Inquest into disgraced pathologist begins

The public inquest into the mistakes of an Ontario pediatric pathologist began Monday in a Toronto courtroom.

An investigation by the provincial coroner’s office into Dr. Charles Smith’s work resulted in serious concerns being raised about 20 of his cases. Among them was the case involving Lianne Thibeault of Coniston, who was implicated by Smith in the death of her toddler, Nicholas Gagnon, in 1995.

Thibeault was never charged in her son’s death, and was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.  But before this happened she suffered the indignity of having her infant daughter removed from her home by the local children’s aid society. Ten months passed before she was allowed to be alone with her daughter again.

 “I certainly wasn’t jumping for joy when I got the report from the Chief Coroner’s office late last week because we’ve known all along Smith had screwed this up, and I’d been cleared of doing anything wrong a long, long time ago,” she said in an interview following the investigation. “But to be vindicated in the public eye after all these years is sweet because I’ll be able to send a copy of the report to some choice people who had so many bad things to say to me all those years ago.”

A Northern Ontario man was also affected by the mistakes Smith made. William Mullins-Johnson was convicted in 1994 of sodomizing and strangling his four-year-old niece. He spent 12 years in jail before being released on bail in 2005, pending a federal review of his case.

The inquest began with Smith’s lawyer issuing a statement by his client “publicly acknowledging” the mistakes he made over the years, however, he also emphasized this happened “honestly” and “without any intention” to harm the allegedly wrongfully accused.

“At all times, Dr. Smith endeavoured to use whatever knowledge and expertise he possessed to render accurate pathologic opinions.

In retrospect, he understands that in some 20 of his cases which form the basis for this inquiry, his work, while to the best of his ability at the time, was simply not good enough in certain circumstances,” said a written statement by Smith, read by his lawyer.

Thibeault and her family are expected to proceed with legal action following the conclusion of the inquest.