"What could that teacher or staff member have been thinking? Something to the effect of: 'Well, he was a doctor before all that messy inquiry stuff?'
It boggles the mind.
Admittedly, if they had not been told — and we don't know that they weren't — most students in that classroom may not have known of or even heard of Dr, Smith and his shameful record."
EDIITORIAL; THE BELLEVILLE "INTELLIGENCER;" The Intelligencer (locally nicknamed the "Intel") is the daily (except on Sundays and certain holidays) newspaper of Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
---------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND: The Goudge inquiry focused largely on the flawed work of Charles Smith — formerly the province's chief pediatric pathologist and a self-styled member of the prosecution team — whose "errors" led to innocent people being branded as child murderers. (He has since been thrown out of the medical profession in Ontario); Justice Stephen Goudge's 1000-page report slammed Smith, along with Ontario's former chief coroner and his deputy, for their roles in wrongful prosecutions and asked the province to consider compensation. The provincial coroner's office found evidence of errors in 20 of 45 autopsies Smith did over a 10-year period starting in the early 1990s. Thirteen resulted in criminal charges. The inquiry heard that Smith's failings included hanging on to crucial evidence (instead of processing it), "losing" evidence which showed his opinion was wrong and may have helped show that the accused person was innocent, mistating evidence, chronic tardiness, and the catastrophic misinterpretation of findings. The cases, along with other heart-rending stories of wrongful prosecutions based in part on Smith's testimony, also raised a host of issues about the pediatric pathology system in Ontario and the use of expert evidence in the criminal courts.
------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S VIEW: This is pure Charles Smith - conning someone to have him invited to address a class of high school. He, the unrepentant former Dr. Charles Randal Smith, who is probably responsible for more miscarriages of justice and destroying the lives of more individuals and families than any other individual in Canadian history. It's just like his conning of a friend to have him hired by a hospital in Saskatoon after he had come under investigation in Ontario and had slunk away quietly from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He, the disgraced physician recently declared incompetent and found guilty of acts of professional misconduct who didn't even have the courage to show up for his discipline hearing. The former Dr. Charles Randal Smith - a great role model for our students who, having admitted to little more than "errors" and "mistakes," has clearly begun a campaign to rehabilitate himself in the forgetful public's eye. My gut feeling is that Smith has become emboldened by the fact that he has evaded prosecution for his crimes - and by the fact that not a single radio, television or print story marked September 20, 2011 - the 3d anniversary of Justice Stephen Goudge's damning report into many of his cases. It's worth noting that at the Goudge Inquiry, contrary to the myth Smith had constructed that he was a God of forensic pathology, he purported to be an ignoramus who had no understanding of medical matters. And now, according to the Toronto Sun, he's lecturing high school students on DNA! (Perhaps he regaled the students with stories, such as the occasion in 1997 when he brought his then 11-year-old son to the exhumation of an 11-month-old child in Sudbury, Ontario, who had died
suddenly about nineteen months earlier after bumping his head while playing under a table.) This Leopard truly has not changed his spots. He's mocking us. Final thought: A message to Ontario's school boards. Get something positive out of this unfortunate experience. Ask people like Sherry (Sherret) Robinson, Brenda Waudby, Bill Mullins-Johnson, and all too many others, to come and talk about their experiences in Ontario's criminal justice system. (Not Charles Smith); Why not go one step further, and set up courses on the frailties of Ontario's criminal justice system that allowed Smith to destroy lives and families with impunity for so long?
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
--------------------------------------------------------
"There are times when editorialists are in full bluster over some boneheaded bureaucratic decision, a policy slip-up or a bad choice by cops or authorities," the Intelligencer editorial published on November 1, 2011 under the heading, "Who allowed this disgrace in our school," begins?
"In the case of the teacher or staff member who let disgraced pathologist Dr. Charles Smith stand before students and address a Grade 11 class at Prince Edward Collegiate Institute last week, we are nearly at a loss for words as to the need for swift, stern and serious discipline for that educator," the editorial continues.
"Smith, of course, is the pathologist once thought to be the most experienced in the field of deaths in infants where causes were difficult to determine.
For 24 years, he worked in the pediatric forensic pathology unit at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children where he conducted more than 1,000 child autopsies.
In October, 2008, a coroner's inquest into 45 of the cases he'd ruled on determined Smith, through his own negligence, resulted in the wrongful arrest and conviction of 13 individuals across Ontario.
Justice Stephen Goudge, who oversaw the inquest into Smith's botched pathology, determined that Smith "actively misled" superiors, "made false and misleading statements" in court and exaggerated his expertise in trials involving the infants.
"Smith lacked basic knowledge about forensic pathology," wrote Goudge in the inquiry report.
This is the man someone — we have not been told who — allowed into a classroom at PECI to speak, reportedly, on the topic of DNA.
A man who was culpable, through his own negligence and hubris, for ruining more than a dozen lives of innocent people in this province was permitted to appear before high school students as an authority on medical science?
What could that teacher or staff member have been thinking? Something to the effect of: 'Well, he was a doctor before all that messy inquiry stuff?'
It boggles the mind.
Admittedly, if they had not been told — and we don't know that they weren't — most students in that classroom may not have known of or even heard of Dr, Smith and his shameful record.
But, that doesn't go for the staff member who let him in the door. We're told Smith had a familial connection with a student there, but a staffer had to make the decision to bring the doctor into the classroom.
For that teacher, he or she should face some serious questioning about what brought about the decision to let this man into one of our schools and follow that up with a suspension without pay, if such a punishment even exists in today's education system.
Frankly, we're not holding our breath on the latter."
The editorial can be found at:
http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3354141PUBLISHER'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/charlessmithInformation 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.htmlHarold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
