A coroner’s inquest is set to begin Monday to examine the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Toronto woman who fell from a highrise balcony while police were in her home more than six years ago.
Korchinski-Paquet, a woman of Ukrainian, Black and Indigenous ancestry, died on May 27, 2020 after police responded to calls about a family dispute at the apartment. She was 29.
Her death came on the heels of the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man from Minneapolis, spurring further protests amid growing calls to defund the police.
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It also cast a spotlight on how police interact with people experiencing mental health crises.
Ontario’s police watchdog investigated the case and eventually cleared Toronto police of wrongdoing in Korchinski-Paquet’s death.
The Special Investigations Unit found it happened as she was trying to move from her apartment balcony to an adjacent one.
The inquest was announced earlier this year and is slated to last 14 days, with 15 witnesses expected to take the stand.
The inquest jury does not assign criminal responsibility but may make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths in the future. The chief coroner’s office does not have the authority to impose the recommendations, however.
On the anniversary of her death this year, Korchinski-Paquet’s parents joined advocates in calling for the recommendations issued in coroner’s inquests to be binding and implemented within a reasonable timeframe.
Her mother, Claudette Beals, also said there should be a different system in place to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against police officers, adding she has no faith in “police investigating police.”
“My daughter’s been gone for six years and no one’s held responsible for that,” she said in a news conference at the provincial legislature.
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