A coroner’s inquest will be undertaken into the death of an Afro-Indigenous woman who fell from a 24th-floor balcony of an apartment building in Toronto’s High Park area in the presence of the police.
Dr. Richard Wells, the Central Region’s supervising coroner, announced the inquest into Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s death in a news release on Thursday.
Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old Canadian woman of Ukrainian, Black and Indigenous ancestry from Nova Scotia, died on May 27, 2020, following an interaction with Toronto police.
The SIU, which investigates incidents involving police that result in a death, serious injury, sexual assault allegations or the discharge of a firearm, found no grounds to charge the responding officers.
The civilian agency’s director, Joseph Martino, said that despite early claims that she was pushed, Korchinski-Paquet was alone on the balcony when she fell.
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 family filed a $10-million civil lawsuit in connection with her death.
“The inquest will examine the circumstances surrounding Ms. Paquet’s death. The jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths,” the news release read.
The date and venue of the inquest have not been determined.
