So Much For Sincere Regrets

Looks as though the sorry saga of medical incompetence isn't quite over for Dr. Charles Smith. Despite his recent admission, replete with crocodile tears of remorse at the enquiry set up to review his work, and which found the commission of serious errors in 20 of the 45 suspicious child deaths he helped investigate as chief paediatric coroner in Toronto, he's now demonstrating an unparalleled degree of chutzpah.

This man, who admitted to sloppy habits along with procrastination and faulty and incomplete professional training leading to egregious errors during the enquiry, has now turned back into what he has always been; an arrogant sociopath. He experienced no crisis of conscience when in his self-appointed role as "defender" of vulnerable children, and professionally-inadequate coroner, his "expert" testimony was directly responsible for the conviction and incarceration of innocent people.

Once questions began to be seriously asked about his professional competence, he found it expedient to leave the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and go elsewhere. He took up a one-year contract in Saskatoon as a surgical pathologist in 2005. When he became somewhat notorious as his past began unravelling in the news, the Saskatoon Health Region's board declined to approve his hospital privileges.

Whereupon the health region terminated his contract. But Dr. Smith decided to take recourse to action, appealing that decision to a provincial tribunal which, a year later ruled the regional health authority had erred. In the interim Dr. Smith's licence to practise in the province had expired, meaning he could not then legally practise medicine in the province.

When a new license was released to him, it included a condition that denied him the practise of forensic pathology. A logical conclusion, given his history. And, given the legal and professional rebukes and the public shame that this man had experienced, one might assume he would be grateful to slink back into some hole in the ground and not bring undue attention.

But no: he has decided to sue the Saskatoon Regional Health Authority for wrongful dismissal. Is he out of touch with reality, or what?