"“I am not allowed to say how long the inquest will be delayed,” said Smith family lawyer Julian Falconer, who was copied on the secret memo.
Falconer objected to the use of secret memos “to communicate matters that should be a matter of public record” in a letter to the coroner on Friday.
Lawyer Paul Schabas, representing the Toronto Star, said he was astonished and troubled by the latest developments.
“We went to court to remind it that everything it does is supposed to be public,” Schabas said. “An important public inquest has been suddenly adjourned, and we don’t know why, or for how long . . . Something seems to be very wrong here.”"
REPORTER DIANA ZLOMISLIC; THE TORONTO STAR;
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The excessive, unwarranted shroud of secrecy Dr. Bonita Porter has placed over the Ashley Smith inquest - as illustrated in the following story from the Toronto Star by reporter Diana Zlomislic is a disturbing indication that Ontario's Chief Coroner's Office has failed to learn a lesson from the Charles Smith saga. The public once had entrusted the Chief Coroner's Office to provide supervision to pathologists such as Charles Smith who performed such important tasks within the criminal justice system, and to hold them accountable when they strayed. But that confidence proved misplaced after Justice Stephen Goudge found in his Inquiry into many of Charles Smith's cases that, "As the problems became more serious and impossible to ignore, Dr. (Jim) Cairns (former Deputy Chief Coroner) and Dr. (James) Young (former Chief Coroner) finally, and far too late, moved to exercise this oversight responsibility and hold Dr. Smith accountable." And now, it can be seen that the Chief Coroner's office - headed by Dr. Andrew McCallum is behaving as if the former Dr. Charles Smith never existed and the Goudge Inquiry never happened as it tries to conceal vital information from the public concerning the death of Ashley Smith (apparently against the advice of its own lawyers and treats lawyers representing the media who are trying to get this information out to the public as if they are mere nuisances. The Ashley Smith Inquest is clearly foundering on the shoals of the Chief Coroner's Office's bid to shut the public out of its processes. This should be a chilling reminder to Dr. McCAllum that his job, as current Current Chief Coroner is to help his important office win back the public confidence it deservedly lost because of its role over many years in the Smith debacle. One more observation. Up to now, Dr. Bonita Porter has been bearing the brunt of the criticism against the Coroner's Office. This strikes me as unfair. Although she is presiding over the Inquest it is apparent to me that Dr. McCallum, as Chief Coroner, should have intervened long ago, to protect the public, and help prevent public confidence in his institution from waning even further. The buck stops with him. It should not be forgotten that in the Brenda Waudby case Dr. Porter concluded from her own study of the pathological evidence that Smith had miscalculated the time framework in which Baby Jenna had been injured. She did this within a Coroner's Office headed by Dr. Young and Dr. Cairns. This is indeed to her credit. That said, there are good reasons why she should not be presiding over a reconstituted inquest into the tragic death of Ashley Smith.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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"The high-profile inquest into the death of teen inmate Ashley Smith has been put off indefinitely after lawyers at the coroner’s office circulated a secret memo on the delay," the Toronto Star story by reporter Diana Zlomislic published on Friday May 27, 2011 begins, under the heading, "Ashley Smith Inquest Delayed."
"Dr. Bonita Porter was expected to rule on key legal issues argued in coroner’s court earlier this week so the inquest, entering its third week seriously behind schedule, could resume on Monday. Instead, the coroner cancelled next week’s proceedings with little explanation," the story continues.
"In a “confidential memo” to all lawyers who participated in the hearings, except two representing the media, Porter reportedly outlined her plan for dealing with motions on the public’s right to access documents and videos at the inquest.
She was also revisiting a motion on her decision not to obtain additional graphic prison videos depicting the 19-year-old Moncton woman’s treatment in federal custody. The recordings show Smith duct-taped to the seat of an airplane during a transfer between prisons and forcibly injected with tranquilizers while strapped to a metal gurney for half a day without food or water at Joliette Institution in Quebec.
Porter initially ruled the events on the tapes, which happened three months before Smith choked herself to death while on suicide watch at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, were not connected to her death. The Smith family challenged the decision in Divisional Court and won.
A vague, three-sentence public statement issued by the province said Porter needed more time to mull over her decisions.
The contents of the secret memo, meanwhile, sparked a firestorm of emails and phone calls between lawyers and the coroner’s office on Friday.
“I am not allowed to say how long the inquest will be delayed,” said Smith family lawyer Julian Falconer, who was copied on the secret memo.
Falconer objected to the use of secret memos “to communicate matters that should be a matter of public record” in a letter to the coroner on Friday.
Lawyer Paul Schabas, representing the Toronto Star, said he was astonished and troubled by the latest developments.
“We went to court to remind it that everything it does is supposed to be public,” Schabas said. “An important public inquest has been suddenly adjourned, and we don’t know why, or for how long . . . Something seems to be very wrong here.”
After the Star sent numerous emails to the coroner’s office requesting a copy of the secret memo or at the very least some clarification on the delay, lawyer Eric Siebenmorgen said jurors have been told their “attendance will not be required next week.”
He said jurors will be advised of a “target date” for the inquest to resume on Monday.
In two weeks, the inquest has heard evidence from only one witness — a former manager at Grand Valley. More than a dozen lawyers representing various groups, individuals and agencies with standing at the inquest have yet to cross-examine the prison worker."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/998687--ashley-smith-inquest-delayed
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com
