A date has been set for the inquest into the death of an Afro-Indigenous woman who died in the presence of Toronto police in the spring of 2020. Dr. Richard Wells, Regional Supervising Coroner for Toronto West Region, announced on Monday that the inquest will begin on Oct. 13 at 9:30 a.m. The hearing will be conducted by video conference. Members of the public can view the proceedings live online. Dr. David Cameron will serve as the presiding officer, while Roger Shallow and Kate Forget will be the inquest counsel, the Solicitor General indicated in a news release. It will look at the circumstances surrounding Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s death and the jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths. The inquest is expected to last 14 days and hear from around 15 witnesses. Korchinski-Paquet died after falling from a 24th-floor balcony of an apartment building in Toronto’s High Park area on May 27, 2020. The Canadian woman of Ukrainian, Black, and Indigenous ancestry from Nova Scotia was 29. Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which investigates when police are involved in an incident that results in death, serious injury, sexual assault, and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person, determined there are no grounds to charge the responding officers in this case. Korchinski-Paquet’s death sparked protests in Toronto calling for changes to the way police officers respond to mental health crises. Her family had indicated that she was experiencing a mental health crisis in the moments leading up to her death. In 2022, the woman’s family also filed a $10-million civil lawsuit in connection with her death. With files from CP24’s Bryann Aguilar
