New coroner appointed to Ashley Smith inquest

The often-delayed inquest into the death of a young woman in an Ontario prison took another twist Wednesday as a new coroner was appointed to preside over the case.

Lawyer Julian Falconer says the family of teen inmate Ashley Smith is in “utter shock and disbelief” to learn that Dr. John Carlisle has been assigned to take over from presiding coroner Dr. Bonita Porter.

“This is an extraordinary development,” Falconer said. “It means that weeks of motions have potentially been lost.”

Smith, a 19-year-old from Moncton, N.B., choked herself to death in a Kitchener, Ont., facility in 2007. Her family had been pressing Porter for months before the inquest got underway in May to make the process more open and accessible to the public.

The Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario announced the news Wednesday, saying numerous delays have extended the inquest past Porter’s planned November retirement.

But Falconer said it was unlikely from the beginning that the inquest would have been completed by November.

“It is simply shocking that the Office of the Chief Coroner would have assigned a coroner to this case who is unavailable after November, given the size of this case,” Falconer said.

“This raises questions about the ability of the Office of the Chief Coroner to run cases of this nature and complexity.”

When asked about Falconer’s comments, coroner’s office spokeswoman Cheryl Mahyr said the lawyer was entitled to his opinion. She added that when the inquest was initially scheduled, it was expected that its conclusion would coincide with Porter’s retirement.

“With the recent rulings and motions it appears that will not be the case,” Mahyr said. “She will not be able to see it to conclusion. So at this point in the inquest, where only three days of evidence have been heard, she felt it was best that somebody else be reassigned to the inquest.”

The inquest started on May 16 and heard just three days of evidence before being adjourned, first indefinitely and then until Sept. 12.

The coroner’s office said the delay was for Porter to take time to consider a couple of motions, including a request from the Correctional Service of Canada for guards’ faces to be blurred in videos.

She was also considering a court ruling that ordered her to take another approach when deciding whether the inquest should include videos from a Quebec prison that Smith’s family says depict her being restrained and forcibly injected with medication.

A statement released Wednesday by the Office of the Chief Coroner says Carlisle will take over from Porter immediately and will decide on the outstanding issues.

“Dr. John Carlisle has a strong medical and legal background that will serve the purpose of the inquest well as he examines the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Ashley Smith,” said Ontario’s Chief Coroner Dr. Andrew McCallum in the statement.

But Falconer says the inquest may have to start from scratch.

“It is inconceivable that an adjudicator could rule on motions that were not argued before the adjudicator,” Falconer said.

“And it is most unfortunate that the family would be put through the time, expense and anxiety of having to reinvent weeks and weeks of motions.”

Smith was first sent to prison for throwing crab apples at a postal worker. That sentence had ballooned from days to years as time was added for numerous in-custody incidents.

The troubled teen was in federal custody for the last 11 months of her life and during that time was transferred between facilities 17 times. Much of her time was spent in segregation units.

At the start of the inquest, it was estimated that hearing all the evidence could take six to nine months. It’s likely that the inquest, which wasn’t sitting on Fridays, will continue into 2012.

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