Six years after the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet following an interaction with Toronto police, her family and community advocates are calling for changes and accountability when it comes to coroners’ inquests.
An inquest into Korchinski-Paquet’s death was announced in April, and family and friends say that whatever recommendations are made, they will be implemented as soon as possible and that they are binding.
“One of the challenges we have with the coroner’s inquest, including ones that are juried, is that those recommendations often times sit on a shelf. They are received by government and zero accountability, zero actual response, even a timetable or a commitment of whether or not those recommendations will be adopted,” said NDP MPP Kristen Wong-Tam during a press conference Wednesday at Queen’s Park.
“Right now, what we have is a system that is largely manufactured to present a sense of justice when no real justice is being delivered.”
Korchinski-Paquet, who was Black and Indigenous, fell from her balcony while trying to sidestep onto a neighbour’s balcony while police were in her high-rise apartment on May 27, 2020. A lengthy report from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) found the officers tried to de-escalate the situation, and “though their efforts were unsuccessful,” there were no grounds to charge any of the officers involved.
Korchinski-Paquet’s family say they continue to fight for justice, truth, accountability and systemic change.
“I do not believe in police investigating police,” said Claudette Beals, Regis’ mother, citing the recent corruption case involving members of the Toronto Police Service.
“Our community cannot put up with this anymore. Police need to be accountable for taking our kids’ lives. My daughter’s been gone for six years, and no one is held responsible for that. …When does this stop? When is the change going to start to come?”
Jeffrey Bradley, a criminology professor who supports families impacted by police violence, says that since 2000, there have been more than 871 police-involved deaths in Canada involving lethal force. He says the public has lost confidence in police oversight systems, adding that investigations have reinforced longstanding concerns about anti-Black racism in policing and oversight institutions.
“In 2026, police must be held to the highest standard under the law. No person in crisis or in need of assistance should lose their life during an interaction with those entrusted to protect the public,” he said, while calling on the Ford government to amend the Coroner’s Act and SIU Act to ensure meaningful accountability when police injure, seriously harm or kill members of the community.
“Unfortunately, everyone is one incident away from something catastrophic happening and there being no accountability,” said Cait Alexander, who founded the group End Violence Everywhere after an abusive relationship nearly ended her life in 2021.
“We’re not here because we’re anti-police, we’re not here because we’re anti-government, we’re not here because we’re anti-establishment. We’re here because we’re pro accountability, pro when something goes wrong, there are consequences.”
The inquest, which is expected to be held this fall, will examine the circumstances surrounding Korchinski-Paquet’s death, and a jury may make recommendations aimed at preventing further deaths.