Toronto woman who fell from balcony after police arrived had seizures, inquest hears

A Toronto woman who fell from a highrise balcony while police were in her home more than six years ago had a long history of seizures due to epilepsy and had experienced some earlier that day, a coroner’s inquest into her death heard Tuesday.Regis 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.In the preceding years, police and paramedics were called on multiple occasions, some of them related to Korchinski-Paquet’s seizures or relaying information about them, according to an agreed statement of fact read at the inquest.Medical records showed her seizures were often followed by symptoms such as “confusion, irritability, physically and verbally abusive behaviour and episodic amnesia,” the inquest heard.The inquest’s scope includes how police and first responders are informed about epilepsy and how to ensure safety when a person’s behaviour may be influenced by postictal delirium, a condition that may occur in the period after a seizure, inquest counsel Roger Shallow said.The inquest will not look into general mental health challenges or psychiatric care, however, or the investigations by various police watchdogs into the case, he said.Korchinski-Paquet’s death was “sudden and profoundly tragic” and no matter what the jury concludes, her family has been left to grapple with a loss no one should experience, Shallow said.“Regis Paquet was not an incident. She was not a file number. She was not simply the subject of an (Special Investigations Unit) investigation or coroner’s inquest,” he said in his opening remarks.“She was a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a member of a family, and a young woman whose life ended in circumstances that have had a profound impact on many people.”Korchinski-Paquet’s 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.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 13 witnesses expected to take the stand. Korchinski-Paquet’s mother, father and brother have been named as potential witnesses, as have five of the six police officers who attended the scene.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.

Toronto woman who fell from balcony after police arrived had seizures, inquest hears

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