Williams's comments about breast-cancer inquiry excessive, Gomery says

Retired judge John Gomery, who presided over an inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal, says Williams went too far in his remarks about the inquiry in Newfoundland.

Williams, who launched the inquiry last year, has called the probe a "prosecution" and likened it to the Spanish Inquisition.

"I thought that his use of the expression inquisition was excessive," Gomery said Tuesday in an interview from his home in Havelock, Que.

"The word inquisition has acquired over the centuries a connotation ... of torture and an extremely unpleasant method of extracting information, and I don't think that can be in any way compared to what is taking place in (Justice Margaret) Cameron's inquiry."

Gomery said Williams's comments were intemperate.

"(Cameron) shouldn't have to worry about comments coming from politicians while she's trying in perfectly good faith to do her job," he said.

Gomery offered his experience presiding over the sponsorship inquiry as an example of how such proceedings should be respected.

"I thought everybody treated me with kid gloves and treated me very fairly," he said.

"I didn't have to put up with this kind of - I won't call it an attack - but this kind of subtle pressure from the political side."

Williams dismissed Gomery's reaction.

"Judge Gomery is not here. He hasn't seen the inquiry," Williams said at the legislature.

"He's actually commenting in a vacuum on a particular issue and he's entitled to his opinion, but he's speaking from Quebec I think and we're here in Newfoundland and Labrador."

Meanwhile, the provincial government filed an application Tuesday to seek clarification from Cameron on the role of commission counsel, asking her for an opinion on whether they're following the rules when it comes to questioning witnesses.

Williams, who has been called to testify, has suggested that commission counsel are prolonging the probe by being too aggressive in their line of questioning.

"Her Majesty encourages the adoption of a process that will facilitate the introduction of evidence in a non-confrontational manner," the eight-page application reads.

"Oftentimes, a less defensive witness is a better witness."

Cameron has said she would respond to the application next week.

Cameron has also asked to extend the inquiry's hearings until February. It is supposed to deliver its final report with recommendations by July 30.

The government has yet to respond.

The inquiry was launched last May after it was revealed that more than 300 patients were given inaccurate results on their breast-cancer tests over an eight-year span.

It trying to determine how the patients received the flawed results, and whether the Eastern Health authority or any other responsible authorities responded to them and the public in an appropriate and timely manner.

The tests are considered a vital tool that doctors use in prescribing treatment for breast-cancer patients.