New coroner appointed to Ashley Smith inquest

TORONTO - A new coroner has been appointed to preside over the inquest into the death of a young woman in an Ontario prison.

Dr. John Carlisle has been assigned to take the spot of Dr. Bonita Porter, who is set to retire in November.

Ashley Smith, a 19-year-old from Moncton, N.B., choked herself to death in a Kitchener, Ont., facility in 2007.

The coroner's inquest into her death started on May 16 and heard just three days of evidence before being adjourned, first indefinitely and then until September.

The Office of the Chief Coroner says Porter wouldn't have been able to complete the inquest when it resumes because of her pending retirement.

Lawyers for the Smith family had been pressing Porter to make the inquest more open and accessible to the public.

• 

  An undated family handout photo of Ashley Smith, who took her own life in a federal institution on October 19, 2007. The photo was taken before she was incarcerated. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson)