The provincial government has passed sweeping amendments to the Coroners Act aimed at preventing miscarriages of justice such as those caused in large measure by mistakes made by former pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.

“We don’t want to relive tragedy. If we don’t learn from past history, we are bound to repeat it. Our government has taken the necessary steps to prevent something like this from every happening again,” Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci said yesterday, adding that he hopes the legislation will receive royal assent before the Legislature rises on June 4.

The legislation delivers on many of the recommendations made last year by Justice Stephen Goudge who oversaw an inquiry into pediatric forensic pathology, sparked by errors Smith made in 20 child-death investigations. One of the major features is the establishment of an oversight council for Ontario’s death investigation system. Smith’s errors went unchecked for years because of a lack of oversight, mainly by his de facto supervisors, Ontario’s former chief coroner Dr. James Young and his deputy Dr. Jim Cairns, the inquiry concluded. The new council will oversee the work of the chief coroner and the chief forensic pathologist and hold them accountable for the quality of death investigations in Ontario.

The amended act also sets out in law for the first time the roles and responsibilities of forensic pathologists and establishes a framework to hold them accountable.

“It’s a very bright day for forensic pathology,” remarked Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Pollanen. “The knowledge that we offer … will facilitate getting better results, more reliable results for death investigations and for the criminal courts.”

Smith purported to be a pediatric forensic pathologist when in fact he was just a pediatric pathologist. He wasn’t formally trained in the forensic aspect of the job and made numerous errors when it came to doing autopsies for the coroner’s office on children who had died in criminally suspicious circumstances. His flawed pathology contributed, for example, to William Mullins Johnson being wrongfully convicted for murdering and sodomizing his 4-year-old niece. He spent more than 12 years behind bars before having his conviction overturned.

Lawyer Peter Wardle, who acted for a number of Smith’s victims at the inquiry, said he’s especially pleased that the office of the chief forensic pathologist has been enhanced because “that’s really what was ignored during the Smith years.”

Attorney General Chris Bentley last year established a committee to investigate the issue of compensating Smith’s victims, but Wardle said his clients are still awaiting word on the issue.