PUBLISHER'S VIEW: September 30, 2008 - the third anniversary of the release of the independent Goudge report into many of the former pathologist's cases - should have been another opportunity for the media to examine how the police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges, Chief Coroner's Office, Hospital for Sick Children and other key actors have responded to Justice Stephen Goudge's independent report. Sadly, that date came and went without any media scrutiny - a discouraging sign that Charles Smith and the all too many miscarriages of justice he caused while the governmental institutions which were supposed to protect the public looked the other way are being allowed to fade away from public memory, creating a risk that at some future time another Charles Smith could come our way. No doubt all the institutions involved will boast that changes have been made and lessons learned. But that's not good enough. The media should be exercising its watchdog function by asking the hard questions, demanding hard evidence from officials, and allowing the public to make up its own mind to whether the situation has indeed improved in response to Justice Goudge's recommendations. One of the themes of this Blog has been that with the exception of the Fifth Estate and MacLeans Magazine - which both attempted to expose Smith's outrageous attack on Ontario's criminal justice system - the media were largely sucked in by Smith and helped him perpetuate the false image ot the Great God of Forensic Pathology. Having been part of the problem by abandoning its traditional watchdog role, the media should be pressing hard for answers as to whether the lessons of the Smith saga have been truly learned.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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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 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;