(A CBC Fifth Estate investigation appropriately called "Diagnosis: Murder" exposed the enormous harm Dr. Charles Smith caused to innocent parents and caregivers within Ontario's criminal justice system.
The police probe of Lianne Gagnon - after Smith turned an accidental bump on the head into a suspected homicide - comes under intense scrutiny in the documentary, which ran on November, 10, 1999.
This Blogster would love to see the CBC re-run this powerful program before Dr, Smith enters the witness box at the Goudge Inquiry on Monday under compulsion of a subpoena. (This transcript was filed as an exhibit at the Goudge Inquiry);
It makes us look directly at the human cost imposed on innocent people by Dr. Smith - and those who looked the other way as the evidence of his incompetence mounted - as contrasted with the more abstract systemic issues being explored by the Inquiry);
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Host Victor Malarek's opening words were gripping.
"Good evening," Malarek began.
"Your young child has died in a household accident.
You've grieved, vowed to keep your memories alive, and for 18 months you've tried to rebuild your life.
And then there's a knock on the door.
Out of nowhere, on the say so of someone you've never met, you're suspected of murdering that beloved child, and from there, although you think they never could, things get far worse.
Couldn't happen?
It could and did, in Ontario, because of a chain of events surrounding a pathologist who's been at the heart of other highly controversial cases;
For legal reasons we can't tell you where our story takes place or the full names of some of those involved, whose lives were turned down by the diagnosis murder."
"Diagnosis: Murder" continues as follows:
"This is Nicholas and his mother Lianne. It's a home video taken four years ago during a happier times. Back then, Lianne was a single mother, living at home with her parents and studying English and history at university, while caring for her baby.
Lianne: What a happy baby.As soon as people were over, he was a clown and showing off, very quick to crawl, to walk.
Malarek: Then one day there was panic.
Lianne: He was playing in the family room and I was sitting on the couch doing some cross stitching. He went to the corner of the room where he had always gone - there was a sewing machine there and a bunch of Windows and he liked to look out the window underneath the sewing machine - and he went under and bumped his head and let out a cry.
Malarek: Lianne rushed over and picked him up.
Lianne: When I took a look at him, his eyes had rolled back, his eyes were closed and he wasn't breathing. Immediately I just thought, OK I've got to get him to somebody who knows how to do CPR;
Malarek: Lianne grabbed Nicholas and ran across the road to a murder. The boy was given CPR and then transported by ambulance to hospital. But a short while later she got the news: Nicholas was dead.
Lianne: Everyone broke down: I was extremely angry and screaming and crying, and I wanted to see him. I didn't believe it. No one believed it. I think, until we just...saw him.
Malarek: Lianne was desperate to find out why her baby died.
Lianne: When they cam back with the autopsy report there was nothing. They came back a few weeks later with a toxicology report - again nothing. We had no closure, we had nothing, we didn't know why he died.
Malarek: The autopsy was done by Dr. Teh-Chun Chen a local pathologist. He's performed close to 3,000 autopsies, including 100 murder cases.
To Dr. Chen (pathologist): My final cause of death was consistent with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Malarek: Dr. Chen's report said there were no bone fractures and the boy's skull was normal. although there was mild brain swelling. He couldn't determine the cause of death and felt it was just one of those unexplained things that happen sometimes.
Lianne grieved deeply, but slowly moved on. She met her new partner Pierre and, a year and a half later, was making arrangements for her bridal shower when there was a knock on the door.
Lianne: The two police officers showed up at my door and told me they wanted me to come in to close the case officially, is what they told us. They just wanted me to come in to reiterate my story, just tell them everything had told them initially at the hospital the day of Nicholas' death and everything would be closed. That's what they told us.
Malarek: At the police station Lianne found herself in the middle of a murder investigation where she was the only suspect.
Interrogation: You know what your rights are, your legal rights? OK, I'll go over them with you then and you'll probably recognize some of them.
Lianne: Until we got into the interrogation room, I had no idea, and when we got into the room I noticed That they were setting up a video camera. I told them the story, how he bumped his head and died that night, and when all was said and done, they came out and told us, Well, we don't believe your story and we believe that you had a hand in Nicholas' death, and we need you to tell us the truth.
Interrogation; This is a case of someone who's been pushed further than they can stand, and then in a moment, you snap and do something that you wish you hadn't done. In a very short period of time, you've done something that you can't turn back and undo. But you know it, and the pathologist knows it, and Nicholas knows it.
Malarek: With very little to go on, the police knew the only way to make the murder charge stick was to try to get Lianne to confess.
Interrogation: ...somewhere, and you're at a turning point here where you can talk to us and explain to us how it happened, and we are here to listen...
Lianne: But you're asking me to say something I didn't do."
Next posting: Part Twelve: Interrogation of an innocent woman; Transcript of "Diagnosis: Murder" continues as Dr. Charles Smith gets involved in the investigation of Nicholas' death;
See previous postings related to Nicholas' case:
Nicholas' Case: Questions going to the heart of Dr. Charles Smith's credibility; October, 2007;
Nicholas' Case: Smith accused of "uncivilized conduct" for bringing 11-year-old son to exhumation of 11-month-old baby boy."
Smith and the media: Part Four; Fifth Estate probe triggers plea to Premier Mike Harris for inquiry into Smith cases; Deaf ears; November, 2007;
Goudge Inquiry: Thinking dirty; Dr. Cairns defends the indefensible; November, 2007;
Interrogation of an innocent woman series: January, 2008;
Harold Levy: hlevy15@gmail.com;
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