STORY: "Ashley Smith legal fees have cost Ottawa $3.6 million at a minimum," by reporter Diana Zlomislic, published in the Toronto Star on January 13, 2013.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In previous posts I have focused on the drastic, almost desperate attempts the Canadian Government has made to keep damning evidence out of the Inquest into Ashley Smith's tragic death in custody. I devoted space to this issue because of my belief that inquests can be effective ways for getting to the truth as to why people, like Ashley Smith, died in custody - and to allow us to learn how to prevent future deaths in similar circumstances. The Toronto Star, and some other media, played an important role in exposing the federal efforts to block the inquest - or as lawyer Julian Falconer puts it, to cover up the acts of federal officials implicated in her death. And now the courts have done their job. This story, based on the Star's application under access to information legislation, demonstrates the need for close public scrutiny of government efforts to limit the scope of inquests - especially when government interests are involved. (The inquest could last for more than six months. I will return to it from time to time when issues related to the subject matter of this blog are raised).
HAROLD LEVY. PUBLISHER. THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.
GIST: "How many federal lawyers does it take to keep a dead teenager's prison records a secret? That's a secret, too. What is known is that legal counsel for the Department of Justice charged Canadian taxpayers more than $3.6 million for working on the inquests into Ashley Smith's death — work that included keeping from the public light damning evidence showing abuses the teen endured in custody. The figure, what one government official called “a conservative estimate,” was released to the Toronto Star through an access-to-information request filed more than two months ago. It is the first piece of data that begins to quantify the legal wrangling that has plagued the proceedings, which resume Monday morning in Toronto coroner's court with a new jury being sworn in. Since the 19-year-old died inside a segregation cell at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener on Oct. 19, 2007 — strangling herself with a piece of cloth while a group of prison guards who were ordered to not intervene watched — no fewer than four federal lawyers have appeared in coroner's court in Toronto bringing forth motions to narrow the scope of the inquest and prevent surveillance video depicting Smith's mistreatment from being shown to the jury. They failed on all counts. But they didn't work alone......... A motion brought by federal lawyers in October to seal videos and documents that show an already restrained Smith being duct-taped to the seat of an airplane — with an unidentified RCMP pilot threatening to duct-tape her face — and forcibly drugged in Joliette, Que., against her will with powerful antipsychotics while guards in riot gear straddled her, amounted to a “pure and simple state coverup,” said Julian Falconer, representing the Smith family, who are based in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. A Divisional Court judge swiftly dismissed the motion. Screening of the disturbing prison surveillance video in coroner's court prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to order Correctional Service Canada to abandon its opposition to a broadly focused inquest."
The entire story can be found at:PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In previous posts I have focused on the drastic, almost desperate attempts the Canadian Government has made to keep damning evidence out of the Inquest into Ashley Smith's tragic death in custody. I devoted space to this issue because of my belief that inquests can be effective ways for getting to the truth as to why people, like Ashley Smith, died in custody - and to allow us to learn how to prevent future deaths in similar circumstances. The Toronto Star, and some other media, played an important role in exposing the federal efforts to block the inquest - or as lawyer Julian Falconer puts it, to cover up the acts of federal officials implicated in her death. And now the courts have done their job. This story, based on the Star's application under access to information legislation, demonstrates the need for close public scrutiny of government efforts to limit the scope of inquests - especially when government interests are involved. (The inquest could last for more than six months. I will return to it from time to time when issues related to the subject matter of this blog are raised).
HAROLD LEVY. PUBLISHER. THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.
GIST: "How many federal lawyers does it take to keep a dead teenager's prison records a secret? That's a secret, too. What is known is that legal counsel for the Department of Justice charged Canadian taxpayers more than $3.6 million for working on the inquests into Ashley Smith's death — work that included keeping from the public light damning evidence showing abuses the teen endured in custody. The figure, what one government official called “a conservative estimate,” was released to the Toronto Star through an access-to-information request filed more than two months ago. It is the first piece of data that begins to quantify the legal wrangling that has plagued the proceedings, which resume Monday morning in Toronto coroner's court with a new jury being sworn in. Since the 19-year-old died inside a segregation cell at Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener on Oct. 19, 2007 — strangling herself with a piece of cloth while a group of prison guards who were ordered to not intervene watched — no fewer than four federal lawyers have appeared in coroner's court in Toronto bringing forth motions to narrow the scope of the inquest and prevent surveillance video depicting Smith's mistreatment from being shown to the jury. They failed on all counts. But they didn't work alone......... A motion brought by federal lawyers in October to seal videos and documents that show an already restrained Smith being duct-taped to the seat of an airplane — with an unidentified RCMP pilot threatening to duct-tape her face — and forcibly drugged in Joliette, Que., against her will with powerful antipsychotics while guards in riot gear straddled her, amounted to a “pure and simple state coverup,” said Julian Falconer, representing the Smith family, who are based in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. A Divisional Court judge swiftly dismissed the motion. Screening of the disturbing prison surveillance video in coroner's court prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to order Correctional Service Canada to abandon its opposition to a broadly focused inquest."
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1314375--ashley-smith-inquest-legal-fees-have-cost-ottawa-3-6-million-at-a-minimum
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
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/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
