""MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. And you stated that you have come to appreciate your mistakes and have you come, sir, to appreciate the extent of the damage of your mistakes? Children taken from their parents as a result of your evidence?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes, I've seen that.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. And you're aware that some children, Joshua's brother, for one, was taken from his natural mother and adopted into another
family? You were aware of that, sir?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: I -- I don't know just how specific my knowledge of that was but I -- but it was my understanding that he -- he was taken away but I couldn't tell you what the decision on him was.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. Sir, if you're interested in that information, --
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Mm-hm.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: -- you'll find it in the overview report on Joshua. I won't take you there
now.
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Okay...."
GOUDGE INQUIRY;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND: In february, 2011, The Ontario Court of Appeal quashed the murder conviction of the Toronto mother who was imprisoned for life on the basis of flawed testimony from pathologist Charles Smith. “We recognize this has been a terrible ordeal for you and it’s tragic it has taken so long to uncover the flawed pathology that led to your conviction in 1995,”Justice Marc Rosenberg told Tammy Marquardt Thursday morning. “We agree … there was a miscarriage of justice,” Rosenberg said on behalf of a three-judge panel. The 38-year-old Scarborough native spent nearly 14 years in prison after being convicted of murdering her 2-year-old son, Kenneth Wynne. While other victims of Smith’s mistakes have since been acquitted, Marquardt’s “dilemma” is that fresh evidence in her case only allows a court to go as far as ordering a new trial, Lockyer told the court. The evidence is still ambiguous about how the child died but strongly suggests he died as a result of an epileptic seizure, Lockyer said. In his short life, Kenneth had suffered from asthma and pneumonia and had been treated for seizures eight times. Smith opined the cause of death was asphyxia, likely the result of smothering or suffocation. That remains a possibility, given an absence of hard evidence about why Kenneth died, the appeal court was told on Thursday. At the same time, two neurologists from the Hospital for Sick Children who independently examined the boy’s medical records found his demise was consistent with a sudden unexplained death from epileptic seizure. While three-judge panel set aside Marquardt’s conviction, the Crown has not indicated whether it intends to proceed with a new trial. The court, meanwhile, extended Marquardt’s bail. The appeal court decision came after forensic experts reviewed the conclusions of the former pediatric pathology superstar and found them illogical and “completely” unscientific. Smith’s evidence dovetailed with the Crown’s theory at the time, that Marquardt had suffocated Kenneth in a moment of anger and frustration. But he was wrong in supporting the Crown’s theory and his testimony denied the jury the option of concluding the child had instead died as a result of a seizure, Crown counsel Gillian Roberts told the court. Marquardt said she found him twisted up in bed sheets and obviously distressed. He was taken to hospital, but died three days later, after being taken off life support. Nearly two years ago, Marquardt was released on bail. She had been incarcerated in the Grand Valley women’s prison in Kitchener. Kenneth died 17 years ago, in October, 1993. Her other sons, who she named Keith and Eric live somewhere in Canada, but never had further contact with their mother.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Tammy Marquardt is not the only one of Charles Smith's victims to have children seized by the Children's Aid authorities and put up for adoption. Lawyer Suzan Fraser, representing "Defence for Children International-Canada (DCI-Canada) the Canadian section of DCI" a world-wide movement in support of children's rights," confronted Smith directly on the plight of these families at the Goudge Inquiry. She is a Toronto lawyer who specializes in civil litigation and administrative law with an emphasis on public law and mental health issues. I first met Fraser at the inquest into the death of 16-year-old David Meffe who died while on a suicide watch in the former Toronto Youth Assessment Centre while waiting trial for a minor crime. Called "TYAC" for short, it was in fact a brutal prison where young, vulnerable inmates like Meffe were terrorized by others as the poorly trained guards looked the other way. Thanks to her dedicated and sharply focused participation at the inquest on behalf of Meffe's parents the horrific institution was ordered shut down by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty during the course of the inquest. As I noted in an earlier post - published on February 2, 2008 - Suzan Fraser began her cross-examination brilliantly by asking a series of blunt questions which elicited terse admissions from Smith of the sort that other lawyers had laboured for.
Here is the exchange:
"SUZAN FRASER: Sir, my name is Suzan Fraser and I'm here on behalf of an organization called Defence for Children International."
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Good morning.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: Good morning. And, sir, you came here and you stated that you have come to appreciate your mistakes, that's correct?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. And throughout your examination and your cross-examination you have identified a number of mistakes, those include that you were dogmatic?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: You were an advocate?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: You were an advocate for the Crown?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: And you gave confusing testimony?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: And you were disorganised?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: You went beyond your expertise?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: You, at times, saw yourself as a member of the prosecution team?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Early on I did, yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: Yes. And you were profoundly ignorant of forensic pathology?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: And your education was woefully inadequate?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Those were my words.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: Yes, and they are true?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: I believe they are."
Fraser then got Dr. Smith thinking about her constituency - the living children who were collateral damage of his erroneous opinions - and convinced Smith that all of them were deserving of an apology;
As recorded in this section of the transcript:
"MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. And you stated that you have come to appreciate your mistakes and have you come, sir, to appreciate the extent of the damage of your mistakes? Children taken from their parents as a result of your evidence?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes, I've seen that.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. And you're aware that some children, Joshua's brother, for one, was taken from his natural mother and adopted into another
family? You were aware of that, sir?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: I -- I don't know just how specific my knowledge of that was but I -- but it was my understanding that he -- he was taken away but I couldn't tell you what the decision on him was.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. Sir, if you're interested in that information, --
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Mm-hm.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: -- you'll find it in the overview report on Joshua. I won't take you there
now.
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Okay.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: Sir, and you're also aware that Sharon's sister, who was three (3) years old at the time of her death, was adopted, and that her mother felt she had no choice because her prospects to contest an application, because her prospects for being released were so remote? You're aware of that, sir?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: I -- I have some knowledge of that, yes.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: Right. And you would know that from the statement of claim filed against you, sir?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: I -- I couldn't tell you the source but I recognize that.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right. And, Commissioner, I won't take you there now, but for the record, that's found at PFP116230. We know that Jenna's sister was in the
care of the Children's Aid Society for almost two (2) years; you're aware of that?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: I -- I have some knowledge. The specifics, I -- as your two (2) years, I'm --
MS. SUZAN FRASER: All right.
DR. CHARLES SMITH: -- I -- I can’t remember. But, yes, I recognize that.
MS. SUZAN FRASER: These children are also deserving of an apology, are they not, Dr. Smith?
DR. CHARLES SMITH: Yes.
Fraser also got Smith to acknowledge that he had also made mistakes in other legal forums such as the family courts in circumstances where some parents had lost their children forever (and conversely, some children deprived of their parents forever) because of Dr. Smith's disastrous intervention.
"(Are) are you prepared to help identify, should there be a need to examine those cases, are you prepared to help identify those cases so those children can perhaps one day be reacquainted with their natural parents?" Fraser asked.
"I -- if -- if there is a -- a reasonable and proper role for me to do that, yes. Yeah, I -- I would -- if I could help fix a wrong and it was appropriate to do that then, yes." Smith replied.
Fraser served her clients beautifully and made an important contribution to the Inquiry.
It is mind-boggling that she did all of this in her ten minutes of allotted time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 found 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;
