Leaders mourn Shermans as memorial details announced

As loved ones continue to mourn billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman, Ontario’s leaders and charities alike are feeling their loss too.

Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins was somber in recalling his time working alongside Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, saying he’d miss both of them dearly.

“There is an active police investigation. What I will say is that they were lovely, caring individuals, a wonderful couple, and as individuals as well, extremely generous, and I’m proud to have been able to call them friends,” he said.

Hoskins says he first met Barry Sherman, founder of generic drug company Apotex, when the former was Minister for Economic Development, in 2013-2014. The working relationship continued when he became Ontario’s health minister. Hoskins says Barry was a businessman, but he was also focused on what was best for his customers.

“Every single thing that we talked about was focused on what’s best for the patient, the client, or the Ontarian,” he says. “How, collectively, we could do a better job? Sometimes that might be saving money so we could provide more medicines, or it might be a better way of doing something, so that it would have a more positive impact on the patient.”

On Sunday, autopsy results revealed the couple died of ligature neck compression. The Shermans were found dead in their North York home just before noon on Friday. Their bodies were reportedly discovered by the couple’s real estate agent — who had been helping sell their multi-million dollar home.

Police would not comment on reports the couple had been found by their indoor pool. The Sherman family issued a statement late Saturday urging police to conduct a thorough and objective investigation. They also reject the theory that Barry and Honey took their own lives. Their words came after a police leak reportedly indicated investigators were treating the case as a murder-suicide — something which has never been officially confirmed.

Canadian Business magazine recently ranked Sherman as the 15th-richest Canadian – with a fortune estimated at $4.7 billion dollars.

The Shermans donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable causes, says Hoskins, including tens of millions of dollars to healthcare causes alone, such as Mount Sinai Hospital and a Jewish long-term care home.

Many institutions across the GTA bear the couple’s names after sizeable donations, including at Baycrest’s Apotex centre, also known as the Jewish Centre for the Aged.

Josh Cooper, the president and CEO of the Baycrest Foundations, says the centre is one of the largest long-term care homes in Canada.

“It was Honey and Barry’s vision that created the Apotex centre, their vision to provide a level of excellence and care beyond anything else that was being offered,” says Cooper.  He adds the Baycrest Community is completely shocked and profoundly saddened by their deaths.

“It’s unfathomable.”

A funeral for Barry and Honey will take place at the International Centre in Mississauga at 11 a.m. on Thursday. Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel will run the proceedings.