"How could a 19-year-old strangle herself to death while Kitchener prison guards watched and did nothing to stop her? How could she have been transferred between institutions 17 times in 11 months without ever getting the help she needed? How could she be forcibly injected with drugs, threatened by staff and strapped to a gurney without food or water for 12 hours in Quebec’s Joliette Institution?
There is reportedly videotape of that last incident. Admitting that as evidence in this inquest should be Carlisle’s first order of business.
If we are ever to have confidence that Canada’s prison system can properly cope with the growing number of inmates who are mentally ill, we need to know how Smith could have been treated so deplorably — and what should be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again."
EDITORIAL: THE TORONTO STAR;
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: BACKGROUND: Ashley Smith, 19, died in her prison cell at Grand Valley Institution near Kitchener, Ont., in October 2007 from self-strangulation. She had been transferred between federal institutions 17 times during her final 11 months, most of that time kept in segregation and often on suicide watch dressed in a highly restrictive gown. Jailed at age 13 for a crab apple-throwing incident in New Brunswick, Smith was eventually transferred to an adult facility after she kept getting into trouble behind bars by constantly kicking, grabbing and spitting at guards. The inquest into Ashley Smith'S death has has collapsed because of efforts by the Chief Coroner's office to keep out of evidence crucial information relating to her death in custody. Most recently, Dr. Bonita Porter, the presiding coroner, was replaced by Dr. John Carlisle, former Acting Registrar of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. The inquest is of interest to this Blog because it relates to the openness of public death investigations - and the necessity to ensure that deaths warranting inquests get full scrutiny.
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"Dr. Bonita Porter is no longer at the helm of the Ashley Smith inquest.
Ontario’s deputy chief coroner delayed the inquest into the death of a mentally ill teenager for so long that the case will now interfere with her retirement plans," the Toronto Star editorisl published earlier today under the heading, "Hear all the evidence in Ashley Smith inquest," begins.
"That is why, we are told, the inquiry has been turned over to another coroner, Dr. John Carlisle. Not only will he have to catch up on the years-old case, he will have to rule on a mess of outstanding procedural and legal issues left by Dr. Bonita Porter," the editorial continues.
"As he wades through it all, Carlisle should ensure that the inquiry’s scope is broad enough to get to the whole truth of Ashley Smith’s death. That is something Porter struggled with mightily, resulting in unjustifiably long delays. We hope that Carlisle, an experienced lawyer as well as a doctor, will be better placed to rule on evidence and get this important inquest moving.
"How could a 19-year-old strangle herself to death while Kitchener prison guards watched and did nothing to stop her? How could she have been transferred between institutions 17 times in 11 months without ever getting the help she needed? How could she be forcibly injected with drugs, threatened by staff and strapped to a gurney without food or water for 12 hours in Quebec’s Joliette Institution?
There is reportedly videotape of that last incident. Admitting that as evidence in this inquest should be Carlisle’s first order of business.
If we are ever to have confidence that Canada’s prison system can properly cope with the growing number of inmates who are mentally ill, we need to know how Smith could have been treated so deplorably — and what should be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Porter’s attempts to unduly narrow the inquest and the lengthy legal delays that followed from that left Smith’s family, quite rightly, questioning whether this inquiry would ever find the truth.
With a new coroner at the helm there is an opportunity to disentangle the procedural arguments that have hijacked this inquest and get it back to its purpose: determining how Ashley Smith died in this horrible way."
The editorial can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1017954--hear-all-the-evidence-in-ashley-smith-inquest
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;
