.
Gregory, who was closely associated with Island Catholic News for many years in the 1988-2008 period, appealed the conviction on the basis of his constitutional right to freedom of expression under the Canadian Charter of Rights. If he had been successful his conviction would have been thrown out. He was not and it proceeded to sentencing.
These trials, however, in my measured view, are only the latest in a long series of ‘trials’ which have afflicted the life of the reactionary social activist. Whether they are the just deserts or the ironic consequences of a unique path and eccentric sensibility, it is as yet hard to say.
As mentioned, for many years Gregory and I and a small coterie of individuals around the ICN were closely associated. The activities of the group included refugee sponsorship, publication of ICN and Gregory’s own arts publication La Rosa under his editorial nom de plume of Goyo de la Rosa. He organized many fund raising musical events using his family’s hotel and other considerable resources.
To this end we were busy saving St. Ann’s Academy from inappropriate commercial development and running for electoral office such as mayor and city council for Victoria, plus a raft of parallel pursuits. Concerned Citizens Coalition was the title of Gregory’s specific action umbrella.
A weekly scripture reflection group in prayerful support of the other activities was at the centre of it all. We would meet at each others homes for potluck and the readings and personal reflections.
There was the usual socializing and general discussion of the issues of the day across a wide spectrum of views and perspectives. During this time Gregory studied history in California and I took time off to write the great Canadian novel in other parts of Canada. When we both came back, the divergences were starting to become accentuated.
We were a Catholic lot, typical of the west coast, including Anglo-Catholics, independent church types, converts and both extreme right and extreme left views.
In hindsight, the centre could not hold, and five to ten years ago the group splintered with the usual alienation. I used to joke that Gregory was the Evelyn Waugh of the group to my being Graham Greene, to use loosely the analogy of the reactionary Catholic English writer’s relationship to the socialist one.
When I attended the first round of the Father Phil Jacobs trial in November, 2011, it was the first time I had seen Gregory for quite some time. Steve Weatherbe was also there, so I noted that there were three different types of Victoria Catholic journalists in attendance. I also noted that Gregory did not return for the afternoon session or the next day in what turned out to be a two-day preliminary proceeding to determine whether the trial could proceed.
On the first day Judge Blake made it plain that there was a publication ban if only due to the preliminary nature of the stage of the proceedings. Knowing Gregory, I wondered how he would take to that restraint on his freedom of expression, or as I heard him frequently say, his ‘God-given right of freedom of expression.’
The next morning before the proceedings began in earnest, there was a sudden consultation at the front of the room and the proceedings were adjourned to move in camera for some reason. When the judge came back he was looking for Mr. Hartnell and he sternly reissued his previous day’s statement of a ban on publication of any of the official court evidence.
During that day he continually went back to the same issue, making it very plain to the people in the back row with pencils at the alert what he had previously made plentifully plain. I knew we were into something extraordinary at this point.
I had no intention of rushing to judgement, or into print. At that point I had a book in mind, if not about that particular trial, about the whole sex abuse phenomenon in the Catholic Church, which prior to the election of the present pope, in many people’s view looked to be rushing headlong off the cliff of oblivion.
At the end of that second day, I was approached as someone who knew Mr. Hartnell and could identify that he had been in court that first morning. As a result I was subpoenaed as a material witness for his initial trial. Interestingly the questioning when on the stand did not proceed along those lines exactly as yet another Catholic journalist witness, Sylvia MacEachern of Ottawa of the website Sylvia’s Site where he had posted the offending material, played a much more significant role with her careful testimony.
I always viewed Gregory as suffering from ‘a poor little rich boy’ complex, the main drawback of which was that he did not have to endure the usual indignities of working and lower middle class Canadians in holding down a job despite difficult employers plus the often ill considered commentary of rough and ready workmates.
As a result I noticed he had absolutely no patience with the usual inescapable anomalies that plague what my friend Richard Olafson refers to as the quotidian of life.
This can be a very great disadvantage and has lead, I would argue, to the dilemma of Gregory’s situation with the courts today. He has never exhibited any willingness ‘to suffer fools gladly,’ even, as his ultimately offending emails made plain, when they come garbed in judicial robes.
The other major transparent factor was being the first born son of the legendary right-wing extremist Peter Hartnell.
To his credit Gregory always had ethical reservation about this legacy, and yet his own extremism has mounted over the decades following his father’s death. He lives independently, withdrawing with a settlement from the family foundation about a decade ago. They owned hotels and other property in the city, the most prominent of which was the Queen Victoria, now sold.