Goudge Inquiry: Overview Reports Released By Inquiry Contain Some Fascinating Revelations;

"NO INSIGHTS INTO PROBLEMS - DEFLECTS ALL CRITICISM TO FAILINGS OF OTHERS"

NOTE FROM A HIGH LEVEL MEETING HELD IN OCTOBER, 2003;

The "Overview Reports" on eighteen cases released yesterday by the Inquiry were prepared by Commission staff to "summarize the relevant documents in our database and set out the background and core facts with their sources."

These reports, which have not been posted on the Goudge Web-site, will provide much grist for the Charles Smith Blog Mill.

Commission Counsel Linda Rothstein said in her opening comments earlier this week that, "They (the reports) will also help to make clear the complex factual matrix at the heart of any death investigation, and the importance of looking beyond the autopsy procedures and the work of any individual pathologist to appreciate the full nuanced context."

Synopses of these reports - are found in today's Toronto Star, Globe and Mail and National Post;

This blog will focus on some of these reports individually from time to time starting shortly with some fascinating new revelations on the Brenda Waudby case.

According to Globe and Mail reporter Kirk Makin, the "flood of documents released yesterday," show that, "The primary victims of disgraced pathologist Charles Smith's mistakes were unstable, low-income parents suspected of having abused their children in the past."

"The documents are rarely specific about the errors," Makin reported. "However, the information creates a strong implication that in case after case, Dr. Smith drew unwarranted conclusions of foul play based on evidence that was less than conclusive."

"In several of the new cases, Dr Smith concluded that babies were shaken to death by their parents, then pursued his theory in aggressive, free-ranging testimony in the witness box."

But Makin also notes that Dr. Smith not only angered defence lawyers who believed he was biased towards the Crown, but frustrated prosecutors and police by producing tardy reports and altering his opinions midstream.

National Post reporter Tom Blackwell pointed out that the reports constitute, "a grim catalogue of human misery, setting out in anti-septic detail the often violent deaths of babies and little children, and the resulting criminal prosecutions of their mothers, fathers, uncles and babysitters."

"The cases include newborn babies allegedly killed by their young mothers, happy toddlers who died of sudden trauma and children whose deaths now appear to be be largely explained," Blackwell observed. "In two cases, babies were found lifeless in toilets, while in another one, the death occurred after a prayer ritual involving the voice of the Virgin Mary."

"To make matters worse, parents or other close relatives were either charges or put under intense suspicion in most of the deaths," Blackwell continued. "And later, the opinions of Dr. Smith, crucial in some cases, were called into question."

Toronto Star reporter Theresa Boyle, came up with the best quote of the day from yesterday's session, in this Blogster's humble view, with her report of a notes of a high level meeting held in October, 2003 to consider whether Dr. Smith should be permitted to continue his work for the Coroner's office.

The thrust of the notes was that Smith did not want to take responsibility for the many serious problems found in his death investigations.

"No insights into problems - deflects all criticism to failings of others," read the notes.

Harold Levy;



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