2 new pathologists to restart Ottawa forensic unit

Autopsies on suspicious deaths will soon be conducted in Ottawa again, more than a year after their suspension amid concerns about mistakes being made by the local forensics unit — including some that led to wrongful murder charges against innocent people.

Two foreign-trained pathologists, Chris Milroy and Jacqueline Parai, will begin work at the end of summer or the early fall, said Ontario's chief coroner, Bonita Porter.

Milroy is from the University of Sheffield in Britain, while Parai, who was trained in the United States, currently works at the provincial coroner's head office in Toronto.

The appointments had previously been mentioned in December at the Goudge Commission, which is probing the work of Ontario pathologist Charles Smith.

Ottawa has been sending cases of suspicious deaths to Kingston or Toronto for autopsy since January 2007.

That was when the local forensic unit ceased performing such autopsies after concerns were raised by Ontario's chief forensic pathologist, Michael Pollanen, about errors committed by the unit.

No specialized training in Canada

The foreign training of the two new pathologists addresses criticism about the lack of specialized training available in Canada, where there are no courses in forensic pathology and where pathologists are typically trained in forensics during a two- or three-month class in the U.S.

John Butt, a forensic medicine and pathology specialist who has served as chief medical examiner for Alberta and Nova Scotia, said he doesn't believe such short courses are enough.

Forensic pathologists need an understanding of how the justice system works in addition to their medical knowledge about diseased tissues, he said.

"There's no question in my mind that a good background in pathology and a very clear understanding of the neutrality of the individual who is collecting the evidence ... are all very, very important, basic anchor issues," he added. "And I don't think that those issues have been covered in Canada very well at all."

Wrongful murder charges

The problems with Ottawa's suspicious-death autopsies have had a serious impact on residents like Gilles Leclair, whose wife of 34 years, Beverly, was found dead in the family's backyard pool five years ago.

Ottawa pathologist Yasmine Ayroud determined that she had been strangled. Gilles Leclair was arrested on the eve of his wife's funeral and charged with murder.

Other pathologists later concluded that Beverly drowned, and the murder charge was dropped two and a half years later, but Leclair had to sell his business and his home to pay his legal bills.

If he hadn't had money for a good lawyer, he would be behind bars today, he said.

"I could have been the next Stephen Truscott. I could have been away for 25 years to life," he told CBC News this week, referring to a case in which a 1959 murder conviction against a 14-year-old boy was overturned in 2007. "I'm angry at the police and I'm angry at the system. I have no faith in the system at all. It's amazing how much power a few individuals have."

Cases such as Leclair's prompted Pollanen to recommend in late 2006 that all homicides, deaths in custody and suspicious deaths be transferred outside Ottawa for autopsy.

In a Dec. 13, 2006, letter to Barry McLellan, then chief coroner of Ontario, and Andrew McCallum, regional supervising coroner for the province's eastern region, Pollanen wrote that his review of 11 Ottawa cases "has given rise to concerns about the quality of forensic pathology in the Ottawa unit."

He went on to say there had been a "historical background of errors, some resulting in the detention of accused persons" and little improvement since then despite interventions by Ontario's former chief forensic pathologist.

In related news, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada has said it will accredit a post-graduate training program in forensic pathology later in 2008.