COUNTDOWN: 16 DAYS TO GO: THE MANY FACES OF DR. CHARLES SMITH: HOW WILL JUSTICE GOUDGE RECONCILE THEM? PART SEVEN;

"IN THE SEVERAL COURT CASES I COVERED AT WHICH HE TESTIFIED (NONE OF WHICH ARE AT ISSUE AT THIS INQUIRY), I FOUND DR. SMITH A COMPELLING WITNESS, AN ODD DUCK BUT SO SEEMINGLY SQUARE – HE PRONOUNCED HIMSELF A STRONG CHRISTIAN, HAD A SOFT VOICE AND GENTLE MANNERISMS, AND USED TO WEAR CARTOON-PRINT TIES TO COURT SO AS TO REMIND JURORS HE HAD FEELINGS TOO."

COLUMNIST CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD: GLOBE AND MAIL;

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DEFINITION OF "MALICE; MERRIAM-WEBSTER ON-LINE DICTIONARY;

"1: DESIRE TO CAUSE PAIN, INJURY, OR DISTRESS TO ANOTHER
2: INTENT TO COMMIT AN UNLAWFUL ACT OR CAUSE HARM WITHOUT LEGAL JUSTIFICATION OR EXCUSE;"

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It is self-evident that helping locate the missing Mullins-Johnson slides should have been considered to be an urgent task by Dr. Charles Smith.

Police and prosecutors had asked for his help in locating them and a man's freedom hung in the balance.

Yet, Dorothy Zwolakowski, an employee of the Chief Coroner's Office, testified that Dr. Smith barely lifted a finger to help locate the crucial forensic exhibits;

I referred to Zwolakowski's testimony in a posting that ran on February 10, 2008, under the heading, "More Insights On Search Of Dr. Charles Smith's Office For The Missing Mullins-Johnson Slides; Witness Statements;

"I have devoted many postings to the search for the missing Mullins-Johnson slides - the only evidence that could possibly show that William Mullins-Johnson was innocent" the posting began.

"Dorothy Zwolakowski, an official in the Chief Coroner's Office, describes the search in detail - as well as an audit of all forensic exhibits at the Ontario Pediatric Forensic Pathology Unit - in a witness statement that has been filed in evidence at the Goudge Inquiry," it continued.

(The "witness statements" are actually summaries of interviews of potential witnesses conducted by Goudge Inquiry staff);

Our readers are invited to read her entire statement on the Goudge Inquiry Web-page at www.goudgeinquiry.ca; (Go into transcripts and then click "witness statements";

For now, I just want to highlight a few of her observations which intrigue me.

First, Zwolakowski’s comments on the events of Nov. 26, 2004, when she and Dr. Cairns visited Dr. Smith at the Unit to ask him about and for the missing materials from the Mullins-Johnson case;

"They met with Dr. Smith in the pathology boardroom," the statement says.

"Dr. Cairns asked Dr. Smith about the material, but Dr. Smith did not appear recall that he had been involved in such a file.

Ms. Zwolakowski recalls being surprised that Dr. Smith did not go and look for the material, given the urgency of the situation."

This is pretty shocking.

Police, prosecutors, and Mullins=Johnson’s lawyer’s, had been trying desperately to get their hands on these microscopic slides and tissue blocks which were of life and death importance to Mullins-Johnson - and Dr. Smith did not see the urgency.

Something is hugely wrong with that picture;

The least Dr. Smith could have done - if he had any human feelings as to how his intransigence was affecting Mullins-Johnson - would have been to throw himself into the search and stick with it until the missing items were found.

(Unless, of course, he knew that the missing slides were somewhere else);

Secondly, Zwolakowski told the Inquiry that that it was clear to her when she was attempting to locate the materials that, "there were numerous slides in Dr. Smith’s office at the Unit”;

"Ms. Zwolakowski believes that this would have been obvious to anyone in his
office," her witness statement says.

"Ms. Zwolakowski was concerned that the slides were not stored in the storage room where they would normally be filed."

The message I get here is that the Hospital For Sick Children had utterly abdicated its responsibility to protect the public by supervising its employee, Dr. Smith - and that the hospital had failed to put the most basic systems for storing forensic materials in place;

The blame for that appalling lack of supervision cannot be placed entirely on the Chief Coroner's Office;

Lastly, Zwolakowski describes a grizzly find she made after the audit had been conducted and it was finally possible to get a grip on the contents of Dr. Smith's office:

"Ms. Zwolakowski found several unusual items in Dr. Smith’s office," her witness statement says.

For example, she discovered containers that once contained human wet tissue, but whose contents were now dried out because the formalin had evaporated.

"In addition, Ms. Zwolakowski located a Tupperware container that appeared to contain the rib cage of an infant".

Ms. Zwolakowski found this to be unusual."

Unusual?

It goes without saying that wet tissue has to be carefully protected in controlled temperatures so that it will not became degraded;

But it is the apparent anonymous rib-cage of an infant that tears my heart out.

No tags;

No protection - other than a tupperware container;

No recognition that this was once a child - somebody's child.

I don't like what this tells me about Dr. Smith;

In retrospect, it tells me that something far greater - and more dangerous - than the mere "sloppiness" of a busy man touted by his defenders, is at play

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;