This morning, I listened as family members remembered their loved ones at the opening of a coroner’s inquest into four deaths at the Toronto South Detention Centre. As photos of the men appeared on the screen, I was reminded why inquests like this one matter so much.
For these families, this inquest is the best, and possibly the only, chance to get clear answers about what happened. These four men were incarcerated by the Province of Ontario. They depended entirely on the province for their survival. Ontario controlled what they ate, when they ate, and when and whether they received health care. Nelson Mandela observed that no one truly knows a nation until they have been inside its jails.
What an Inquest Does That Nothing Else Can
