Ottawa has no plans for a public inquiry into delays in MacIntosh case

OTTAWA – The federal government is ruling out a public inquiry into the case of Ernest Fenwick MacIntosh after the Supreme Court of Canada said sex offence charges against him took too long to get to trial.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Thursday he has no plans for an inquiry after Nova Scotia requested such a review.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the Crown’s appeal of a lower court ruling that tossed out 17 sex offence convictions against MacIntosh.

The court said the provincial Crown took too long to bring the former Cape Breton businessman to trial on charges involving boys in the 1970s.

MacIntosh was working in India when the allegations first surfaced in 1995, but he wasn’t extradited to Canada until 2007 and didn’t go to trial until 2010.

Nicholson said when the federal Conservatives came to power, they acted to get MacIntosh extradited.

“At the federal level this matter was expedited after we came into office,” he said. “A request for extradition was made in July of 2006 and within a year the individual was returned to Canada.”

Premier Darrell Dexter has said the provincial government was willing to co-operate if the federal government decided to look into the circumstances surrounding the delay in getting MacIntosh back to Canada.

Nova Scotia is conducting its own review of how the case was handled by its Public Prosecution Service.