FIRST THOUGHTS OF MUSKRAT INQUIRY


When former Premier Danny Williams stood to be Sworn-In before Inquiry Commissioner, Judge Richard LeBlanc, last Monday, thoughts of Hans Christian Andersen�s memorable phrase � the Emperor has no clothes - was difficult to suppress. 

The moment had nothing to do with the witnessing of the diminutive former Premier being held to account. Rather, it was the recall of a phrase spoken by a child in the Danish novel who in his innocence described what he saw. �But he isn�t wearing anything at all�, the child exclaimed. It was the one truth that every one of the emperor�s subjects had been afraid to utter.

The child�s words now bounded off the walls of the Inquiry room as echo, though I had to think about what or who had given them voice. 

  
Perhaps it was Ron Penney. Hadn�t he said something about people being afraid to speak out � which earned him legal notice from Williams� Solicitor?  Of course, Penney would have had no such need. 

More likely the echoes were afforded by just the atmosphere of sustained gravitas. This was a place unafraid of tender egos or of emperors, little or large and even less of rhetoric or swagger. 

It was a pleasant thought that in this room, as in Anderson�s short novel, there would be no deference to authority.   There was only the prospect that finally the public would hear the truth.

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