The leader of the Official Opposition in Ontario is calling on the Ford government to reverse its decision to close the Forensic Pathology Unit in Hamilton.
Currently Niagara sends bodies to the Hamilton lab for autopsies.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says shutting down forensic pathology services and sending all cases to Toronto will hurt families in the Hamilton and Niagara region.
Horwath says she believes the lab is being shut down this weekend, and bodies will have to be sent to Toronto starting Sunday.
She says closing the Hamilton office also means an increase in costs to families by requiring them to pay extra to transfer their loved one’s body back from Toronto.
She says the emotional toll on families is unthinkable. “Time has run out. Mr. Ford needs to step up, do the right thing for Hamilton and Niagara-area families and police, and keep the forensic pathology services open.”
Horwath said the changes, which begins March 1, also raise concerns about chain-of-custody and police resources, because they will also force police departments to waste time traveling to Toronto during case work, creating a backlog of cases and unnecessarily increasing police budgets to cover overtime and the cost of travel.
“Ontarians facing the loss of their loved ones deserve a government that makes sure they have less stress and fewer costs during this difficult time, not one that tries to trim their budget on the backs of grieving families and local police departments,” said Horwath.
Retired Hamilton Homicide Detective Sgt. Peter Abi-Rashed says the first 48 to 72 hours of any homicide investigation is crucial, and the closure of the Hamilton pathology unit will take away valuable time and resources investigators need to protect the public.
You can hear our interview with Horwath on this issue by clicking here.