Goudge Inquiry: Dr. Smith's mistakes: Part Two: The Apology; Rejected by Some;

Here is some of the reaction to Dr. Charles Smith's apology which was delivered by his lawyer to the Goudge Inquiry yesterday.

William Mullins-Johnson (As reported in a story by the Toronto Stars Theresa Boyle:
"Asked what he thought of yesterday's apology, Mullins-Johnson replied "Not much at all."

"I don't put much stock in it," Mullins-Johnson, who spent twelve years in prison, said in an interview last night. "First of all he didn't have the guts to do it himself."

In terms of content, it also seemed deficient, he said. "To say he just made mistakes? C'mon. It seemed more like a forced apology than genuine."

Bowlby received a similar reaction from Maurice Gagnon of Sudbury, Ontario.

"His daughter Lianne became a murder suspect in 1995 after Smith began probing the sudden death of her infant son, Nicholas," Bowlby wrote.

"What Smith labelled as suspicious marks around the child's jaw line was actually normal post-mortem pooling of blood."

"For one thing, it wasn't Smith who apologized, it was the lawyers," Gagnon said in an interview from Sudbury where he resides.

"These lawyers representing Smith are also representing the (doctor's) insurance company that is going to get bombarded with lawsuits (from affected families)."
Gagnon put it a bit differently to Globe and Mail Reporter Kirk Makin saying, "I think it rings a bit hollow."

"He's probably paving the way for the lawsuits that are coming," Gagnon continued. "Once you get pushed into a corner where you cannot escape, you might as well say you're sorry.""But his I'm sorrys ahould have come before everybody went through their ordeals."

Sherry Sherritt also rejected Smith's apology.

Sherritt is a Belleville woman who served eight months behind bars for infanticide as a result of Smith's flawed opinion.

Sherrett told "The Belleville Intelligencer" in a story published today that the apology "means nothing" to her,"

"For Sherrett, that apology rings hollow and bears no weight with her," the story reads.

“It’d be different to say you’re sorry and get things back that you lost, but I won’t get anything back that I’ve lost,” Sherrett said in her Belleville home."

Toronto Star columnist Rosie Dimanno vies the apology as "a pre-emptive manoeuvre" in a column appearing in today's paper:

Here is Rosie's take on it:

"Dr. Smith acknowledges he made a number of mistakes, "for which he is truly sorry."

Yet Smith pointedly emphasized he worked "at the direction of the Chief Coroner of Ontario."

He explicitly criticized the "informational disconnect" and lack of "integration" in a criminal investigation.

Pathology is an inexact science, he added. Which is true. But Smith was rarely less than exacting on the stand."

For my views on the apology see the recent posting: ("Goudge Inquiry: Dr. Smith's mistakes: Part one: Is today's apology too little, too late?)

Harold Levy;