The Winter Commission was a diocesan commission appointed in May 1989 by Alphonsus Liguori Penney

Alphonsus Liguori Penney

Archbishop Alphonsus Liguori Penney is a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who was Archbishop of St.John's from 1979-1991.-Sexual abuse scandal:...

, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Saint Johns, to conduct hearings surrounding the Mount Cashel abuse affairs.

The commission headed by former Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador

Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador is the viceregal representative in Newfoundland and Labrador of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who operates distinctly within the province but is also shared equally with the ten other jurisdictions of Canada and resides predominantly...

 Gordon Arnaud Winter

Gordon Arnaud Winter

Gordon Arnaud Winter, was the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland from 1974 to 1981.In 1974, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada....

, a member of the Anglican Church of Canada

Anglican Church of Canada

The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...

. It conducted hearings in churches across the province, commencing on June 11, 1989. Its final report, submitted in 1990, was entitled The report of the Archdiocesan Commission of Enquiry into the Sexual Abuse of Children by Members of the Clergy.

Archbishop Penney resigned following the release of the commission's report, which placed some of the blame for cover-ups of the abuse on him.